The New York herald., 1922-12-25
" Why Not9" Scores
Ripping Success
at First Showing
Williams's Comedy With the
Equity Players Proves
Sparkling Satire.

After two false starts at the Forty
eighth Street Theater the Equity Players
got off with rush in-"Why Not?' on
Saturday night To Jesse Lynch VIII
Jams goes the palm for having written
the most brilliant. the most pollshed
and the most consistently amusing COM
edy of the season. and for having had
the courage of his contradictions
In writing a companion piece TO ms
notable "Why Mary of six years
since, Williams has chosen the diverse
side of his Pulitzer prize medal. He
has inquired into the necessity OF hav-
ing a divorce in the honey Taking only
two couples this time instead of the
serried ranks of marital aspirants in his
earlier comedy. he has put them through
their PAGES In miSmated matrlmony,
cracking the whip of his wilt over them
1t seems as if all wedlock must totter
under the shafts of his satire. with
side strokes for the church. yet the IN
stitution OF honest marriage is only the
more biaced by the sparkling shower
bath of dialogue he turns on 1t,
"Why Not? is paradoXical, and yet at
bottom the personages in 1t are acting
Thoroughly within their rights. In seek
ing the sanest way out of their unhappy
married tangles they merely look TOT
the truth amid a welter of confusion
regardless of how many conventions
topple around them. 1t is Shaw at MS
soundest and Wilde, at his widest the
comedy is weghty and witty. efferves-
cent but not,' evanescent. While cpl
grams seem pushed almost to the limit
they never crack under the strain.
One man in the audience last night re-
marked audibly, But this situation is
impossible" but he may have been or
the opposite faith among actors. Given
the basic assumptions--set forth with
admirable exposition--the clearly drawn
characters march logically to their goal.
An impecunious poet and his practical
but inharmonious wife are forced to take
positions as butler and maid at coun-
try home, and discover that the discon-
tented master and the dreamy mistress
of the house are the true loves whom
they had left fifteen years before In
order to marry and live unhapAily ever
afterward. In matter OF fact fashion
each of the four decides to get divorced
and pair off with his true love--a sly
poke at the dogma of 'the mating or
opposites" Instead of the customary
awakening in the last act to find they
really love their first spouses they go on
| adoring their suitab BILE second choices, as
the average stage puppet would do X al
| lowed to think for himself
They are never talky. though some one
Is always talking. The second act Is
the ideal second act laid down in the
| dramatic text books, and yet it lives
This refreshing but airy play indeed
! seems written In an offhand manner. but
! that Is because all the while the dra-
matist is beguiling You with his dexter
-ity Its characters. are constantly hover
ing over points of jealousy that in actual
existence sometimes lead to shooting and
always lead to it in melodrama. Yet
they are as polite as the figures In VAN
| ity Fair" A large part of the charm
of the production lay in watching the exs
cellent cast play quite difficult roles with
the ease and nonchalance OF having
grown up In them. They struck just the
right key--they had the suavity of bar
| bers.
| Tom Powers seemed over young as
| the poetic father of a flapper. for he
seemed to have graduated from college
| just the minute before. But he played
Leonard Chddioick with the right air
| of q frightened deer. Jane Grey brough.
poise and attractiveness to the part of
Epadne, his affinity. though she and the
winsome Margaret Mower might have
| exchanged roles to advantage. Cecil
Yapp stood forth as a pettifogging
, lawyer, determined nobody should
divorce and typifying the self-righteous
who are eminently wrongheaded. Every
once In so often Norma Mitchell would
explode n depth bomb into ones risibii-
tiles Warburton Gamble as the sports
manlike husband; Raymond Guion as
his odd son, and Marguerite Churchill
as the very modern but still lovable
| Chad0ick girl. were also in the pic
| ture.
Mrs Shelley Hull and o. p, Heggic
have staged the piece finely, though in
clined to seep up the tempo at times.
One would like a pause occasionally, to
tuck away a lineS for future reference.
The quasl-artificial scene in the first
act. when the Chddioicks vie with each
other to commit suicide for their daughS
ter's sake. was so hurried as to be-
come artificial. IT Is a mad world, my
masters, but a beautiful one.
]