New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-02-26
Il, ARTHUR HI.

HUl .... ............. Ford Wilson
Tom. ............... George Stilman
Minnie spring ............ Gladys Coburn
u, ARTHUR RJHI.
il was rare and delightful experience
that the audience at the Thirty-ninth
Street Theatre were permitted 10 enjoy
last night They came to see a comedy
by Nj Frank Craven Too Many Cooks,
and. astonishinGly enough. they saw
comedy. There was neither raucous sen
satioualism on the one hand, nor, on the
other, the vapid hanalities Of some such
made to-order family play" as The
Things That Count" but quiet search
ing, genial humor. the real feelings OF
comfortable, everyday, understandable
people.
1t was one OF those rare pieces which
deserve all the sweet and lovely adjec-
tives which managers generally save for
plays which any thinking person could
as soon think OF sitting through as OF
swallowing bushel of cream puffs, yet
which the average civilized stay-at-home
citizen can safely 90 20 without checking
/ his intelligence with his hat. And 1t was
and all the delightfully."- funny.
The curtain rises on the foundations OF
a small suburban house. Albert Bennett
an ordinary young slave in a New York
Office. is building IL. lie is going TO lie
married. and this has been his dream-a
place actually his own-"a place you can
do anything YOU want to with and nobody
can stop you
/ As he tells his bachelor friend. An
/ drews. about it. the audience learns IN
a perfectly simple and always humorous
way how much it means &c him, feels
I the brave idealism Of the young folks
! Just starting out on their great adventure.
/ Presently We meet Alice Cook, the pretty
young girl he is engaged to- and her
rather chilly. cynical but sharp-tonsued
, friend. Miss Ella Mayer. And then comes
/ the dreadful family.
The Young man had gone thus far with
( ont knowing or thinking much about
! Alce's family. He had met her in a
downtown restaurant where Office men
and office girls like Alice-went for their
! lurcheons, after one Of those rather ro-
mantle but not uncommon little happen
/ ings which in the laundering whirlpool
of a great city sometimes bring two peo-
pie together
There were nine of the Cooks beside
| Alice and they were a terrifying lot, 10
be sure They all arrive on the scene OF
! the house raising in the middle Of the
! first act. TO look the young man over and
tell him and Alice Just how to build. ar
range and furnish their house.
But already the audience have descried
on the horizon that CLOUD no bigger
than A mans hand"-and it is charac-
teristic example Of the simple means
| through which Mr. Craven gets his ef-
| fects. Bennett had told with quietly hui
morous but very genuine enthusiasm
] about the little den he intended to have
+ on the second floor-"Nou know he en-
pIained 10 Andrews. "a place where
man can go with his Sunday papers, and
/ smoke and drop his ashes on the floor
and nobody cares" \ moment later the
} equally enthusiastic Alice is explaining
/ about the same room to her friend. Ella.
/ That" says she, is where I'm COINS TO
I have my sewing room.
Sewing room repeats the young man
quietly; you mean my den, don't YOU
dear?" Den. says Alice, with soft sur
prise. "Oh no. dear: my sewing room
II is not easy to suggest the quaint
/ humor Of such simple remarks or the
vistas they open up. as they arc PLAYED
by the droll Mr.. Craven and the very
charming Miss Inez Plummer. Mr.. cray
en- is dry and untheatrical always,
simple hard working young Office slave
as likeable as he is quantity funny. MISS
pmmmer is as fresh and nice as can be
untheatrical. too. and as dead in earnest
as he. And the simple, genuine lines and
action. combined with their genuine way
( Of plaving. comes home to the spectator
with a reality not usually felt in the
theatre.
/ Little clouds like that Of the den
/ sewing room dispute gather and thicken'
/ thanks to the Interference. we'll meant or
not. OF one outsider and another. and end
finally. with the close of the second act
IN separating the young lovers. as il
! seems. for good and all II is the bust
! ness Of the third act to bring them to-
/ geihcr. task which the author accom-
| plishes with scarcely diminished fun. all
| though a trine less oXpeditiously, perhaps,
/ than he might
( After being wclnigh deafened with the
Z
/ there are a dozen points of departure in
the first act for this familiar raucous
play of domestic disagreement-and hear
I inc femnists Of one sort and another eX-
I plain what is wrong in the home. IT is
peculiar pleasure 10 come across an au-
/ thor with the understanding eye VINO can
/ take such a situation as this and handle
/ il lightly. yet with a warm and nourish-
4 ing humor In Craven may well be very
proud. He mas written a delightful little
comcdy-thcrc is continuous amusing
! bvplay alongside the main cpisode-and IN
I his performance OF the leading part ne
creates a character fully as amusing and
rather more legitimate" than the
/ Jimmy" he played I'm Mr.. BroadhurstS
Bought and Paid For"
Miss Inez Plummer Is unusually at
/ tractiye as :he girl-not only to look A.
| but TO listen to-and one of the pleasant
things about her manner Of speech is that
she uses the liquid letter "r' instead OF
cutting II out altogether or turning IL
! into the various cockncy diphthOnss gen
orally heard i'm New Work. MI John
I cromwell was amusingly cooi and SELF
| posse as the skcpticai bachelor
| friend. and Miss Eva condor similarly
! successful de the cold-blooded Ella. IN
] 80 a. n hos. cast WAS good. MI