The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-10
Bits of Everything Figure in
at Happens to Everybody"
at Park Theatre.

There really ought to be a law against
love aairs In Central Park for the pro-
lection of theatre audiences. Some
times, as in "39 East" the Central Park
course in spooning will produce a
charming romance on which one cares
to listen, In. But when an accidental
collision in the hallowed precincts and
an ensuing amour result in a play like
81. Happens to Everybody" presented
at the Park Theatre last night, one
feels that the cops ought to get on the
Job for the good of the drama.
II. g. Sheldon, in writing this comedy
that William F.. Muenster produced,
strove to give II impetus with new
chemical dye. the formula for which its
inventor bequeaths to friend before
turning on the gas In his friends board
Ing house because the affections of his
girl do not prove as fast as the dye he
has discovered. The remainder of the
play ambles along with the attempts OF
thee hemists's friend, Donald Broom. to
preserve the intending suicides life in
spite of him. and the Vaccinations of
two business kings to wrest the dye
formula from Broom, as though the
fate Of empires hung on its rainbow
hues.
The playwright rises to the zenith of
the theatrical concept OF business IN sup
posing that two keen captains of indus
try are willing to go to any length In
order to get a chemical, represented as
better than Germany's best, that they
haven't even tested. Without intention.
possibly. the climax of the play actually
comes when one of them. wearing the
VI hiak NJ alt L..
the hero and tells him with inspired
frankness. You're a fool"
OF course, there is the sweet heroine
who meets the young man in the park
and who decides 10 help him fight her
wealthy father. regardless Of filial devo-
ton to the pater or the pater's bankroll.
Similarly the production Is loaded with
other dear, time honored types: the
sharp. boarding house landlady the
ugly, ludicrous servant: the grouchy
boarder. the irrepressible song writer
the boarding house siren and the youns
man. who believes his big chance to
make fortune 10 bound to happen to
him some day and proceeds to invite
success by talking like q great. rough
fellow to the great financier. his pros
pective father-in-law.
There 10 much talk in the play about
gas, but one rather regrets seeing a
playwright satiriEe his own work like
this, even unconsciously. The comedy
becomes more and more confused. so that
| finally a spectator falls 20 wondering II
some fumes haven't drifted across the
footlights and made him dizzy. The
author piles on the improbabilities, and
when one sees the sweetheart who is
supposed TO have driven the chemist to
suicide. ono is willing TO swoon.
The play Is chemically impure. for the
sleeping powder that the inventor takes
to avoid smelling the nauseous gas is
IN reality intended to save his life-but
II hardly seems possible that even that
wizard, the stage property man. could
compound drug that would combat
asphyxiation. The play has amusing
moments. but most OF the time it threat
ems to have the same effect on the
auditor as that powder. James Gleason
was even more cheeky than the usual
rising young stage fnancier: William Z.
Meehan was lost as the song writer, and
Josephine Stevens as the heroine, despite
her artistic inexperlence, was so pretty
and alluring that she was the only thing
that really happened in 1T Happens to
Everybody"