FIRST NIGHT AT THE THEATRE

Judy Holliday Acts in Rice's 'Dream Girl,' Put On at the City Center

By Brooks Atkinson
from the New York Times, May 10, 1951

     If Judy Holliday were not good in "Dream Girl," which opened at the City Center last evening, no great harm would be done. For she has the gleam of the true comedienne; this is her year and she can make no mistakes. But the part of the wool-gathering little lady in Elmer Rice's play is a rich one for Miss Holliday, and she has translated it into a funny and thoroughly delightful comic escapade.

     Probably Miss Holliday, like Garson Kanin, is tired of hearing about "Born Yesterday" now. It is necessary to point out, however, that Georgina Allerton of "Dream Girl" has some family resemblences to Billie Dawn, the junkman's moll.

     She has the same high squeaky voice -- and there is none too much of it for the vastness of the City Center. She, too, is in a daze. She has the same uncertain haughtiness when she is confused. She is a tight, trim package with a slightly mocking smile, two fetching dimples and a glossy personality.

* * *

     Georgina is several cuts above Billie in culture and education. According to Mr. Rice, she is a daydreamer who is always fleeing reality and taking refuge in gaudy phantasies. If memory serves, there was a kind of mystic romance about her when Betty Field played the part originally.

     But she is a comic character now, sometimes teetering over into broad burlesque. And this is all right, too. For Miss Holliday with her moods, her temper and her airy mannerisms is a hilarious actress with an adroit style that is very much her own. As far as that goes, let's not forget that "Dream Girl" is a funny show. Through a long sequence of casual episodes Mr. Rice has satirized a superfluous member of the genteel classes. He has also written some of his most humorous dialogue to get her in and out of her dilemmas. The plot does become a little tiresome before the evening is over. But the shrewdness of the satire, the dryness of the humor and, most of all, the mischief of Miss Holliday's acting make it one of the pleasantest pranks we have had in town this year.

     In every respect it is one of the City Center's most refreshing enterprises. Eldon Elder has managed the complicated production agreeably. And Morton Da Costa has directed the performance with a light accent and the aura of a fable.

     All the parts are acted with genial relish. Don DeFore's impudent newspaper man is carried off with real exuberance. Edmon Ryan's droll philanderer, Mary welch's frank, worldly partner in the bookshop, Ann Shoemaker's petulant mother, William A. Lee's obliging father, Walter Klavun's wavering, attitudinizing brother-in-law compose a first-rate supporting cast.

     Everyone has ample opportunity to act in Mr. Rice's crack-brained excursion into the dream-world, and everyone has talent enough to act with heartiness and variety. Especially Miss Holliday: she is in great form -- never monotonous or repetitious, always sharp, knowing, light and irresistibly funny. The City Center is in one of its most attractive moods.

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