| Show First Night rs See S e Each Other O Often ten ten- r I But Gush Like Oil all Wei Wells Is at Opening By Jack Gaver Gayer NEW YORK UP The UP-The The members members mem mom bers of the tile first night club that unofficial clique of New Y Yorkers of the theater society journalistic musical and literary worlds repeatedly repeatedly re re- re- re bump into each other at play openings like popcorn in the same pan but they never fail to give the impression that It has been eons since they clasped hands hand hugged bunny-hugged bussed or all over the premises When they met Monday night at the opening of ot The liThe Duke in Darkness by Patrick Hamilton at atthe atthe atthe the Playhouse it was the first time their paths had crossed in 10 0 nights and the gush was enough to pu put a solvent oilfield to shame There are three more openings this week and it will be the same every night But generally speaking it it was wasa a well-behaved well audience Only a handful of stragglers straggler arrived after the curtain rose at disclosing Edgar eyeing a chess problem problem lem and Philip Philp Merivale pretending to be blind the intermissions passed with a minimum of smoke fumigating the auditorium as a a result of the routine flouting the fire l laws ws and the ushers' ushers admonitions admonitions admonitions ad ad- monitions to smoke only in the lobby and not ii If in the rear of or the orchestra only one couple left after the second act and most of the customers remained seated to give the cast half dozen a curtain curtain curtain cur cur- tain calls Things were equally uneventful onstage where the single setting was an appropriately depressing room high in the Chateau LaMorte LaMorre in France where Hamilton and the male all-male cast unreeled a story about political int intrigue during the civil wars about 1580 The tall taU well-voiced well Merivale was pretending to be the duke of and who is bound to turn up in almost any costume u u drama was na J his ma factotum U u u na J ma U both rounding out 15 years of unjust unjust unjust un un- un- un just imprisonment by the cruel duke of LaMorre who was robust robustly ly portrayed by Louis Hector who has been feignIng feignIng feigning feign feign- ing blindness and lameness for five years in hopes of pulling an escape suddenly gets aid from one of ot LaMorre's henchmen goes mad and h has s to he ne put out i of the way with poison to prevent him from queering the game an an anil L t finally walks out a free man f The play has been a great aup cess cesa in London It has been well weli produced and well acted here but there has been too little in It for fOft American tastes f Hamilton whose Angel Street was vas performances old here l last t Saturday is preparing a drama drama- of his novel Hangover ango eri Square which should pack more mor more interest into a a single scene than than J there Is In all of the three acta acts of The Duke The Playhouses Playhouse Is s a favorite theater of mine The Thedoor Thedoor Thedoor door marked Gentlemen leads toa t ta to a smoking room practically paired papered pa pa- pored ired with old ld playbills t e |
