New Play in Manhattan

Dear Ruth (by Norman Krasna; produced by Joseph M. Hyman and Bernard Hart) is a sure-fire popular comedy about the young, exploiting an amusing (if familiar) situation for comedy, farce and romance alike, and framing it in the fat plush of family life. A teen-age brat named Miriam Wilkins (Lenore Lonergan) has long and lushly corresponded--in the name of her older sister Ruth--with a young overseas flyer. Suddenly the flyer (John Dall) turns up, all set to marry Ruth--who is all set to marry someone else. To soften the blow, Ruth (Virginia Gilmore) agrees to act out for a little the role that Miriam has cast her in. It starts off all innocent merriment, but winds up with more romance than Ruth had bargained for.

Dear Ruth has the straight Broadway virtues: smooth casting and direction (by Moss Hart), a lively charting of every navigable foot of plot, and a family album full of action shots and funny poses. Basically the characters are all tintypes, and the play uses anything that will get a laugh, lend a twist or bring down a curtain. Some of them bring down the house as well.

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