Old Play in Manhatta

Topaze (adapted from the French of Marcel Pagnol by Benn W. Levy; produced by Yolanda Mero-Irion & the New Opera Company) triumphed on Broadway just 18 years ago. Returning last week, it looked like a genuine theatrical relic. It still had traces of gay cynicism, Gallic sprightliness and wit. But it wheezed, wobbled, and seemed all the sadder for trying to look jaunty.

The yarn it spins out, in a thin, reedy voice, is the one about the lamb fallen among wolves: innocent, upright French Schoolmaster Topaze (nicely played by Oscar Karlweis) is used as a dupe by a high-class swindler and his very French mistress. But after a while Topaze begins to get the hang of things. Inevitably, he also gets the very French lady.

The show set a record for the season by folding after one performance.

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