"Muny Opera"

Traditionally the two most melancholy weeks for a road show are "Christmas week" and "St. Louis week." Excluding the productions of resident stock companies. St. Louis theatre audiences demand and are diverted by not more than 15 itinerant shows per winter in the city's two playhouses. But St. Louisans fare much better in the summer when the Municipal Theatre Association, an organization of public-spirited citizens under municipal patronage, presents its twelve-week al fresco repertoire of light opera and operetta, locally called "Muny Opera." One night last week, St. Louis playgoers motored, taxied or bussed into Forest Park to witness the premiere of the "Muny Opera's" twelfth season--Sigmund Romberg's Nina Rosa, which recently had its debut in Chicago. Observers at rehearsals beheld the new production manager, Milton I. Shubert, nephew of famed Producers Lee & Jake Shubert of Manhattan, trotting nervously about the wide stage, castigating carpenters, bellowing at ballerinas. A characteristic Shubert addition is the $10,000 revolving stage, largest in the U. S., built between Forest Park's renowned and majestic twin oaks (heavily insured, dosed with castor oil to fend off sickness). Director Shubert has $36,000 to spend on each production, a chorus of 84 "Muny"-trained native sons and daughters, a professional ballet of 16, a symphony orchestra of 50, a different cast of first-rate performers for each presentation (an innovation). On good nights when it does not look like rain, he may pack his roofless house with 8,000 spectators--1,600 of whom get free seats. This season's repertoire includes: The Desert Song, Madame Pompadour, The New Moon, Blossom Time, Show Boat. For its first few years the project staged only light operas, such as Robin Hood, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard.

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