New-York tribune., 1921-11-02
The New PLAY
By Percy Hammond
Lionel Atwill in ssThe Grand
Duke at the Lyceum, Is
Regal and Humorous
in a Quiet, Domi-
mating Fashion
THE CAST

MlCnaSlONltCn.
Lionel Atwell
Michel Alexis ............ Morgan Farley
Veriniilon ..,.......,...,.. John l.. Shine
Servant .........,.. II. Percy Woodley
Hotel Page ............. Edwin Dupont
Mile. Martinez ............L Lima Aba rbanell
Marie Vermillon ............ Vivian Tobn
Lionel Atwill, as you know, is pre-
eminen. in the impersonation of dis
tinguished men of forty. His mien and
bearing are notable and quietly con-
roles by sure urbanity, no matter
how imposing their contents.
Noble earls, members of Parliament,
ENJOYS, plenipotentiaries major gen
erals, Pope, perhaps, or a Secretary
of Commerce, beat upon him no light
so fierce that he cannot reflect it back
He treads with security the precari-
Gus rim between mere elegance and
real distinction, and l suspect that he
could have, the other day, paraded
Fifth Avenue in the place of Admiral
Lord Beatty, and that few among the
so-called cheering multitude would
HoFo HuSHeO lAelI, III HaHHeT OIL
speaking, hosannas, because they would
not have discovered the counterfeit.
X * x
Therefore, in Sacha Guitry's "The
Grand Duke" at the Lyceum, MIR. At
will, cast as castoff, Partisan Ro-
manoH, filled the ducal mold and did
not overflow it. AS kinsman to the last
of the imperial carnivora, as Edgar
Saltus called the erstwhile Russian
rulers, he was wiser and wittier than
they and he wore his spats, emitted his
worldly axioms and mixed his own
salad dressing with the elaborate suav-
ity which marks the patrcian from the
bourgeoisie.
He addressed his breakfast sturgeon
in the azure accents of deposed and
philosophical princeling; and he ad-
mitted his illegitimate progeny with
an insouciance possible only to those
bred in the deep purple. When he saw
an epigram approaching he saluted it,
royalty rather than with Difference
even though it was limping and an
cient. He was, to the ultimate detail
except the whiskers, the whilom Grand
Duke of Moscovy. manipulating his
Partisan past from the Ritz in the
Place Nendome.
Having thus enthused over Mr.. At
Wills Characterization of a grand duke
one may now suggest that the play in
which he was the principal participant
at the Lyceum last night was but a
vacuous silhouette, as are nearly all
adaptations from the French into Eng
lish. Mr.. Belasco's worthy legerde-
main, of course, transformed it into
something credible; it was done as we'll
as it was possible for it to be done
on these gaunt shores. But, despite
the masters wand, it remained, in my
opinion, an empty and a spurious thing.
Mr.. Atwill strove reticently to please
with such cynical observations as 81
never feel what / think, and / never
think what feel" and "ls she telling
the truth! NO. why! Because she IS a
woman" He gracefully aspersed Eve at
every opportunity, and he was full Of
such remarks as "Love is like" ~.
Passion is like =. :" "Women are
like :" You know the sort.
Vi -
The Grand Dukes function in the
play was to supervise the romantic re-
lations between his son by an opera
singer Miss Lima AbarbanelD and the
naive daughter (Miss Vivian Tobin) Of
a rich and vulgar Partisan (John L.
Shine). Also the matrimony of lis
| former mistress and the mother Of his
! child, with the father of his sons
betrothed. He did it all with fine
and restrained elaborateness. Miss
Tobin, as the susceptible ingenue, was
attractive and thoroughly American;
and her sweetheart, played by Mr. Nor
gan Farley, was breathless, snappy and
ardent. Such honors as the Acadamy
gave him for his mauve verse, you
! think, must have been for nursery
.I..x INV ia bic ch q q