Tonight in Samarkand

It's a wonder that there are so few good plays on the professional stage. There are a fair number beginning with "magnificent" and ranging to the more dizzying and imaginative height of superlative, and there is certainly no lack of abominations that waste everyone's time, but just good plays are rare. Perhaps it is because a producer is more confident of a play that is extreme, one way or another, than of a solid, bread-and-butter show that should neither fail nor celebrate staggering success.

Well, Messrs. Becker and Miller have backed a pleasant, untaxing and unexciting evening called Tonight in Samarkand. It just can't help keeping one moderately entranced because it is about Fate, has some clever lines, good performances, handsome or beautiful (or just competent) players and highly imaginative and mobile sets.

On the other hand, authors Jacques Deval and Lorenzo Scmple, Jr., rely too much on gimmicks, sudden disclosures and fake tragedy to have their play classed as much more than a well-contrived nothing. They set up the double premise that one's destiny is inescapable, regardless of what steps are taken to change it, and that it is possible to see the future in a crystal-ball. Both points are in earnest, since Samarkand is not, strictly, a comedy. Having placed the scene in a circus tent, the authors call on some deft maneuvering by designer Ben Edwards to shift the setting, on a momentarily darkened stage, so that everyone can watch the future, too.

When they have shown what end is predicted for the main characters, the author's only problem is to work through the second and third acts to get to that end. This involves another ball-gazing session (Mr. Edwards is as ingenious as he is indulgent of authors' whims) and a fair amount of comedy in the second act to gloss over its basic similarity to the first. When, despite everyone's attempts to subvert its ends, Fate proves too wily a customer for mortals, the final curtain rings down on what has been an enjoyable, if not particularly exhilarating, evening. Although the subject is obviously fascinating, it has been handled with skill and craftsmanship rather than real imagination.

The show's star, Louis Jourdan, is a very handsome man. He radiates charm and immediately makes the fortune teller seem a very nice chap with a surprising share of sincerity, considering that his line of work involves mulcting the public. Unfortunately, Mr. Jourdan tends toward stiffness. Perhaps it is his incomplete command of the more subtle inflections of English, but in any event, it is not too serious. Felicia Montalegre plays a female lion-tamer with a vigor and grace that fail only when the excitement or anguish of her lines forces her to plunge through them. In smaller roles, Theodore Bikel, Alexander Scourby and Rita Vale are probably the show's brightest actors, with the rest of the cast not far behind.

Herman Shumlin's ability as director is evident in the fact that there are no serious flaws or lapses of pacing in the show. Presumably, too, he will get a touch more animation into Mr. Jourdan's performance. Actually, Samarkand is very near the peculiar, dim excellence of plays that are an unmodified good.