Sabrina Fair

In Sabrina Fair Margaret Sullavan is called upon to be twenty-odd years old and girlishly bouncy. Now, Miss Sullavan is attractive and talented, but she has been attractive and talented for quite some time. What is more, for the past ten years she has fallen victim to an incurable disease or crippling accident in every stage role. She just isn't up to bouncing.

If Miss Sullavan realizes that she has made an error, she can find solace in the casting of her co-star. Joseph Cotten, one of the screen's top soft-spoken actors, is supposed to act power-mad, wild and unharnessed.

While Mr. Cotten and Miss Sullavan are up-braiding the producer for tricking them into Sabrina Fair, the two stars might have a word with author Samuel Taylor. Taylor has provided them with a parody of Shavian comedy. Shaw's good-natured snobbery, his interminable stretches of dialogue, his predictable surprise ending are all belabored here. Lacking only is Shaw's sincerity and wit: In the part forced on Cotten, the "superman" seems barely capable of running his own life. And any clever lines are spare indeed, while almost-clever lines pop up again and again to mar the play.

But perhaps the most damning criticism of Sabrina Fair is a brief recount of the plot. Sabrina Fairchild, daughter of the chauffer of the sophisticated Larrabee family, comes home from five years in Paris. After the French diplomatic whirl, living over a Long Island garage strikes her as a bit drab. When Sabrina finds an out by falling in love with a Larrabee son, there is the immense barrier of his wealth and her poverty. But not for long.

It turns out that Sabrina's father has been investing his salary in the stock market for twenty-five years; he is now worth over a million dollars. The two young rich people can get married.

Since the plot idea is, among other things, remarkably wholesome, Taylor felt called upon to spice it for Broadway. The ugly head of sex does not rear, it is dragged in by the playwright with gusto. Obvious burlesque material does not buoy a sinking script, however, it merely brings the level down a little further.

In spite of everything, Sabrina Fair does have two big names for the marquee and shows every sign of a prosperous long run. For this reason, Miss Sullavan's many admirers should boycott the play to spare her going through the role night after night. She has suffered enough.