New Season

Broadway theatrical folk were busy as bees last week. In 17 playhouses rehearsals were in progress. Five new productions were somewhere on the road bound for Manhattan. Managers were picking casts for 27 others. And in New York opened--and closed--the new season's first play:

Domino. Producer William Augustin Brady got his season-opener from his wife Grace George, who adapted it from the French of Marcel Achard. A faithful wife (Jessie Royce Landis), disturbed by her husband's jealousy of her onetime lover (Geoffrey Kerr), hires a ne'er-do-well called Domino (Rod La Rocque) to pretend that it is he who has been her lover. The love of Lorette and the foppish Cremone had been a routine, spiritless affair. Domino makes of it a romantic adventure, much to the discomfort of both ex-lovers, much to the bewilderment of the husband, Heller (Robert Loraine). By the time Husband Heller learns which man has really loved his wife it is too late for the knowledge to do him any good or hapless Cremone any more harm.

Somewhere between Paris and New York Domino lost its charm, possibly in the translation which turns "Sans blague!" to "Oh, yeah?" Domino's few funny moments were due to Geoffrey Kerr, who stuttered, smoked cigarets in a foot-long holder, made both pathetic and amusing his portrayal of fumbling ineffectuality.

Of the 100-odd plays, musicomedies and revues which New Yorkers may see before Christmas some of the more promising are:

Flying Colors, a revue by Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz; with Clifton Webb, Patsy Kelly, Charles Butterworth.

Here Today, a comedy about Authoress Dorothy Parker by George Oppenheimer & George S. Kaufman; with Ruth Gordon, Sally Bates, Donald MacDonald.

Smiling Faces, a musicomedy with Fred Stone & family, which has been on tour since last December.

The Comic Artist, a play by Pulitzer Prizewinner Susan Glaspell (Alison's House) & her husband, Norman Matson.

The Good Earth, dramatized by Owen & Donald Davis from Pearl Buck's Pulitzer Prizewinning novel; with Alia Nazimova, Earle Larimore.

Dinner at Eight, by George S. Kaufman & Edna Ferber.

Dangerous Corners, by John Boynton Priestley (now running in London).

Liliom (revival), with Eva LeGallienne & Joseph Schildkraut.

The Great Magoo, Ben Hecht & Gene Fowler's candidate for the Pulitzer Prize.

And Life Goes On, by Vicki Baum (Grand Hotel) & John Golden.

Alien Corn by Sidney Howard and The Rape of Lucrece by Andre Obey; with Katharine Cornell.

New editions of the Scandals (George White), Vanities (Earl Carroll), Passing Show (Lee & Jake Shubert).

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