CIVIC THEATRE

Chronicle (Levin), 5 March 1946, Page 2

CIVIC THEATRE

"GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE" There are no restrictions on laughter, as you wili discover when Warner Bros.' "George Washington Slept Here" makes its bebut ar thc Civic Theatre to-day. As a play it kept New Yorkers laugning, an'u advance reports indicate that tnc motion picture, boasting one of the finest casts of this season's cro'p o. laugh hits, wili carry on that reputation. In the leading roles are Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan. Benny is cast as the average American big city dweller reared in comfort able apartment houses, whose wife. an avid antique hunter, carrie.. matters too far when she buys r. house where George Washington was supposed to have slept. Against Benny 's protests, they move in to find the house in a stat. of dilapidation so advanced that it ieads Benny to wonder what's holding it up. Fun is provided when they are informed by the lugubrious caretaker, played by Percy Kilbride, that the well is dry, and it wili be necessary to dig a new one. In the midst of it all, the proverbial rich uncle (Charles Coburn's role) arrives, and must be made comfortable and happy at all costs The house proves to be a veritable gargantua for it swallows repairc without showing signs of improvement, and the situation become.more involved when the money foi the mortgage must be raised— or else. When matters close in on the couple, and there's no quarter in I sight, Rommie, the dog, saves the j situation in a laughter-provoking j climax. "George Washington Slent Here' ' was directed by William Keighley. j Everett Freeman wrote the screer ! play, from the stage production by j Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman.1