A New Play
The Morning After was technically the first play of the new season. For this and for no other feature will its memory survive.
Marooned on an island in Maine are an assorted collection of wives, husbands, juveniles and a comic maid. The previous evening the isle had rocked to the blissful cries of the whole group having a party and getting good and drunk in the process. It seems somebody drugged the punch. Somebody had also stolen a tube of chemicals on which the whole future of America depended, chemicals that would make war impossible. Half the party had gone home the night before, leaving its wives and husbands. Then a lovely lady, all Abercrombie & Fitch, paddled over from a neighboring island, won the young man's heart and captured the chemical.
A dozen or so good lines and about two good performances relieved this otherwise lackadaisical display.
The Best Plays
These are the plays which, in the light of metropolitan criticism, seem most important:
Drama
WHITE CARGO--A white man's morals crumble amid the suns and sins of Africa.
DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS--The dusky shades of tragedy lengthen on a New England farm when the old farmer marries a fresh young bride.
THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED-- Also an old farmer and a young bride, but in California where happy endings reconstruct the splintered bones of tragedy.
WHAT PRICE GLORY ?--Europe when the War stretched a long gutter across the face of France. Some of the men that rolled therein.
Comedy
IS ZAT SO?--A comedy of 20-minute eggs and fluffy omelets meeting in the interests of prizefighting at a Fifth Avenue dwelling.
THE FALL GUY--Small incomes, small minds and large hearts in the Bronx. The story of a man who could not hold a job.
THE POOR NUT--A college comedy which does not bother about realities, but aims, and with no little accuracy, to please.
Musical
For chorus girls, etc., go to: Ziegfeld Follies, Rose-Marie, The Student Prince, Lady, Be Good; Artists and
Models, The Grand Street Follies, Garrick Gaieties, George White's Scandals.
Coming Plays
Last week's installment of this two-part serial dealt with the chief plays of the early theatrical season. Following are more of the same, some of the later plays and the prospects in musical comedy :
Arms and the Man--Competent comedy by George Bernard Shaw will serve to open the Theatre Guild's repertory of plays by the same Mr. Shaw. Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren's Profession, You Never Can Tell and the rest. With Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
Beware of Widows--A warning by Owen Davis, will be played by the exceptionally pleasant Madge Kennedy.
The Princess and the Courtesan-- Will reintroduce the Princess Matchabelli who first came hither to play in The Miracle. By William J. Hurlbut.
The Silver Box--One of Galsworthy's early ones will be revived by Brock Pemberton.
The Fountain--Eugene O'Neill's Ponce de Leon-Eternal Youth fable will finally be seen after having halted on the brink of production several times.
The Wisdom Tooth--A satirical fantasy vaguely akin to Beggar on Horseback, by Marc Connelly, a co-author of that piece.
Antonia--An Hungarian comedy of triple shape and meaning, in which it is proposed that Marjorie Rambeau shall star.
The Grand Duchess and the Waiter was seen this summer in San Francisco. From the French of Alfred Savoir. For Elsie Ferguson.
The Wolf--The only Molnar play in sight. With Wallace Eddinger, Phyllis Povah, Roland Young.
The Great God Brown--By Eugene O'Neill.
The Lovely Lady--A comedy of father and son and a woman by Jesse Lynch Williams. With Bruce McRae.
The Rivals. Will continue on its all-star tour with Mrs. Fiske leading the troupe.
Lulu Belle--Recounting the torrid adventures of a U. S. Negress jazz singer among the London club men. David Belasco for Helen Menken.
The Scoundrel, by the untractable Ben Hecht, will occupy the nights of Emily Stevens.
Lucky Sam McCarber--A play by Sidney Howard (last year's Pulitzer prize taker) said to be written largely for his wife, Clare Eames.
Don't Play With Love--A straight comedy for Raymond Hitchcock.
Easy Come, Easy Go--Another from the fertile Owen Davis. For Otto Kruger.
To Tell the Truth, by Gilbert
Emery, will employ Michael Strange (Mrs. John Barrymore) in a small part. Her debut.
The Theatre Guild has announced the follownig for their new playhouse: The Conquering Hero, an English War play by Allan Monkhouse; Right You Are by Luigi Pirandello; The Only Way by Arthur Schnitzler; At Mrs. Beam's by C. K. Monro; M. Brontonneau by Robert de Fleurs and C. A. de Caillavet.
The Actors Theatre: Schnitzler's The Call of Life; Storm, by C. K. Monro; Moral, by Ludwig Thoma.
The Neighborhood Playhouse: Faint Perfume, by Zona Gale; Flipote, by Jules Le Maitre; The Three Daughters, by Frederick Whitney.
The International Playhouse: Growth of the Soil, by Knut Hamsun; The Subway, by Elmer Rice; a new Galsworthy play; a new Lengyel; various French, Spanish, Dutch, Belgian plays.
The Stagers: Overhead, by Herman Heijermans; A Man's Man, by Patrick Kearney; Reefs, by Howard Southgate; The Lady from the Sea, and Le Bourgeoise Gentilhomme.
Walter Hampden: Macbeth, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Hamlet and others.
The plans of the Barrymores, Ethel, John and Lionel, are not yet laid. Lenore Ulric will appear in a comedy, unannounced, for Charles L. Wagner. David Belasco has a Hindoo piece for Genevieve Tobin. Gilda Varesi comes back from London for Brock Pemberton. Margalo Gillmore and Helen Hayes are undecided. George M. Cohan will return to the theatre in a play of his own called American Born.
Singing and Dancing. The best
prospect is Marilyn Miller in Sunny, with Mary Hay, Clifton Webb, Jack Donahue, Ukulele Ike and Joseph Cawthorn. Also, Treasure Girl, a musical version of The Fortune Hunter with Skeets Gallagher. A similar version of The Sheik with Walter Woolf and possibly Hope Hampton. No, No, Nanette, musical comedy which everyone but Broadway saw last season, comes with Louise Groody. How's the King, a satire on Balkan kingdom romances by Marc Connelly and Dorothy Parker, with Jo Cook. The Coconuts, a show for the Four Marx Brothers by Irving Berlin and George S. Kaufman. Riquette, a Continental operetta with Vivienne Segal. Big Boy back again with Al Jolson. Captain Jinks set to music. June Days with Elizabeth Hines. Finally, a new Chariot's Revue which brings again trom London Gertrude Lawrence and Beatrie Lillie.