Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-03
mua-ALFRED LuNTandI LYNN FoNTANNE-
Nj CaPricee classification
THE BROADWAY DRAMA
BY Percy Hammond.

! lover might be worried about the where
abouts of his wandering offspring. can
see Mr. Standing, as John r. Weather.
| by, creeping back to his chateau in
Greenwich, Conn, and pleading with
his abandoned wife to excuse his alb
Sence. Meanwhile Miss Cowl, as Jenny
Valentine, the prominent actress, might
be listening to William A. Brady or Gill
bert Miller as he reads to her promis-
ing manuscript by Noel Coward or John
Galsworthy, Plays begin and they con-
tinue, but they are never finished.
VINCENT LAWRENCE, author OF
Among the Married" complains
gently that the dramatic critics do not
grasp the significance of his serious
comedy at the Bijou. 1t is his intention.
he says, to offer cure for inf1dellty.
to explain to nonplussed brides ana
| bridegroomS how to love happily ever
after. What better purpose, he asks
can a dramatist have than to solve the
puzzles that beset the minor matri-
monies. Miss Katherine Wilson there.
| fore appears as the devoted wife OF
Frank Morgan as New York business
man who worshipS her, but who is fono
of a Spanish dancer also. Though not
at heart wicked man, he is not deaf
to the appeals of sex. He tries his best
to be decent, but temptations beset him
| from several directions, and it l. his
habit to fall. In one OF his stronger
moments he succumbS to the pleas OF o
| neighbours hungry wife miss Peggy AL
lenby) and is caught by his own wife
while answering them.
Thereupon that virtuous matron re.
bels He is what is known as SAD
disappointment to her; and in mood
; of revenge she sullenly gives herself to
! one of the handsomest of the suburbs
enlargement, q good golfer, with
! feeble conscience. She boasts OF this In.
fidelity to her husband, feeling that II
makes her equal to him in what Mr..
Shaw calls the battle of the sexes. so
there they are at the end of the play.
She, If understand MIR. Lawrence's ex-
PLANTATION, frightens him with threats
of unfaithfulnesS; while being herself
afraid that he will continue ms asten-
tons to other females That, dubious
truce seems to be Mr.. Lawrence's idea OF
satisfactory relationship between man
and wife. Mr.. Mcclellan, the ancient
librettist of The Belle of New York"
spoke q similar predicament when his
soprano sang to his tenor.
When We are married, how happy We =
For IN be as true, love, as you'll be TO me.
Even If the hidden meaning Of
Among the Married Is elusive, you
may find it an up-to-date picture OF
complex existence in the upper suburbs.
It is quite vivid sex show; but Sus-
pect you will be annoyed here and there
by Mr.. Lawrence's indifference to minor
truths. The people in the play are
well-to-do $4,000 or $4,000 per yer
persons. expanding their incomes with
no tremors for q rainy day. Yet they
bicker and cheat and are stingy about
borrowed bottle Of gin. They haggle
over 1t, as If they were dogs and 1t was
bone. Mr.. Lawrence, being b prohibi-
ZIONIST, probably does not know that q
quart of gin Is about as prtc ,less ire the
neighborhood OF his play as a cup of
coco-cola. 49,. II the Drama, as
Mrs. Barnes Of Jenny" naively sus-
poets, is mirror Of life, these prosper
Gus and sophisticated Long Islanders
would have their cellars fun Of ales,
wines and liquors. The play has my
confidence. more or less until that mo-
nent In which the Mills butler appears
In the patio and says, II am sorry that
can make you no cocktails, but I
have nothing to make cocktails with"