Broadway lights its marquees with a new spark of optimism

By Mel Gussow

New York-This fall there will be a traffic jam on Broadway. Almost all the theaters are booked-with new shows or with holdovers from last season. "It's an unusual phenomenon,” said a representative of the League of New York Theaters. "In the midst of the highest inflation, the activity on Broadway is the best in five or six years.”

“Last year at this time Broadway looked terrible,” said Bernard Jacobs, executive director of the Shubert organization, which owns 15 of the 40 Broadway houses: "Two years ago, it was disasterville. This season, qualitatively and quantitatively, is the best in years.”

The optimism echoed along Broadway this past week -as marquees were lit, tickets were placed on sale and shows began moving back to New York. The season officially opened with Angela Lansbury's revival of "Gypsy" at the Winter Garden.

There are, at this point, more plays that want to cometo New York than there are theaters to accommodate

them. A number of productions are waiting in the wings,

like understudies.

The picture could change, but much of the producers' optimism is justified. Many of this year's shows have been tested in London or on extended road tours of the United States.

There will be a definite shortage of new American plays on Broadway, although Neil Simon, Terrence McNally and Edward Albee will be represented.

According to Theater Pary Associates, the shows most heavily booked by groups are "Mack and Mabel,”

Jerry Herman's musical about Mack Sennett (Robert Preston) and his silent comedy star Mabel Normand (Bernadette Peters), opening next Sunday at the Majestic; "Good News," the 1927 rah-raḥ musical that Alice Faye and John Payne have been barn-storming around the country for 11 months (Nov. 3 at the St. James), and "Absur Person Singular," Alan Ayckbourn's London comedy about three mismatched couples (recast with Geraldine Page, Richard Kiley, Larry Blyden and Sandy Dennis), Oct. 8 at the Music Box.

Albee's long-awaited "Seascape" is something of a mystery. It takes place, partly, at the bottom of the sea and deals with evolution. The stars are Deborah Kerr, Barry Nelson and Frank Langella. "Seascape" will open at the Kennedy Center in Washington this fall and probably won't be on Broadway until early next year.

Terrence McNally's "The Tubs," which was presented successfully at the Yale repertory theater last season, refers to a men's homosexual bath. An opening date has not been set.

“God's Favorite,” by Neil Simon, is a modern day job, played by Vincent Gardenia (Dec. 11 at the Eugene

O'Neill).

Once again some of the most interesting plays will have their premieres in regional theaters, namely David Storey's "The Farm" at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington and Edward Bond's "The Sea" at the Goodman Theater Center in Chicago.

All conclusions about the season are premature. Last Season's biggest hits-"A Moon for the Misbegotten, "Candide," "Scapino" and "The Magic Show"--were not yet scheduled for Broadway at this time last year.