Show L Four F ur New Plays Presented in in New York Y or orBY J BY FRANKLIN FYLES M EW YORK Sept 8 Augustus I NEW I I Thomas Is a graphic of or j men and Clyde Fitch of women Thomas men are strong Americans who do things worth doing and so are women but Thomas women and men are weak and india Indis Indistinct relatively So it was reasonable that Charles Frohman after atter examining ing lug the bids for tor the thO th jobs awarded the contract for tor a John ohn Drew play to Thomas Th mas and for tor a Maxine Elliott play to Fitch The two comedies delivered this week are probably as good as the scenario samples The only portions of ot the time work ork rejected so 20 far as I know were wele the titles Mr Ir Frohman be convinced that Jim De Lancey and My Girl Joe were desirable la Ia labels labels bels bela for tor plays to be sold to modish peo pee people people plc under the Drew and Elliott brands So they are named De Lancey and Her Great Match Mat h Neither package astonishes us with originality in its contents but hut both satisfy all nil i I II I i I except ct those e that call for an another another other Arizona and another Climb CUmb CUmbers Climbers ers ems Thomas has haa come away from Arizona Colorado Alabama and Missouri and settled down in New ew York YOlk His James De Do Lancey Is the John Jre Drew kind of ot a aNew aNew aNew New Yorker politely assertive wittily cynical warm arm of ot heart heal t while cool of ot manner who wlm never lets his Imis emotions wrinkle his hlf clothes clothier nor mor loses losea his blase balance when hen he lie throws himself into reckless action This De Do Lancey Lance Drew has haa permitted his wife to divorce him and himself to love lovo time the girl who In mil innocence has imas caused the disunion And the girl loves levee him too toot but he be Is twice her age and she lInda finds it slow blow and hard bard to convince him that she would be happy In lb wedlock with him Play Playwrights Playwrights wrights have resorted to that theme for tor Crane and Goodwin Window and Tree and many mom other actors past nast Da t their time of looking young and we watch Its development In Jn this new Drew case with never a doubt that Jacqueline will get to the time altar with Jim But the particulars of ot this familiar case are ate novel and uncommonly enter entertaining taming Let it not be said again that Thomas cant put New York smart so society society clety on the stage He has done lone it here as truly huly as Fitch over ever did and like Fitch he be directs the time rehearsals of ot othis his plays Of course Drew made the hero of ot De Do Lancey easy to create but the time heroine is our ex ox exactly as she lives moves and has her Imer being Thomas cant mako make a lady Hlady in inthe Inthe the time negative class but he here turns out a n goodfellow In petticoats Jim and Jacqueline are chums churns pals almost he has taught her to like cigarettes and champagne the grass widower and the maiden meet in hie rooms as though they the were man and boy made m comrades by b friendship Care has been beon be on taken to provide a Physically elegant actress s with a n lash fash fashionable air Margaret Dale so that Jacque shall not look unfeminine in her het masculinity of ot conduct con Her Hel forbidden visit to her boon friend ig is j twenty min ute long and the dialogue Is protract protracted ed wittily for tor the time mere t wits its sake salce but the cross purpose of itIs It is engrossing his reasons why she ought to betroth herself herselt to a younger fellow teno and her frank arguments why she alme would be beh happy h with him her insistence that tha their friendship Is mutual love until he heby het heby by telling tolling her the tIme lie that he has a u mis mistress tress convinces her that she is pile mis mistaken taken t ken Racy rumor abounds In fn the smaller persons and Incidents of ot play and some of them are farcical but the time passages In which the two bachel bachelors ors are together the dissembling his hia love loe and the maiden mulden asserting hers are comedy with Us Its points polished and Us its sentiment re refreshingly human If you would enjoy Dj De Lancey when wl n you see It try to put Thpmas rugged western dramas dr m 5 out of ot your mind and get into sympathy thy with his equally bold illustration of ot certain phases es of ot life lite In New York If you do that Jim and Jacque will viii entertain you If It you ou dont do that then you will think that Thomas is Ss loosening his grip instead of ot tightening it When Clyde Fitch wrote Her Own Way Vay for Maxine Elliott he created an American woman so angelic that the critical few would not deem her 1101 a hu human human man muan probability but the emotional majority revelled joyously In her hor inor inordinate Inordinate goodness and the play pia fixed Miss Elliott firmly among the stars There Therefore Therefore fore Fitch has put ut into Her Great Match a sister of the preceding hero heroine ine limea inea a twin sister bister in beauty to the time girl who had imad her own way if It Indeed Max Maxine ine Inc grow lovelier leveller every year It seems to me that Fitch had read In Jn Inthe the time newspapers about the German crown princes devotion to our Gladys Deacon of ot her bel haughty refusal of or a morganatic