The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-04-18
In New York
BY PAUL HARRISON

New York-The worst play with in the living memory of any the- ater-goer has opened in Manhat- tan. And is, can promise you, a riot.
 With & delft little cutting here and there together with same re- phrasing of the few credible lines,, "The Girl From Childs'," as pre-. scented by the Nudist Theater GuilA can be made still more terribls. Probably these changes are beiEs made as I write this, but I'll never know for sure. One case of third degree mysteries is my seasons quota.
 The Nudist Theater Guild, as this department has mentioned before, is composed of an odd as- sortment of performers who have the skin game. Like good nNld- ists, though, they prove themselves capable of carrying on under ridi- cule. For presentation they select ed an old ten-twent -thirt' comedy and had it revised by 8 man named Arthur Baer. Skinny costumes by Eaves (net Eyes Costume Com pany. Music by Al Bennett's Nud- ist orchestra, clad in brief scarlet trunks. Nudist cocktails provided by the management during inter- missions. Choicest wise-crack pro- vided by the audience.
 
 COnvuIsing.
 At the same hour that bill outlaying nudism in New York legislature at Albany, the Guild made it's bow in one. of Manhat- embarrass the entertainment en- terprise, however. because the per- formers were adequately, though grotesquely, clad. Adequately, at least, in comparison to the stark daring of dancers and strip-teas- CTS in the night clubs and bur- lesque houses.
 The first two acts were played under full lights and were notable mainly for their tediousness and for whatever value there was in the incongruity of hearing drawing room dialogue mouthed by people wearing striped scanties. The dow ager Mrs Stuyvesant Wood was an awesome figure in a strip of laveIi- der lace, and Lord Something-or- Other Dorchester achieved sartor- ial distinction in pair of trunks embroidered with his family crest.
 During each intermission word was passed that the customers hadn't seen nothin' yet, and that impatience should be restrained until the third act. The final scene, in a nudist camp, was to be played completely al fresco. Meanwhile the intervals were enlivened by such members of the nudist orches- tra as didn't play wind instruments. The latter musicians were so em- barrassed by the hilarious jibes of spectators that they couldn't play for giggling.
 Audience Runs Show.
 The third act was presented under low lights and behind a gauge curtain. The curtain, os- tensibly for the diffusion of visi- bility, may have been a protective measure like the net behind which the Cherry Sisters used to work. Anyway, the performers still wore a strip of pink something here and there.
 Nobody minded in the least, for by this time the audience had practically taken over the play. Speeches from the stage could not have offended even John s. Sum- ner, but risque. ad libbing and crackled from the other direction. Judging by the patiness of some of those convuls- ing lines. suspect the manage ment of having planted a couple of stooges in the audience.
 Anyway, an hilarious time seems to have been had by one and all. Ticket brokers. shrewdest judges of entertainment. have bought large blocks of seats for advance sale. Like "The Drunkard" and After Dark" this new worst play Is hit.
 Divorce by Mail.
 Down on Park Row there's . nest of Mexican divorce lawyers who still thrive on the stringency of New York's stupid statute. A few are not even attorneys. but are agents of divorce merchants in Mexico. Some very enlightening pamphlets are being passed around concerning the ease of marriage dissolution. elf the defendant does not appear, I push ahead the suit until final settlement is got" states one. 'Such sentence being favor able to the plaintiff, fees must be deposit in escrow, at my dispossal in Mexico"
 Among the grounds are: ''Mu- tual !Consent-Incompatibility of Characters-The simple federation of the corruption; of their children - Cruelty which renders life in the common insufPerable-lThe in-