Show N I N w York Players Players' Club Offers i. i Becky Sharp as Annual Revival New v York Theatre News Y SEYMOUR NEW YORK YORK Each Each June the layers layers' club brings to life Ute for one short week some stage success ss of years ears ago The annual revival is an en obeisance to the past a gesture gesture- o of homage at nt th the door of or the theatres theatre's theatres theatre's the the- atres atre's treasure re house a time r for r remembering remembering the forgotten plays and players of Yes yesterday erlay J. J This year the play is Becky Sharp harp Langdon l Mitchells Mitchell's ll's year 40 old dramatization of ot Thackeray's enduring novel novelS Vanity Fair Pair And th the Players Players' brief presentation of ot S It jt has close won to ti unanimous a ac acclaim acclaim ac- ac claim as the best of of the clubs club's re reVIvals revivals re- re hals since the Inauguration of or the theS S ii series ries' ries seven years ago The story of the rise and fall faU of Rebecca Sharp has lost little during dur dur- ing the years since Ince Mitchell ell shaped It the most successful draI dramatization latiz lati- lati S z U n ever eyer made of th the Thackeray masterpiece Tonight's ht's audiences audiences' may not get Its as excited as-excited excIted over Becky's unscrupulous lous bus conduct as did those who j watched Mrs Fiske enact the young 4 adventuress a generation ago but bul but they 1 follow with ith quite as af much in interest In- In terest her hei ascent from governess to English court f favorite and her er det deI de- de t I cline dine cline at last to brandy garret garret garret gar gar- ret wench Mary fy f y Ellis Is the Becky Sharp of I th the Players Players' revival a a. worthy heir heir- heiress 2 y ess of the par part playe played t. t with f r i tion by Mrs Fiske and ind Marie 5 Tempest Rawdon Crawley h her l S drinking bard gambling always always- S debt In-debt soldier wastrel husband is in the hands of Basil B sU sil Sydney HisS His S role Is one first enacted by Maurice B Barrymore Moffat l Johnst Johnston n plays the Marq Marquis ls of ot Ste ne a part in which theat theatregoers ego rs rs' rs of f other seasons seasons seasons' have seen T Tyrone trone Power George U and nd Jh the lat late Holbrook BUnn Cecilia Loftus Loftus' as the spinster Miss rUss Crawley Patricia ColUnge Collinge as Amelia Ame- Ame me- me lia ha ia Sedley Donald Brian as Lieutenant Lieu- Lieu tenant Osborne and James Janes T. T Powers Powers Pow- Pow ers rs as the shriveled Sir Pitt Crawley Crawley Craw- Craw ley ey are among others otherl worth namIng nam- nam Ing ng in the cast of fifty Dudley DIgges directed the piece and ind Robert tobert Edmond Jones tash fash- its settings including a a. particularly particularly par- par rich one In the second act wherein the Duh Duch Duchess ss of Richmond's Richmonds ball all in itt Brussels is is' is broken brokel up by bythe bythe the he booming of ot cannon which herald herald her her- ald aid the beginning of the battle of or Waterloo That picture is one to remember The soldiers soldier's fly to their ther posts and the he women to their carriages s quitting quitting quit- quit ting Ing m in haste hasta the scene of reveir by jy night Becky alone alon under the treat great chandelier hears the troops marching to the battlefield amid the blaring of bugles bugles' and the tempo of bands In an hour sh she sighs be dying for their country Im I'm Im I'm dy dying dy- dy ing my nS breakfast te ka t The Tho Players' Players club has come como in two forty-two year years years' to wear a a. mantle mantl of tradition rooted in lna a past remote f from m the theatre of ot today Edwin Booth founded the cub club in his f if ty fifth ye year r an and gave ave to i it as a clubhouse his Ids home on Gramercy Gram Gram- ercy Park which it still stilt occupies together with his own art rt collac coupe coupe- tion and library O Of the sixteen to to- to o. o founders of the th club the last las Brander Matthews died only a few I month ago In In all aU its Us history th the club ha has I I Had but ut four fou presidents Booth th the first served until his death Jn In 1893 Joseph Jefferson who succeeded succeeded him him also died In office in 1905 Th The third president John Drew ew b he held ld the p pest st for tw two twenty Ye years years until rs his is passing two wo summers ummer ago Th h present president I Is Walter Ramp Ramp- amp amp- den Becky Sharp is incidentally al although although al- al though based upon pon an English novel noyel the first American playwrights playwright's work to be lie chos chosen Chon n by by- bythe the Players for an annual revival Two To earlier revivals Trelawney of the Wells VeIls and The Beau 1 Stratagem have been taken on tour under George Tylers Tyler's auspices after their weeks week's run here perhaps that friend of fine old plays will find a way to do as much for Becky Sharp and andor for or a s generation that knows her not |