marriage and of the time ka hat kat mrs sers horrified interference when hen his lila son would woul renounce his of at the throne to wed her Time The astute Fitch marked that good dramatic stuff and tore the time page out On the back of it he lie found an account of some of ot Cas Cassie Cassie Casale sie ale Chadwicks of ot her Imer in innocent Innocent innocent husband and his imis faithful daugh daughter ter by a former fonner marriage and of the time possibility of prison for him as well aa as ht hl vicious wife Good for a n sub subplot subplot plot Fitch noted on that Having ac accumulated accumulated cumulated plot the time dramatist put nut it into a moonlit m conservatory for the matinee girls and ana the time very velY latest smart e evening gowns for the time matrons all an the while counting on Maxines beauty to entrance both sexes and all ages Primarily manly marily maril and principally prIncipal this play gives to the time feminine theatre visitor what she wants or most of ot her Perhaps you ou would know how Max Maxine ine Iso Elliott looks In Her Great Match before I tell you OU what she elme does She is as classically beautiful as the Venus of Milo Ullo with its arms on and the mar marble marble ble vivified to such richness of com corn complexion complexion that paint needed for the th stage exhibition In the time first act she wears a gypsy g ps costume because she is ia isa isa a 3 fashionable American girl telling tho the fortunes at a pound apiece at a Lon London London London don charity bazar Oh Ohm yes it Is all allaway allawa allaway away awa up In the English aristocracy name blown In the bottle Is a guarantee of genuineness Yet mere Americans may be permitted to doubt whether crown princes of German states no matter how small sit about at evening parties and crack fields jokes about the time dullness of the king business It may ma be remarked as to much that this especial smart set does that Fitch knows better But to get back to the time Maxine Having flirted In the time most fascinating modern way with the crown prince while white forecasting his future sho simo greets him In the second act more ra radiantly radiantly still sUII as to smiles and more ray as to beauty for this time sho she wears an evening gown She wanders with him in the time most exquisite of or con conservatories conservatories conservatories with a garden seat hidden by banks of ot roses a 8 Venetian fountain cooling a Cupid with Its spray waltz music heard dreamily T from a distance and an effulgent moon looking down through the time glass root roof Pardon me but butI I 1 feel teel bound to say that it Is Just too sweet for anything Dont construe me as belittling this comedy for or It serves its purpose and andas andas andas as to Miss Elliott by b earnestness and persistence she has advanced from mediocrity to proficiency as an actress from a waxen a en doll loll to a creature of flesh and blood also of ot heart and soul for dramatic uses She SIte vitalizes as fiS well weil as beautifies the mixed caramel love story sto In which she now figures And the comedy is regal real re al with the splendors of at a stalwart prince in court uniform and find a grand duchess with an H R H before her 1101 name and a jewelled tiara on her head This queenly personage did much to the tue dignity artistic as well as titular of some of tho the scenes She was an aunt to tIme the crown prince who wooed the American gI ii slid and sh lih went to London LOudon to break off fr th ma match oh or to compromise on QU u a mar I marriage Through all aU the ne no negotiations her official austerity was softened by her memory of a i romance of her own girlhood when a beautiful beautiful ful fat sentry with great blue eyes stood at her palace gate But she had neve questioned the time necessity under she sho ignored her heart and gave net her hand to a royal roal cousin Cot Cottrelly trelly treBy years agone a singer and man nina manager I Iager ager agor in German grand opera gave a t quaint German accent to the character chara ter also the skill of t an com coin comedienne come e ienne to the depletion depiction of pride with without without without out and the tender suggestion tion a heart once though now Withered by b royalty But she beat Maxine The prince mar j ned ried rl d time the American girl Hall Caine Calne and George Bernard Shaw are pitted here this week against Fitch i and Thomas The Englishmen nen have hae an advantage over the Americans AmerI ans through holding places in literary fame tame Caine Calne writes novels that sell immensely Shaw Sha writes books booM that while not ex extra extra tra saleable are calculated to get con consideration consideration and both are quick to write about their novels and themselves all aU that the newspapers will print Each practices the tho tricks of at pub publicity Caines portrait put out simul simultaneously sImultaneously with The Christian so re rc resembled the traditional pictures of ot Christ that he lie was accused of or purpose purposely ly iy enhancing the similarity with hair and beard eard and the tho discussion helped the tho business of ot the book Shaw de declared declared dared with such Buch an air all of ot seriousness that it was not taken as a joke that his plays were superior to Shakes