Evening star., 1932-10-30
New York Welcomes First
Dramatic Hit of Season
Kaufman-Ferber Play, Dinner at Eight" Seems
Destined for Long Run and Happy and Use
full Future re"-Fine Points of the Production.
By Percy Hammond.

TINE hirth of another Broadway
giant has been accomplished and
VIVA threatened to Become &
L Ch-cnic gloom is now elatlon.
Like one Of those sudden joys
that cut Of darkness start as flames
from ashes" the new Kaufman-Ferber
work, Dinner at Eight" sprung full
formed last week. ready to shoulder the
burden of dramatic entertainment
Blessed by the first nighters and sub
merged in the critics holy ointments.
it began life under what are known as
propitious circumstances. All the
augurs who were present sang OF its
strength, its humor, its beauty. its
brilliance, its intelligence, and hailed
it as the rainbow beam that smiles the
clouds away AS one of the minor voices
il that choir I can but reiterate my i'm
pl 3ions that Dinner at Eight" is one
Of fortunes favorites, bred in Broadway'S
deepest purple, conscious Of its heavy
responsibilities and equipped to dis
charge them thoroughly. If. in the
show businesses infinite book of sec
recy little 1 can read" join the other
''prognosticators," as Juno's Paycock
calls them, in predicting for Dinner
at Eight" a long, happy and useful
future.
Although they are in the show busi-
ness. Miss Ferber and Mr.. kaufman
are not altogether of il. Their en-
tertainments, both in literature and the
drama are proudly differential rather
than obsequious, never bending the
pregnant hinges Of the knee unless IN
their wisdom they consider i TO be
necessary If, fCr instance. they MAKE
Miss Constance Collier as a blowsy eX-
American actress, refer to customs
house inspector in words that I am
forbidden even to asterisk, they 90 so
reluctantly. in the interest OF diversion
and accuracy. Every line in a play"
said Augustus Thomas, one OF the
dramas most sagacious granddaddies,
should advance a situation, develop a
character or provide a laugh" This
indelicate speech of Miss Golfers,
though it must cost her and the authors
much anguish, performs at least two of
these important functions. 1t makes
en- laugh and it illustrates a character.
I suspect that I am now tempting my
more curious and innocent subscribers
to visit Dinner at Eight" in order to
hear Miss Collier pronounce the
naughty words. If SO. l shall not re-
gret for they are harmless vivid. hu-
morous, startling and to the manner
born. And I have the ancient Shake
spearen consolation of knowing that
nothing in any play is as guilty as It's
audience.
In Dinner at Eight" We see the
super-elegant Mrs. Oliver Jordan Miss
Ann Andrews in the throes of organiz-
ing banquet for some titled visitantS
from Great Britain. Mrs. Jordan is
very sybaritic as she sits at here tele-
phone. arrayed in garments fashioned
by the modiste angels, and wires her
prospective guests. Among those are a
declasse cinema hero, an opulent ad-
ventures of the stage. one of her sickly
and bankrupt husbands intensely vul-
gar business associates and his gutter
snipe wife, platinum blonde. Mrs.
Jordan is anxious to do well by the
British pilgrims, for she has met them
at Antilles with Michael Arlen. Willy
Vaughan. Bee Lille. H. G.. Wells and
Alex Woollcott. and she wishes to show
them the U. S. A. at its best.
Therefrom, the play proceeds through
10 dovetailed episodes, exhibiting the
several characters as they wend their
various ways to her dining room. The
clustering capitalist is shown in odious
alterations with his insect bride, who
makes vermin love to a cock roach
N Y. physician. The old actress miss
Collier) lops herself about with sea
lion gestures and ululations brandish-
ing her loose tongue and betraying her
best friends with genial animality. The
drunken, sawdust actor, the windy
fnancier. the lobster-aSpic and the
pretty waitress and the English guests
of honor telegraph at the last moment
that they cannot come All of this may
seem to be chaos. but it IS soothed and
regulated by Miss Ferber and Mr
Kaufman