Waiting for Odets: Review

"Real Life Drama" has intelligence but little imagination, and the writing is often bombastic: the Moscow Art Theater "burst like a thunderclap on the New York theatrical world"; when [Stella Adler] first heard [Harold Clurman] speak about his theatrical dreams, "she was excited, she was interested, she was unsure" -- and everyone else was bewitched before they became bothered and bewildered. Revelations abound as everyone fights "virtually insurmountable odds." "Waiting for Lefty" remains, even for those who were not there, one of the most dramatic chapters in American theatrical history, as a new playwright, actors, theatergoers and a labor movement connected in a moment of kinetic frenzy. It was political theater in its purest sense, ending with an ovation followed by a shout of "strike." Ms. [Wendy Smith]'s account of the opening night in 1935 and of the enthusiasm that flooded the theater is exciting, as are the accounts in [Elia Kazan]'s autobiography, "Elia Kazan: A Life," and Margaret Brenman Gibson's biography, "[Clifford Odets]: American Playwright," as well as in "The Fervent Years." Such excitement is absent from the rest of Ms. Smith's well-intentioned but dry recitation of facts and details, in which she periodically stops and recapitulates, telling us where everyone is and what bad food they are eating.