New York Clipper (Feb 1923)

.14 ^3!*i«3lKi:>. W^sv .-^•?:f/- T M E N Y b R K \f GLIP P E R February 21, 1923 ^ MUSICML 'THE LAUGHING LADY," SPARKLING COMEDY I AT THE'LONGACRE "THE LAUGHING LADY," a pUy in three act*, by Alfred Sulm. Rrodoccd at the Lon^ere theatie, Monday eraiing, Fcbmaiy 12. CAST ' HaioQtoii Playsatc Harry Plimmcr EU* Walter Howe Caroline Playgate Alice John Cynthia Dell...i...Violet Kemble Cooper Sir Haniion Petera, K. B. C SLOineth Hnntcf Eamce Fair...: '..Katharine Emnidt Duid Fair. K. C..: Cyrfl Kcigfalley Lady Uarjorie Colladine.. Bliaa Barrynure Roac , Evm Leonard-Boyiie Sir Hector Colladine, D. S. O. HcKay Morris' THEATRICAL GUIDE ISSUED The New York Thealrical Business Men's Guide, a neat and valuable little booklet made its appearance last week. It contains a list of the Dramatic Staffs of the various daily newspapers, the names and addresses of the producers, principal amusement places, theatrical associations and other 'information of a theatrical nature: The booklet was compiled and published by Kelcey Allen and H. P. 'Hanaford. "THE CHASTENING," NEW KENNEDY PLAY A REUGIOUS STORY XWHSPERING WIRES" TO'.REMAIN "Whispering Wires," announced to leave :'york soon, will remain indefinitely at the Broadhnrst Tlicatre, due to its uphold in rccdpts: ' It >wafl ione- of. tiie-.-first plays of the season and w31 in aH probabHify re- mwtf imtil- thd-'tiid°of the' seasoit -Last week its receipts wtsnf in excess of $10)000, a figare at which it 'makes a desirable piull. ERLANGER IN FLdRIDA A. L. Erianger left last Friday for a two weeks' -vacation in Florida. Erianger ytns imacccmpanied and refused to reveal his destination to his office associates. Ethel Barrym'ore, retorbs to the Long- acre Theatre in "The Langliing Lady." a sparkling comedjr by Alfred Sutro, which was produced with great success m Lon- don recently. . In her new . vehicle, Miss fianymore was perfectly at home and dispatched her role with .remarloble ease. The style of the' play, or type rather, is not what one would.expect of . an-English author, unless it ,was. one of his. plays that had been. written a decade ago and just produced. For it is the kind .that English playwrights did about twenty years ago, with just a bit' of a iiew twist to it Lady Marjorie, played by Miss Bariy- more, is divorced by her husband, mostly on drctmastantial endence. . Later he tried to win her back again, bat Lady Marjorie will have none of him. .vThe : lawyer who representel' her husband in the divorce trial, has .made.a. good. im- pression on the divorcee, despite the fact that he had snbjecteit'her to an nmisnaUy searching IcrossHBomination.. Both' the middle aged lawyer- and - Udy Marjorie ate soon deeply in love with-each mher. He, however, u married to a wenian he docant love, yet, who has shaped' and planned his whole career: ^ : MA: 'Cair, the attorney's -wife^ idayed by' Katfaertne Emmett, cUls on Lady Marjorie to dis- cuss the sitiatian. Mrs. Carr admits that , she lov^ her htisband very inuch and would ' gladly give him .up if. it ^ould make him .any happier. But his maniape to I.ady Mar- jorie she fears woiild' nim. his career and this she fears most of .'alL She is willing that things go. on as..heretofore^^d .that her husband' aiid' L^y 'Maijdrie.'shall have, ample opportunity, and a 'chance to have an afiair. Instead of this pat'diing things up, as it seemed at first. Lady Mar- jorie grew tndigcant and she tells. Carr that he doesn't reaOy love her. The objection raised-hy I.ady Marjorie results in the attorney Ixing forced to . live- with his wife whom he doesn't love and who knows him^ to be a fool, and the La4y herself'dects< to return to her for- r mer husband and ' re-marry him. . The cnrtain comes'-down' -widi all four con- . cemed' m' the - situatioa more or less imsexable. - i- The cast associated -with Miss Barry- • inore is ecddlent ■thrbnghout, -with hardly a weak spot in it. AU of them deserve great praise. "ICEBOUND," RURAL PLAY BY OWEN DAVIS IS ENTERTAINING "ICEBOUND," a three act play by Owen Daria.. Produced on Saturday ctc- ninr, February 10, at the Sam H. Harria theatre. CAST . Fwiw.^ Jordan...........Lotta Linthicilin Henry Jordan John Wotley Nettie Jordan...! '.'..Boota Wooiter : Ella Jordan Frances Nellaoh Sadie Fellowv .