New Plays in Manhattan

Diplomacy. Hitching a galaxy of stars to this antiquated vehicle by Victorien Sardou, George Crouse Tyler surprised Manhattan playgoers by the excellence of his judgment. The play, as translated by Sir Gerald du Maurier, seemed nearly as neat and sparkling as it did on the evening of Queen Victoria's "command performance," nearly half a century ago. Surely it was well played. William Faversham, 60, perhaps stung to effort by the recent and successful theatrical activities of his eldest son William Faversham Jr., gave an impeccable performance as Henry Beauclerc, the suave ambassador who, by sniffing the scent of a lady's handkerchief, regains important documents of state.

Margaret Anglin, 52, as a lady of wit and leisure, indulged herself and the audience with such wisecracks as "Her teeth are like the Ten Commandments--all of them broken." For once, an all star company seemed as good as the sum of its parts and the play creaked seldom as it rolled rapidly across the stage. Among the stars were: Frances Starr, 42, Cecilia Loftus, 51, Jacob Ben-Ami, 38, Rollo Peters, 45, Helen Gahagan, 27, Georgette Cohan, 27.

The Grand Street Follies are built upon the eminently sound principle of burlesquing all recent attractions at Manhattan theatres. A sophisticate must loudly giggle, when Albert Carroll comes on the stage impersonating Laurette Taylor or when Dorothy Sands pretends she is Ina Claire, lest neighbors in the audience suffer from the illusion that he has not viewed the original from which the parody derives. Yokels, too, are compelled by their anxious timidity to give deceitful titters. Since almost all Manhattan theatregoers fall painfully into these categories, it was perhaps unnecessary for Albert Carroll and Dorothy Sands to make their burlesques in The Grand Street Follies of 1928 quite so hilariously exact as they did. The former simultaneously played Mrs. Fiske with the right side of his face and Ethel Barrymore with the left; Dorothy Sands played Mae West in Romeo and Juliet. Other impudent imitations were offered by Paula Trueman who appeared successively as Haidee Wright, Eva LeGallienne, and Helen Hayes.

The customary features of musical shows--such as hordes of pretty, naked ladies and many sentimental songs--are not emphasized in The Grand Street Follies. Mayor Walker, however, without whom no amusement is complete, appears by proxy. There is no plot and the best that could be hunted up in the way of a hero was poor old Trader Horn whose senile and ridiculous maunderings in Manhattan form the framework for little pictures of less decrepit celebrities.