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Part of the art of being a woman is knowing when not to be too much of a lady.
[[image: color photograph of actress Jaclyn Smith]] 
[[bold]] Epris [[/bold]]
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A most provocative fragrance by Max Factor.
© 1981 Max Factor & Co., A Norton Simon Inc. Company. Available in Canada.
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[[bold]] AT THIS THEATRE [[/bold]]
[[image: drawing of theater building. Credit: STAN STARK]]

THE ALVIN

On November 22, 1927, the new Alvin Theatre――named after its producer-owners, ALex Aarons and VINton Freedley――opened with a smash hit, the Gershwin Brothers' [[italics]] Funny Face, [[/italics]] starring Fred and Adele Astaire.
     During the 1930's, Helen Hayes triumphed there in [[italics]] Mary of Scotland [[/italics]] and Ethel Merman moved in for lengthy stays in the Gershwins' [[italics]] Girl Crazy [[/italics]] (her Broadway debut) and Cole Porter's musicals [[italics]] Anything Goes [[/italics]] (with William Gaxton, Victor Moore) and [[italics]] Red, Hot and Blue! [[/italics]] (with Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope). George M. Cohan garnered huzzahs as FDR in the satirical musical, [[italics]] I'd Rather Be Right, [[/italics]] in 1937, and a year later, Rodgers and Hart brightened the Alvin with [[italics]] The Boys From Syracuse, [[/italics]] based (very loosely) on Shakespeare's [[italics]] Comedy of Errors. [[/italics]]
     Highlights of the 1940's included Gertrude Lawrence and Danny Kaye in the Moss Hart/Kurt Weill/Ira Gershwin dazzler, [[italics]] Lady In The Dark; [[/italics]] the Lunts and Montgomery Clift in the Pulitzer Prize play, [[italics]] There Shall Be No Night; [[/italics]] Merman's return in Porter's [[italics]] Something For The Boys; [[/italics]] Ingrid Bergman in [[italics]] Joan of Lorraine; [[/italics]] Maurice Evans in [[italics]] Man and Superman; [[/italics]] and one of the theatre's biggest hits: Henry Fonda in [[italics]] Mister Roberts. [[/italics]]
     The 50's brought Claude Rains in [[italics]] Darkness At Noon; [[/italics]] Shirley Booth in the musicalized [[italics]] A Tree Grows In Brooklyn; [[/italics]] Mary Martin and Charles Boyer in [[italics]] Kind Sir; [[/italics]] the Truman Capote/Harold Arlen musical, [[italics]] House of Flowers; [[/italics]] Andy Griffith in the long-running [[italics]] No Time For Sergeants; [[/italics]] and Henry Fonda in [[italics]] Point Of No Return. [[/italics]]
     During the 1960's, the Alvin played host to Lucille Ball in the musical, [[italics]] Wildcat; [[/italics]] to Stephen Sondheim's [[italics]] A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, [[/italics]] starring Zero Mostel; to Beatrice Lillie and Tammy Grimes in [[italics]] High Spirits, [[/italics]] a musical version of Noel Coward's [[italics]] Blithe Spirit; [[/italics]] to Liza Minnelli's Broadway debut in [[italics]] Flora, The Red Menace; [[/italics]] and to two memorable plays: Tom Stoppard's [[italics]] Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead [[/italics]] and Howard Sackler's Pulitzer Prize-winning [[italics]] The Great White Hope, [[/italics]] with unforgettable performances by James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander.
     For most of the 1970's the Alvin played host to three hit musicals. In April 1970 the miracle-working team of Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince presented

[[image: black and white photograph of Playbill cover for Red Hot and Blue! Alvin Theatre with Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Bob Hope]]

[[italics]] Company, [[/italics]] a show about the joys and tribulations of married life. The show was nominated for a record 15 Tony Awards, and won 7 of them, including Best Musical. In January 1975 the Goodspeed Opera House sent [[italics]] Shenandoah [[/italics]] to Broadway, with Tony Award-winning star John Cullum recreating the Jimmy Stewart role in the movie of the same name. Finally, in April 1977 the smash musical [[italics]] Annie [[/italics]] opened, another import from the Goodspeed. The show won several Tonys, including Best Musical, and a special Outer Critics' Circle Award for the dog Sandy, who became one of Broadway's biggest canine stars.