-: Eva Condon Orin Fellows Andrew J. Lawler, Jr. Doctor Curtis Lawrence Eddinger Jane Crosby Fhyllia PoTab Jadge Bradford Willard Robcrtjon Ben Jordan Robot Ana Hannah; Edna May Oliver Jim Jay Charlu Hendenoo Owen' Davis has been writing plays for many years, some of them good, some metfaocre and some decidedly bad. Atdong his main works, the latest, "Ice- boimd." is about the best of all. From the moment of the rising of the curtain and imtil the end of the first act the play looked like a masterpiece. 'It :.dropped. off considerably, however, in the development of the plot and interest lagged, vet despite this, the play is a good one and furnishes some good entertain- ment. .... '. The play revolves around the Jordans, a'c old New England family gradually falling, to pieces. They have gradually grown bitter as the result of their lone- some farm life, th.e hot summers and the cold dreary 'winters. The first act shows. a sombre parlor opened for the' first time in years and the relatives of Jardon. an old and sick man sit around waiting for the worst and at the same time speculate as to the amount he will leave and who will share in it. The talk in this scene while not bright is at least natural and to those familiar with rustic, scenes and people, it .was decidedly natural A blacksheep, of course, is in the-play, and it is (he intention of the grandmother, if possible, to arrange a' marriage between the blacksheep who was' also the youngest son,'and atf adopted daughter who would be used as the sacrifice. THhe money is left to -the girl' which is the attraction for the son, according to the old lady's idea. But during ^ plajr it develops that the two young people involved love each other and probably would many anyway. How- ever, it is necessary for them to wait until their' anthor has seen fit to bring them together. • - - The cast for the most part were good- Robert Ames, played the part of the black- . sheepi and gave an' excellent performance, as he did in a similar role last season in "The Hero." Phyllis Povah as th* re- fonning heroine ' who looks after the bladcshecp'Mso gave an. above the ordi- : naiy.-performance. The'rest of the cast, especially -Willard Robertsijn. vM^ere ade- <^ate though handicapped by poor direc- tion. "THE CHASTENING," a play in five acl9. by Charles Rann Kennedy. Pre- sented at the Forty-eigbth Street, Friday afternoon, Feb. 16. CAST A Carpenter Charles Rann Kennedy His wife Edith Wynne Matthiaon Her Son Margaret Gage For a limited number of matinee per- formances, the Equity Players have given their theatre for their presentation of "The Chastening" a miracle play by Charles Rann Kennedy who with his wife Edith Wynne Matthison are seen in the cast, and for the first time in many months. Like all of Mr. Kennedy's plays the newest one is_ symbolic in part and spirit- ual in conception, and concerns a day in the life of Joseph, Mary and their child. The characters are a carpenter, played by Ken- nedy, the carpenter's wife played by Miss Mattiiison, and their boy. The scene is a roatlside where they pause for an hour or so. The strongest and best part of the play is when the woman discoyjers that her son is the Chosen of God, and when she comes to the realization that her child is the Messiah is perhaps the only really gooa acted part of the play, done by Miss Mat- thison. Miss Margaret Gage, a pupil of Mr. Kennedy's played the part of the bby and while she made it a thing of beauty, also made it objectionable to some who believed that an active boy should have taken the part and so relieved it of its effeminate characterization. For She repeated her speeches more like a little piece of mechan- ism than anything else, probably as result of her training. The action of course was slow, and while simplicity b desirable in a play of this type, the flood of verbosity was too much to be coupled with what ought to be more simple. In a ^vay it dramatizes part of the New Testament, although no such ref- erience is made of course by actual word of mouth or program. The program merely informs that somewhere sometime the ac- tion took place at a cross road. Religious symbolism, is a delicate under- taking, especially in a play and it takes considerable ^tience for the average thea- tre-goer to sit through such action, if it does not come-up to their idea of how it really happened two thousand years ago. Thus in die play Joseph wants the boy to be a carpenter, and the mother thinks he ought to be a priest, and there is talk of