New-York tribune., 1920-10-19
Helen Hayes Does
Something Less
Than Her Best
''Bab," Produced at Park, Is
Slight but Amusing, but
Not Half Good Enough
for the Featured Player
TIE CAsT
By Haywood Broun

Watching Helen Hayes, the eighteen
year-old heroine of Bah at the Park
Theater last night, made US realize
how dangerous the theater is for young
girls. Miss Hayes is an actress Of high
gifts, but unless she is very careful
and very firm the stage will get her
and make her its plaything, an inter-
prefer of cute parts, ascomic ingenue.
And any person who leads such life
for a few seasons stands an excellent
chance of being cast away like a
withered violet
To be sure, almost everything
that Helen Hayes does in "Bab" is
effective and some Of it is ve.y good.
The play is amusing, although it is
somewhat long drawn out for theme
and treatment which are essentially
trihing. 1t gets little silly before it
is done. Yet we have no hesitation in
recommending "Bab" as pleasant enter
tainment for rainy evenings. We don't
know that it is quite gooG enough to
keep any one indoors from full moons,
but after all it isn't always moonlight.
Probably Helen Hayes can do "Bab"
little bit better than anybody else in
the American theater, which is not
sufficient reason for her doing it over
any extended period. "Bab" should
not be her seasons stint. Miss Hayes
has . in her to be an uncommonly
fine actress. She may become merely
d glib one. With much in her per
formance last night which was joyous
ly amusing and deft, there were also
moments when she PLAYED for the easy
and sure laugh which comes to the
nj 1Il1
teen pound hammer and makes three
complete revolutions before letting the
blame thing 60
Of course, 1T is only fair to say that
not everything which Edward Childs
Carpenter, the dramatist of the Mary
Roberts Rlnehart stories, has put into
his play is sharp as spear heads. Yet
an actress does better to let them fly
just as they are without stopping to
grind out an edge. True also that the
Park Theater is rather big for so light
play as "Bab," but with all this there
is no getting away from the fact that
Helen Hayes is guilty of hammering
away now and again at lines and at
business.
OF course, when she does her best
she is almost Incompatible She has
everything, and when we meet her at
stand and deliver. Naturally we are
prepared to require of her all the gold
and silver and precious stones which
she carries. Canadian quarters and
such like she can keep. They jingle
but we must firmly request Miss Hay
to put them back in her purse and
give us the yellow metal There's no
concealng it. We saw the CLEAN.
Well, then, "Bab" presents a poten-
TALLY fine actress in play which gives
her some opportunities to be cnor-
mously amusing and again to be moth
ing more than good enough. The play
makes a rather skimpy story out Of
Mrs. Rinehart's sub-deb stories, which
themselves pressed a happy thought
rather far. The incidents of the play
arc generally much more diverting
than the whole, which is dubious math
ematics and play writing. The cast
is generally good. Tom Powers, who
iasnt nearly enough to do IS ex-
ceodingly pleasant. Lillian Ross, who
vas the Jane in Seventeen" vas good,
and Stephen Davis does very we'll with
small part