Theater: They coulda learned their lines, but...

Audiences, critics, and producers have been complaining increasingly about stage actors relying on prompters who feed them their lines. Matthew Broderick has taken heat for needing prompts in previews of a new off-Broadway play, and an actor was fired in Hartford for storing lines in his character’s hat. But the tradition of prompters is ancient and honorable. Even screen actors have reached beyond memory for their lines. In his bravura taxi scene from “On the Waterfront,’’ Marlon Brando is turning his head to read from slips of paper reminding him to say, “I coulda been a contender.’’ Indeed, many politicians could benefit from occasional prompting. An alert prompter could have cautioned Sarah Palin that she can’t keep an eye on Vladimir Putin from her porch in Alaska, or instructed the four Senate candidates in last Monday’s debate to answer the question that was actually asked. On the other hand, who really wants politicians to stick to their scripts?