New Plays in Manhattan

Dinner at Eight (by Edna Ferber & George S. Kaufman; Sam Harris, producer). In collaboration for the first time since they wrote The Royal Family, Playwrights Kaufman & Ferber have turned out a piece in which they should take pleasure and profit, too. Dinner at Eight is seriocomic, and it may be inferred that Miss Ferber supplied the serio-element, Mr. Kaufman the comic. The deft Kaufman hand, however, is thoroughly evident in this excellent play's shrewd direction.

Millicent Jordan (Ann Andrews) is giving a dinner for Lord & Lady Ferncliffe, visiting social lion and lioness. To it are invited Socialite Dr. & Mrs. Talbot, a brutal financier named Packard and his wife who "speaks pure Spearmint," Carlotta Vance, a dated theatrical beldame, and Larry Renault, a has-been film star. Into this tranche devie, from the minute the invitations are telephoned, steps tragedy. The film star, lover of the Jordans' daughter, is made to realize he is through. Packard ruins Mr. Jordan, determines to get a divorce from his wife, who is in love with Dr. Talbot. And Dr. Talbot must tell his host that he is about to die of heart failure. To complete the fiasco, when the cocktails are served it is revealed that the guests of honor will not be present. The others do not wait for Larry Renault. He is already dead in his hotel room. Loud dinner music bursts forth. The tragedians exchange limpid banalities: "The seasons are changing; they say there'll be palm trees someday where the Empire State Building is. ... Girls of 14 today behave just as if they were 30. ... I love dogs. You grow just as attached to them as if they were children. . . ." Curtain.

Mademoiselle (by Jaques Deval; William A. Brady, producer). Playgoers who saw Mademoiselle in Paris last spring and summer got the impression that the piece was a social problem drama. In the U. S. production, ably adapted by Producer Brady's second wife, Grace George, and acted in by his daughter, Alice Brady, part of it is still a social problem. The rest has been turned into hilarious farce. The Brady family's skill prevents the two elements from curdling.

Christine Galvosier, 19, lives in a household which her father (toothy, droll A. E. Matthews) describes with cheerful resignation as "a railroad station, with everyone waiting for a different train.'' Her mother (Alice Brady, released into comedy after funereal Mourning becomes Electra) is a charming flibbertigibbet who seldom sees her rascally son or impatiently virginal daughter. Result: Daughter Christine is seduced, impregnated by a youthful Egyptian. Enter tragedy.

Mademoiselle (Actress George) the new governess, is employed just as Christine is about to shoot herself. Mademoiselle is a hard, bitter woman. But instead of exposing her charge to the flighty parents, who never really have time to hear anything she has to say about their daughter, she contrives to get the girl into the country where an accouchement is secretly effected. It is then that the reason for Mademoiselle's benefaction comes to light. An old maid, she has always wanted a baby. She is welcome to Christine's. Her father welcomes her with jewelry, a motor car, a big party, even a little wine-- but no cigarets. "There are some things," he jovially admonishes her, "you must not know about yet."

Keeping Expenses Down (by Montague Glass & Dan Jarett; Dimitri Tiomkin, producer). Copyright of the names Abe Potash & Mawruss Perlmutter is now owned by a film company, but the characters of these famed Jews are still the special property of their creator, Playwright Glass. Renamed Harris Fishbein & Isaac Blintz, Potash & Perlmutter reappear as amiable, squabbling partners, this time embroiled in a real estate deal. Beset by the Depression, they tread very close to the fringe of skullduggery, almost land in jail by tampering the title of some Flatbush Avenue property, call each other '"Skunk," ''Shrimp," "Schlemiel," make remarks like "Vat's de use of beating bushes around."

The Passionate Pilgrim (by Margaret Crosby Munn; Howard Inches, producer) was written some 20 years back under the title Will Shakespeare, of Stratford and London, has never been produced before. It begins with an adolescent Will composing lyrics in the forest of Charlcote Park, carries him through his matchlock wedding with Anne Hathaway and up to London. Playwright Munn thereupon introduces her candidate for "The Dark Lady of the Sonnets," Mistress Elizabeth Vernon. Mistress Vernon wist well that her poetical suitor had immortal fire in him, but the Earl of Southampton was a high-bouncing lover, too, and he had land and gold. So Will finally went back to Stratford to his Ann and children. He was content. He had had some little success in London.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.