The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-04
THE DRAMA IN NEW YORK.
By Louis Le Brun.)

"A Pair of Sizes is a farce in three deals by Edward Peple which mas been drawing a full house 10 the I,oneacre Theatre. One might, 1T one were not utterly ignorant Of the ian- suage of the great American cara game. describe "A Pair of Sizes as royal flush or, at the least, as quad-s 1aHtieate aces. The comedy staEtf 4- v-zzrs kh much hilarity that 1t seems 5mprobabie that it can keep up the pace, but MT. PepIe at all times mas an ace up his sleeve, and plays It whenever the fun begins to nag.
 The story of the play, as gathered between gasps of laughter.' IS some what as follows: T. Boggs John ana George B. Nettleton are partners in the piII-Inanufacturin business. Their sspillory'' turns out the pill ethat fills the bilr' in large and pro1- itabIe quantities, to the great pros 1aer5tv of the owners. The latter are at loggerheads, each claiming the credit for the success Of the bus1ness,s each anxious to be, rid of the otner' but neither willing to separate him self from the steady stream of pronIs that flow from the '.pillory- Into 4fKs situation a lawyer injects himselI, lawyers have a habit of doing when naffners, commercial Ort rnatr1InOhiai, fall out This legal lunlnaIy nap mems to be in love with a girl to whom rT Fsoees John has been pay1nS marked attentions, and he contrlves a scherpe to rid himself Of a rival Wnlie s,t the same time annexing a rlch rec Tn the working out of this neat little 7,lau he formulates contract which Drovifes that hand of a game called ncnxer is to be played, with the pill partners as participants, the loser 70 retire from the, management ana 4,roffts of the bushes for period or pne year during which time he is also fo aet as a servant in the household x,f fhxs victor The lawyer dealt the cards, and to my dying day. will sus- pect that legal sharp of stacking them and giving poor old T. Boggs John n raw deal In any event, and De that as it may, George B. Nettleton held the winning hand--a pair of si
 IL Bozes is a game 'un, and. grow zne or otherwise obtaining possession e,f a. pair of sideboards on his face, he szoes to work as a butler in the home 5 of his partner. While he IS buttllng he arouSes the passionate admiration of a feaIow servant, one Coddles, maid of all work who is English as to nationality and uncertain as to age The amorous pursuit of the butler py Coddles Is one of the most amusing features of a very amusing comeoy- |; RoRxs John. in an effort to discourage FI,e attentions of Codd1es. tells her that he killed his third wife dehber- rste7v and in cold blood and with mal- Ice aforethought, but Coddles only ventures to wager tuppenee that the Fs1-rv deserved it. The wicked part ner and the schenning lawyer feel sure that T. BoEgs Will violate his contract and thus lost his share in the piA bus mess before the year is up, but the villains are foiled by T. Bogg's sweet. heart, who comes to thesrescue and saves her lover from his unfortunate Dredfcament and Codd1es.
 ~A Pair of Sixes' is red-blooded humor and boisterous fun from be ginning to end- The author of The IiffIest Rebers and .'The Prince Chap has departed utterly from his former style and methods. but "A Pair of Sixes,'s in its way, is better than it's predecessors from the ,Peple pen
 ..Maids of Athens is ofieially de- scribed as a comic opera by Franz Lehar. of Merry Widow fame. and Victor Leon. done into English by Carolyn Wells. It is all full of prin- ces and Drincesses and bandits and limited States navy officers and ban 7ifs and de-teok-a-tiffs and bandits and guides and pretty girls and tour ists and more bandits The prince doubled as a brigand, but the audi ence refused to double up with laugh ter, although fully assured in the pro- gram that the production was of a .scoraic'' nature. One of the most in feresting things about the piece is the mystery which 6nSnrOuQS the tlLfo. The Athenian maidens given so much prominence on the billboards may have been present, but they were not properly tagged and labeled, and so we ware unable to identify thern- The Prince of Parnes, who is a king of mountain brfgands when not working at the prince job, was admirably played by Albert Pe1Iaton- The stage setting was good, and the music fair to excellent, When the Heart Is Young being especially good. Tho comedy detectives might have been borrowed from the Beef Trust bur lesque cast-whfch is not intended as a knock on that excellent drammer, ssThe Beef Trust, ,'' but only to say that they were out of place in a com fc opera imported from Europe. As snfor the Athenian maids, they are probably cousins of Mrs. Harris.
 Sam Bernard, who is we'll past fifty and still going strong, shares head liner honors with Gaby Deslys in ssrhe Belle of Bond Street" The veteran comedian is English by birth, aI- though his parents came to America when Sam was four years old. As a toddler he was stage struck, and gave performances in his fathers woodshed at which the admission fee was based on a pin and marble medium of ex- change. It was nearly forty years ago that Sam made his professional debut in a hve-cenf basement theatre which s1oried in the imposing name of the Grand Duke Theatre. Sam did knockabout comedy singing and dancing act in company with his brother Dick Thirty years ago Sam