Mask and Gown

Continuity: Ronny Graham and Sidney Carroll Sketches: Sidney Carroll, Ronny Graham, Everett Marcy, and Leonard Sillman Lyrics: June Carroll and Ronny Graham Music: Dorothea Freitag, Ronny Graham, and Arthur Siegel Direction: Leonard Sillman; Producers: Leonard Sillman and Bryant Haliday; Choreography: Jim Russell; Scenery: Uncredited; Costumes: Special costumes for T. C. Jones executed by George Somerville; Lighting: Lee Watson; Musical Direction: Dorothea Freitag Cast: T. C. Jones, Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong The revue was presented in two acts. Sketches and Musical Numbers Act One: “The Circus Is Over” (lyric by June Carroll, music by Arthur Siegel) (T. C. Jones, Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong; sung by John Smolko); “T. C. on T. C.” (sketch by Sidney Carroll) (T. C. Jones); “T. C. on T.V.” (aka “Your Money or Your Life”) (sketch by Ronny Graham) (T. C. Jones, Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong); “Make Friends” (music by Arthur Siegel) (Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong); “Catch” (T. C. Jones, Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong); “Hesitation Waltz” (music by Emile Waldteufel) (Betty Carr, Rod Strong); “T. C. a Dance” (“Ten Cents a Dance”; from 1930 musical Simple Simon; lyric by Lorenz Hart, music by Richard Rodgers) (T. C. Jones); “Bolero” (music by Dorothea Freitag) (Gaby Monet, John Smolko); “T. C. on Hollywood” (sketch by Leonard Sillman and Everett Marcy) (T. C. Jones, John Smolko); “T. C. on Taps Topside”/“Don’t Give Up the Ship” (1935 film musical Shipmates Forever; lyric by Al Dubin, music by Harry Warren) (T. C. Jones, Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong); “On Their Own”—(1) “House of Blue Lights” (Gaby Monet); (2) “Shangri-La” (John Smolko); (3) “Speedy Gonzalez” (lyric and music by Ronny Graham) (Betty Carr); (4) “Chopin Waltz in E Minor” (Rod Strong); “T. C. on Certain Singers” (T. C. Jones, Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong)—(1) “I Cover the Waterfront” (lyric by Edward Heyman, music by Johnny Green); (2) “Remind Me” (1940 film One Night in the Tropics; lyric by Dorothy Fields, music by Jerome Kern); 3) “How Did He Look?” (lyric by Gladys Shelley, music by Abner Silver); (4) “New Sounds” (lyric and music by Ronny Graham) Act Two: “Setting the Stage” (music by Scarlatti) (Rod Strong); “T. C.-on-Avon” (T. C. Jones, Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong)—(1) Ethel Merman as Juliet; (2) Marilyn Monroe as Ophelia; (3) Tallulah Bankhead as Cleopatra; (4) Mae West, Claudette Colbert, or Ethel Barrymore as Kate; (5) Bette Davis as Lady Macbeth; (6) Judy Holliday as Portia; (7) Katherine Hepburn as Rosalind; “You’d Better Go Now” (New Faces of 1936; lyric by Bickley Reichner, music by Irving Graham) (T. C. Jones, Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, Rod Strong); “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1938 musical Right This Way; lyric by Irving Kahal, music by Sammy Fain) (T. C. Jones); “T. C.” (T. C. Jones) Female impersonator T. C. (Thomas Craig) Jones had made quite an impression with both critics and audiences in New Faces of 1956, and so many of the New Faces’ creative crowd (Leonard Sillman, Ronny Graham, June Carroll, and Arthur Siegel) joined forces to showcase Jones in an intimate revue devoted to his specialized talents. Some of the material was new, but a number of songs were popular standards. Jones was backed by a singing and dancing quartet (Betty Carr, Gaby Monet, John Smolko, and Rod Strong) and a three-piece combo (Dorothy Freitag, piano; Arthur Siegel, piano; and Ralph Roberts, drums). The evening allowed Jones to spoof the ladies of television, movies, recordings, and the stage, and perhaps the highlight was “T. C.-on-Avon” in which he interpreted how various personalities would portray Shakespeare’s heroines, including Ethel Merman (as Juliet), Marilyn Monroe (Ophelia), Tallulah Bankhead (Cleopatra), Bette Davis (Lady Macbeth), Judy Holliday (Portia), and others, including Katharine Hepburn as Rosalind (Hepburn had appeared in a 1950 Broadway revival of As You Like It, and possibly some theatergoers were in a position to compare Jones’s interpretation with Hepburn’s). Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times found Jones an “uncommonly talented” female impersonator, but said a full evening of such impersonations was overkill and thus the material was more effective when sprinkled throughout a regular variety-show-styled revue. He noted the evening sometimes took on a “coy and complicated phantasmagoria” not unlike the earlier Cranks (which was “equally wearing”). Walter Kerr in the New York Herald Tribune also felt the evening’s entertainment was one-note, and thus a “sound nightclub act” was stretched into a long evening in the theatre; he noted Jones changed gowns “with admirable dexterity,” but felt his mask “pales noticeably over the two hours’ traffic on the stage.” Kerr singled out Ronny Graham’s “fetching idea” for the quiz show spoof “Your Money or Your Life”: the contestants are

Music

Dorothea Freitag, Ronny Graham, and Arthur Siegel

Lyrics

June Carroll and Ronny Graham