Coming Productions
The finger of the future moving down the menu of the coming theatrical season points particularly to the following productions:
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. Three notable names combine to give this play preliminary prestige before the curtain, rises. David Belasco, foremost American producer for many years, will sponsor it; St. John Ervine, Irish novelist and playwright, is the author; Mrs. Fiske, Mother Superior of the order of American actresses, will be the star. Mr. Belasco will import an English leading man. The play is a modern comedy.
Casanova. A. H. Woods, bedroom man, will combine with the Charles Frohman company in the unveiling ceremonies of a drama based on certain aspects of the life of the greatest Don Juan. Little is known in this country of Casanova, owing to the attitude which the censors assume toward his extensive memoirs. Lowell Sherman, venomous villain of many a movie and play, will have the lead. Playing oposite him will be Katherine Cornell, whose brilliant beauty was the feature of Clemence Dane's A Bill of Divorcement and Will Shakespeare and Pinero's The Enchanted Cottage.
Children of the Moon. Martin A. Flavin, a new author, has contributed this study of abnormal psychology to the season's serious drama. Henrietta Crosman will venture out of a long retirement to play the lead. Her support will include Beatrice Terry, niece of Ellen Terry.
The Changeling. Henry Miller will lend his suave charm to a comedy by Lee Wilson Dodd, based, as the name suggests, on the mutability of human identity. During Mr. Miller's Summer season in San Francisco, Blanche Bates and Ruth Chatterton were numbered among the cast. One, possibly both, will come to Broadway.
Poor Richard. Philip Barry, youngest of authors, who graduated from George Pierce Baker's Cambridge workshop to Broadway success with You and I, has written his second comedy of American life. The theme deals, not, as the title suggests, with Benjamin Franklin and his loaves of bread, but with the aristocracy of the American suburb.
The Fountain and Welded. Eugene O'Neil, greatest of our playwrights, will have these two productions in the season's show window. Details are known of the first only. It is a drama of Ponce De Leon and his pilgrimage to the fancied Fountain of Eternal Youth. Lionel Barrymore will probably play the visionary Spaniard with Irene Fenwick, his lately acquired spouse, as the lady with whom the eternal youth was to be spent.
Grand Guignol. The players of this famous French company will pack up a sheaf of their most gruesome horrors and transport them to America. They appeal, as every Paris tourist knows, directly to the backbone and deal exclusively in blood and shudders. They will play in French.
The Swan. Many Americans consider Liliom the greatest play to reach our shores in many years. The Swan is by the same author, Franz Molnar. In Europe it is almost sacrilege to mention them in the same breath. The latter is considered incomparably his masterpiece. Eva Le Gallienne will play the lead.
Jane Cowl. Besting from her record-breaking season of playing Juliet longer than any other actress, Miss Cowl looks forward to a season of repertory. Among the plays she has settled upon definitely are Twelfth Night, Anthony and Cleopatra and, of course, Romeo and Juliet. Rollo Peters will play her leading man in addition to designing the productions.
By the Grace of God. Frederick Lonsdale, Englishman and author of the season's smartest light comedy, Aren't We All, has written another of the same. The drawing-room deftness of Norman Trevor will be applied to the leading role, with Estelle Winwood prominent in his support.
Tarnish. Gilbert Emery, short story writer, actor and picturesque dictator of CzechoSlovakian towns for a brief period of the War, has written this play about the instability of human reputation. Tom Powers and Fania Marinoff head the cast.
Max Reinhardt. The last and, some believe, the richest sample of European theatrical blood will be injected into Broadway when Max Reinhardt, leading German producer, comes to America. There has been much speculation as to what auditorium he will require to stage his massive spectacles (of which The Miracle is most widely known). The Hippodrome, Madison Square Garden and Boyle's Thirty Acres seem to be leading contenders. The entertainments require the services of about 5,000 horses.
In Love With Love. Three of our ablest minor players will sit at the angles of the triangle in this modern comedy by Vincent Lawrence, viz: Lynn Fontanne, Ralph Morgan, Henry Hull.
Magnolia and Tweedles. Booth Tarkington will enter these two contenders in the sweepstakes. The first is a character comedy of the South in which Leo Carillo will be starred. The second revolves about the relations of August visitors with native sons and daughters in Kennebunkport, Me., where the author spends his Summers. The scene is an old curiosity shop and the cast contains the names of Ruth Gordon, Gregory Kelly and Frank McGlynn.
Walter Hampden. This actor, whose success with Hamlet and Macbeth struck the spark which burst into a blaze of Shakespeare last Winter, will risk the dangerous experiment of a New York repertory season. His plans already include The Black Flag, a pirate play by A. E. Thomas; six of Shakespeare's, including Othello; The Ring, a play based on Browning's The Ring and the Book. Carroll McComas will be his leading lady, with Pedro de Cordoba playing second to Mr. Hampden.
Scaramouche. Rafael Sabatini has made a melodrama from his picturesque novel. Sydney Blackmer and J. M. Kerrigan will figure prominently.
Good Old Days. When this play was produced for try-out in Chicago under the title " Light Wines and Beers, the managers installed a brass railed bar in the theatre lobby. From these facts it may be inferred that the comedy of the play is largely alcoholic. Aaron Hoffman is the author; George Bickel and Charles Winninger the funny men.
The Theatre Guild's program, containing several notable productions, was given in TIME, July 9. . . . There is an apparently authentic rumor extant that Elsie Ferguson will appear in a new play by J. M. Barrie. . . . Two plays by Zona Gale, including Faint Perfume, will be produced.