Benchley at the Theatre: Dramatic Criticism, 1920-1940 [Paperback]

Robert Benchley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, Benchley wrote these essays for Life and The New Yorker

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ipswich Pr (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938864211
• ISBN-13: 978-0938864219
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,095,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wry look at Broadway theatre in the 20s, 30s and 40s, July 2, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Benchley at the Theatre: Dramatic Criticism, 1920-1940 (Paperback)

BENCHLEY AT THE THEATRE

It was the Golden Age of Broadway. Sandwiched between the two wars that would end
all war, the American theater briefly blossomed into a thousand different colors, giving
the world such immortals as Eugene O'Neill, the Barrymores, Lillian Hellman, George
S. Kaufman, Fred Astaire, Helen Hayes, George M. Cohan, the Gershwins, Orson
Welles, the Marx Brothers, and many more. Amid all this hubbub was Robert Benchley,
famed humorist, actor, and boulevardier.

Known mostly for his urbane and often puckish essays, Benchley was also an
ardent observer of the stage, first for the old Life magazine and then for the New Yorker.
He wrote nearly a thousand reviews during his 20-year tenure as one of Broadway's
leading theater critics. Those culled by Ipswich Press for Benchley at the Theatre
represent Benchley at his wittiest and most revealing.

This garland of hitherto uncollected pieces touches on the great, the near-great,
and some deservedly forgotten (but nonetheless intriguing) plays and actors of the
twenties and thirties. For Benchley aficionados the book is a rare treat--the first new
collection of the master's work in nearly 40 years. For both amateur and professional
students of the theater, it's a chance to share an aisle seat with one of Broadway's most
discerning critics. And if you are none of the above, no matter. If you love informed,
literate, brisk writing, Benchley at the Theatre will be a welcome respite from the Siskel
and Ebert school of criticism.

A night at the theater with Benchley is never dull, chock-full as it is with pithy
asides, New England common sense, and occasional eruptions of pure Dada. Benchley
deflates some enduring and cherished myths: "[Katherine Hepburn] is not a great
actress, but one with a certain distinction which, with training, might possibly take the
place of great acting in an emergency."

He reaffirms modern critical hindsight: "Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater
Group...give ["Julius Caesar"] a reality which I think might fool the Bard himself." He
measures the erudition on his side of the proscenium: "It has been estimated that the
average powers of discrimination in a matinee audience would not quite fill a
demitasse." And he disabuses the reader who expects High Criticism: "Sometimes the
symbolism was so strong that it didn't seem as if it could be borne any longer. In fact,
several people had to leave early. Others covered their eyes with their hands and had to
be roused when the thing was over."

If you suffered through Shakespeare as a student, you have an ally in Benchley.
The Great White Way of the twenties and thirties was paved with countless Shakespeare
revivals, and Benchley, never a great fan of the Immortal Bard, took a dim view of the
proceedings. Opined Benchley: "We remember seeing Booth at the age of four (when we
were four; Booth was naturally older) and the memory of that performance has lingered
with us ever since. After it we were taken to Maillard's and had our first chicken salad.
Those were the days!"

Though Benchley bared his critical teeth when offenses on either side of the
footlights were committed, he was quick to forgive and even quicker to reassess the
professional cynicism that comes with the job of critic. On a jaunt to a P. T. Barnum
circus with his son, Benchley notes that the "scales of sophistication are struck from
your eyes," concluding that the experience, aided by the marveling of his five-year-old
companion, helps "keep you in your place."

In short, Benchley at the Theatre is acute, devastating, and entertaining
criticism, a model that Brendan Gill, Robert Brustein, and others would do well to
emulate. --Robert Luhn

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh, Please Buy This, August 19, 2005

By 

Wayne A. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Benchley at the Theatre: Dramatic Criticism, 1920-1940 (Paperback)

[...] It's a collection of theater reviews by Robert Benchley--that much is obvious. Most of the reviews (oh, let's say ALL of the reviews) are from the Golden Age of American Theater. With our current historical amnesia that could be an epoch situated anywhere from between 1066 AD (the year of the founding of our nation by President Paul Bunyon and General "Johnny" Appleseed) to the present time.

What isn't obvious is that Benchley is a very rare bird: a first-class writer with a first-class sense of humor. Since his writing is from a few years back and he makes frequent mention of steam trains (A jacuzzi service once provided by Amtrak), Al Smith (The Smith brother on the left side of the cough drop box), and bootleggers (Thigh-highs favored by Twiggy), he is too easily dismissed as a "horse and buggy" writer with little relevance to our modern sophisticated culture. In fact, he's about as timeless as Mark Twain--a currently fading great--and he writes about as well. He's also funnier and has better judgement than that American Icon. Robert Benchley would never have written "Innocents Abroad."

The point of all this is if you've come here looking for MORE Benchley you don't need me or any other reviews. This is "more Benchley" and you're fully aware of what that means. Have fun. If you're here for other reasons or you just stumbled across this page while doing an Internet search for something else--"Theater Benches" perhaps--then here's your big chance to recover lost gold. If you're 21 years old, ended up here because you passed out on the keyboard, and lack the attention span to get through an Ogdon Nash poem without medication, then just move on and be cheered by the fact that the future is yours.

Additionally, if you're a foreigner and you've ended up on this page (probably due to a missed flight) I strongly encourage you to buy this book and sample the wonder that once was, and maybe still could yet be again, American Culture. No halfway intelligent outlander could rummage through a collection of this type and come away sincerely describing the US as a "Great Satan." Stuff like this, unlike Dick Cheney or Andrea Dworkin, does not come from Hell.

A final heartbreak: I bought a nearly mint used copy through a dealer listed here and only paid about 3 bucks for it. When it arrived it had another discount sticker still on it. This wonderful and deeply funny book was sitting around some shop marked ONE DOLLAR! I imagine there was some awful point toward the hind end of the Roman Empire when collections of, say, Cicero's speeches were languishing un-bid upon on Ebay (They called it Ebus back then) for [...]