humanity's short-comings and that it should be saved. ' FOUR NEW SHOWS OPEN ON B'WAY Beginning the Lenten theatrical season with a rush, four new plays had their pre- miers on Broadway Monday night, the first string critics dividing their attention as if uncertain which play was most worthy of their review. Emily Stevens, in "The Sporting Thing to Do," a play by Thompson Buchanan, was presented by Oliver Morosco at the Ritz Theatre. Florence Reed in "Hail and Farewell," was presented at the Morosco Theatre by Joseph B. Shea. The play is by William J. HurlbuL Brock Peraberton introduced Hubert Osborne's dramatization of Julian Street's novel, "Rita Coventry," at the Bijou The- atre. The fourth opening was that of Phillip Barry's Harvard prize play, "You and I, which Richard G. Hemdon presented at the Belmont Theatre with H. B. Warner and Ludle 'VVatson in the leading roles. Other Monday night events were the re- moval of Rudolph Schildkiaut in "The God of Vengence," from the Greenwich Village to the Apollo Theatre, and the revival of Maxim Gorky's "Lower Depths" for the seventh week program of the Moscow Art Theatre at Jolson's Fifty-ninth Street. EVELYN HEWITT MAKES DEBUT Evelyn Ada Hewitt, age 12, the daugh- ter of John O. Hewitt, last seen on Broad- way with Hale Hamilton in "Swifty," has patiently bided her time while in the capacity of understudy with Miss Laurette Taylor in '"Humoresqiie," is a very happy girl today. On Tuesday evening of last week she was notified to go on for the part of little Esther Kantor, Miss Taylor's stage daughter, in Fanny Hurst's masterpiece, "Huraoresque." Little Ada pleased immensely—and did herself honor. This was little Miss Hewitt's first Broadway engagement, previous to which she played in stock and en tour with "Daddy Long Legs," and at the Manhat- tan Opera House in children's Christmas plays.' She is quite clever in sketching and ^designing and' is an adept pupil in classi- cal dancing. Her education is her fore- most thought and the plans of her parents for her future. At the completion • of it ••she may play Juliet as-rbut that, is too far a^vay. Her real ambition is to be an ec- centric comedienne like Florence Moore. CHAS. FROHMAN BUST FOR EMPIRE . At the suggestion of AI H. Woods, Miss Billie Burke has launched a movement for the subscribing of a fund to be used for the erection of a bi^st in the Empire theatre of Charles Frohman, founder and builder of the theatre. .'Vt the time the 30th anniversary of the erection of the Empire theatre took place. Woods sent a telegram to Miss Burke in which he said: "I wish that the theatre whose thirtieth anniversary you have jtist celebrated, contained an appropriate me- morial to the man who founded it He was the only theatrical manager I ever knew who was not commercial, and I beg tl»t you include me among the first subscribers to a fund for placing a bronze .bust of Qiartes Frohman in Uic theatre which he made famous." Miss Burke immediately took up the matter with Gilbert Miller, general man- ager of the Charles Frohman enterprises, and the latter agreed to head a committee which includes Woods and Florenz Zieg- feld, Jr., who will take charge of the dp- nations and erect the memorial. Miss Burke and Woods at the same time subscribed $100 each, with the mem- bers of the "Rose Briar" company adding a large sum to this amount. The treasurer of this committee will be appointed upon .the return of Ziegfeld from Palm Beach. MONDAY MATS. AT PUNCH & JUDY Beginning Monday, February 26, a series of matinees of Gilbert Murray's transla- tions of the dramas of Euripides, will be presented at the Punch and Jiidy Theatre by Dorothea Spinney, the young English woman who has presented dramatic in- terpretations of the classics abroad. "The matinees will be given on each sue cessive Monday afternoon after the initial performance, by Miss Spinney, who is expected to arrive from England sometime this week. \ TO PRESENT LENTEN PLAY "Pilate's Daughter" or "The Mvstic Rose," a Lenten play by the Rev. Fran- cis Kcnzcl, will be produced through the Lenten season' by the Parish Players :of the Church of Our Ladi- of Perpetual Help,. Brooklyn. The 'first production of this, the thirteenth season, \yill take place Sunday afternoon at .2.30. Other dates are - Tuesday, aridc .-.Friday evenings ito March -27, at 8:lS at the Rederaiptorist Auditorium, 29th street and Sixth avenue.