European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 28, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                All the world s a stage for Broadway Star Donna Mckechnie rehearsing in London with British East of a chorus line As More and More americans carry the . Cultural lag abroad. Theft Karl cuu ure by John Barbour associated press among recent German versions of american musicals was George and Ira Gershwin s lady be Good produced in Dortmund. Era Zoina is very big in Oslo. Grace Bumbry is very big in West Germany Soprano Mary Costa is very big in Chile Tennes see Williams is very big in Moscow George Balanchine is very big in Denmark. Andrew Wych is very big in Tokyo Benny Carter s quintet is very big in Cairo James King of Dodge City. Kan., is an honoured Singer in Vienna and Ken Kascy s one flew Over the cuckoo nest is on the Best seller list in Spain. Whatever americans think of their image abroad after Vietnam and watergate american artists carry the Flag proudly everywhere and to rising acclaim. An associated press Survey of the world s cultural scene finds americans on the stage in the museums and on the Best seller lists of almost every literate nation including Many in the communist world. Americans dance sing write and compose they paint and sculpt they perform and their Grace style and imagination pervade the world s artistic consciousness. Take West Germany. John Beumeler directs the Hamburg opera Ballet to critical approval. Theodore Bloomfield of Cleveland is director of the West Berlin symphony. There Are 10 american soloists with the bavarian state opera in Munich and 19 with the German opera of West Berlin. There Are German versions of hello Dolly and Eugene o Neill s Long Day journey into night. Erica Jong s fear of flying in translation leads the Best seller list Saul Bellow s hum Tolsti gift is sixth and Leon Uris Trinity is tenth. Jaw and All the per Ideal t men Are hit movies. There Are 17 american Ballet dancers in the Hamburg state opera company including soloists Daja Michel. Victoria Pulkiner and Hagen Haigen. The Hamburg opera ensemble has seven american singers All of International stature Judith Beckmann Edith Lang Arlene Saun Durs. Janetic Scovotti. Carol Wyatt Richard cassily and Thomas Heydorn. In Vienna. There is More top class american Talent than in Many american towns " there arc More than 1,00 1 american paintings in West German museums and the number increases every year. As the guide of the National gallery of West Berlin comments at the end of the 1950s, the United Stales of America started challenging Europe in Art. In a Short time the attention of Europe switched from Paris to new  Kven in soviet dominated Eastern Europe the american presence is appreciated largely in Litera Ture but still appreciated. After world War ii the most popular american authors in  were Edgar Lee masters Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson and William Carlos Williams even today there is a lag Between what appears in the East against what appears in the West. The most influential american authors in Czechoslovakia today Are Ernest Hemingway William Faulkner f. Scott Fitzge Rald. Erskine Caldwell and thereafter Arthur Halley. Ray Bradbury Norman Mailer Truman capote William Saroyan Sinclair Lewis Upton Sinclair Louis Bromfield and Irving Stone. In the soviet world the . State department be comes a sol Hurok in reverse. As it has elsewhere in the world the . Government has played a major Export role for american artistic efforts in Eastern Europe. Latest on the soviet translation list Are Kurt Vonnegut John Updike and Irving Wallace with Kesey s cuff Coo currently in process. Among american plays now being staged in the soviet Union Are Tennessee Williams Sweet Bird of youth and a Streetcar named desire and Vonnegut s Slaughter House five. American jazz has always been popular la the soviet Union and a recent youth concert included numbers by Duke Ellington As Well As Russus com positions. Rock was very big among those who at tended the american Bicentennial exhibit that closed in Moscow in december. Similar appreciation is noted in Poland. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia but with something added. Poland has recently played Host to two major american orchestras Tobert Wilson s Avant Garde play Einstein on in Beach snowed in Yugoslavia before reaching the metropolitan opera in new York and the last appearance of 1j76 was the los Angeles philharmonic under Zublin Mehta. The us. Bicentennial was the occasion for Many Spe Cial exhibitions of american Art. The Seibu museum in Tokyo marked the . Birthday with a show entitled three decades of american Art selected by the Whitney museum including works by William de Kooning Hans Hoffman Jackson Pollock Mark Rothko. Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein. Among Many others Singapore May be a Little slow with the More serious arts but 95 per cent of the English language films shown there come from Hollywood and 45 per cent of the television programs come from the United states Page 12 the stars and stripes saturday