s and there was w s advertising value alue in the ensuing ridicule Neither Fitch nor Thomas invites missiles from critics by posing on o literary pedestals yet y t that may not come of modesty but pf mf their lack Inck of the time pedestals to get nto for they the are arc playwrights merely While Caine Calne and Shaw are well I leave the time reader to pass upon their claims of genius There Is no need to let prejudice for or against Hall Caine affect ones Judg Judgment judgment ment meat of The Prodigal Son and mine Is that strong In the time novel it Is theatrically stronger in the drama I The T he author Is said to have haye written It simultaneously as a Q story and a play pIa II He Ho had ad drawn more money from the theatres theatres theatres atres for The TIme Christian and The I Eternal City than than from book stores I and It I was easy to pick out In reading rading i the print of ot The he Prodigal Son the I episodes designed for tor principal scenes I In the acting version i No 10 more In the time play pla than thanin in tIme the novel does Calne Caine ane respect the spirit or I lesson leson of ot Christs parable Two broth brothers ers era in Iceland Magnus and Oscar are good and evil evi two sisters Thorn Thora and Helga embody the seine same sno I the worthy w man loves and andis andIs andis is betrothed to the worthy woman but she loves the worthless one who gets her in wedlock and amid her wayward sister in adultery The father does not give the prodigal money to spend In riotous living but drives him from home and ad although the wanderer returns contrite he lie Is no n miserable tramp but rich and famous and the son who stays at home is not envious nor covetous but a a mar marvel marvel marvel vel of ot For you see however problematic and nd morally oral pur purposeful purposeful purposeful Caine Calne may purport to be he be Is ever and always a In his stage version erion of The Prodigal Son he is theatrical theatrical too Time The Te craftily effective scenes seene include notably the death of the wife ie crazed at the birth of other her child by grief at her er husbands and sisters perfidy and the decision of ot the enraged brother not to kill kf the time scoundrel as he has planned to upon finding him prostrate with remorse remore at ather ather ather her bier bler A showy showY Illustration Is made of the casino episode where Oscar cheats cheat at cards and runs away from disgrace The Time interest is not In Ina Ina Ina a hero 11 ro and a heroine as in The Chris Chils Christan Christian tian tan the four tour persons whose mating maUn and ad make the action of ot The Prodigal Son are of just about equal equla account count a and 1 only by assigning the sin sinister sinister ister later two roles to Aubrey and Drina De Wolfe oIe who are heartless In i manner and the suffering two to Edward J Morgan oran and amid Charlotte Walker who ho are soulful Is the audi audience audience ence saved from turning some of its sympathy If i not a 0 bit bi of approval now and ad then from the good ones to the tho to bad ones George Bernard Shaw Sha wrote Man and Superman In a u book although a comedy and he could have bave had ad no rea reasonable expectation that it would ever eer be b acted for or It was not until last year that Arnold Daly Dal T hit bit what he seemed sure to miss missa a considerable popular success with wih one of Shaws whimsical compositions c rp Daly appear to o be bethe bethe bethe the sort of chap to deliver delver such matter mater effectually A boyish clerk In the Froh Frohman Foh man nn m n offices he had asked for a small smal part In a play and had bad done so wel weli ell with it that he got another and soon he ime b was a good actor of or eccentric char characters characters characters but like most who disguise themselves In versatility he gained hardly any ay credit with wih the time public He sat around arund at the Lambs and talked dramatic art and literature but few listened and none heeded He went to managers and asked them tem to t nut out on Candida Cadia but they said pshaw to Shaw for even Mansfield failed to make anything of Arms and the theMan theMan theMan Man and none of ot them would risk so much as the or 60 that a matinee experiment would cost Daly was not nota a thrifty soul convivial rather and he capitalize his project even cen thus moderately but a n friend made the gamble as the showmen soy say and andi it i won out Daly found himself at once in a class with wih Mansfield Mans eld and Mrs Fiske in good art for good good arts sake and amid also with wih a more remunerative fol following following 01 lowing than the time faddists can of them themselves themselves themselves selves supply But he held no patent or copyright on and although he Is to soon take possession of ot a Broadway theatre for a season of Shaw plays plas some one else produces the one we see this timis week As printed Man and Superman was so long that two evenings evenings would give no more mor than time to perform It I unless by some process that would speed the show along as they do in the In one oneat of at its is five acts the characters went to hell hel and talked In the light and atmosphere of sulphur That cynicism lost in the condensation but we we get it i from speakers speaker in a nor normal normal |