New Plays

The Miracle. The rays of collective genius, gathered from many lands by Morris Gest and focused to a burning point of matchless beauty, have burst at last into full flame. The light of The Miracle must henceforth be the sovereign beacon for theatrical spectacle. It has bewildering splendor, apparently limitless magnificence. More important than all, it has a narrative intensity that makes it a memorable emotional experience.

Followers, of theatrical despatches for many weeks have been burrowing through masses of statistics and superlative, relative to this dramatic mastodon which was making its way from Europe under the direction of Max Reinhardt. To these reports there was a dual reaction: 1) natural curiosity; 2) the peculiarly American scepticism that demands a demonstration. Many spectators went to the theatre with imaginations keyed so high that they were almost bound to be disappointed.

In actual performance The Miracle transcended every printed promise. The theatre had been transformed into the gloomy fastnesses of a medieval cathedral. Into this magic nave and choir, Max Reinhardt has infused the life of other centuries.

The action is combined spectacle, pantomime, opera. The story is based on a legend of the ages, told twice before--by John Davidson. in The Ballad of a Nun and by Maeterlinck in Soeur Beatrice. The Nun, feeling the call of the flesh, deserts her cloistered life, goes through a strange variety of worldly revels, and returns, tarnished and beaten by the world, to find that the statue of the Virgin has come to life and performed her duties in her absence.

Rosamond Pinchot, niece of Pennsylvania's famed Governor (see Page 5), appearing on the professional stage for the first time, gave to the part of the Nun a vibrant grace, a magnetic personality that made her quite the cynosure of the beholders. Lady Diana Manners was supremely beautiful as the Madonna, Werner Krauss magnificent as the crippled piper, Rudolph Schildkraut peculiarly powerful in the portrayal of several roles.

Despite these extraordinary individuals, the movement of the mob evinced most startlingly the genius of Max Reinhardt. Nothing approaching its expressive mobility and ordered variance has ever been accomplished in the Theatre.

Finally must come the powerful personality whose prescience made possible The Miracle. Morris Gest came to America as an ignorant immigrant from Russia. From odd jobs in the streets of Boston, he became an attache in the Theatre. He has risen through a series of phenomenal coups to the position of dictator of theatrical spectacle in America. After a number of staggeringly magnificent musical extravaganzas (Aphrodite, Chu Chin Chow, etc.) he introduced the Chauve Souris, the Moscow Art Company, Duse, The Miracle. He has the combined temperaments of the no-limit poker player and P. T. Barnum, plus dominating artistic instinct. He has become thereby a unique figure in a world where eccentricity is the primary requirement.

Alexander Woollcott: "The most prodigious theatrical production within the memory of man."

Percy Hammond: "Perhaps the most actual vision of a great dramatic idea outside of Oberammergau ... as effective in its minutiae as in its splendours."

The Evening World: "Overwhelming, overpowering, all-embracing."

John Corbin: "Nothing more original and more beautiful has ever been seen on earth."

Gypsy Jim. The dulcet diction of Leo Carrillo romantically implores his audience to have faith, that it may automatically acquire fortune. Mr. Carillo plays a genial young millionaire whose fancy is best pleased by wandering about the world disguised as a gypsy and doing good. He appears in a high yellow make-up and exotic attire. His peregrinations lead him to the threshold of a home heavy with failure. The father is a lawyer with no clamor of clients at his doorstep; the daughter, an authoress of many manuscripts but no publisher; the mother, steeped in sorrow for a buried brother; the son, an inventor with more gadgets than greenbacks.

Mr. Carrillo's appearance alters the domestic complexion immediately. Obedient to his magic wand, publishers, clients, manufacturers and a heretofore secret daughter of the buried brother flood the family. Meanwhile, gypsy music off stage soothes the spectators into the requisite romantic mood. Finally Mr. Carrillo discards his gypsy habiliments and stands, a mere millionaire, suitable suitor for the daughter of any family.

Utterly banal in theme and rather juvenile in treatment, the play succeeds moderately as amusement, largely due to the persuasive personality of the star.

Percy Hammond: "One of those helpful extravaganzas that stimulate the innocent of heart to noble emotions and kindly deeds."

The Road Together.* A rather depressing chapter was added last week to the dramatic adventures of Marjorie Rambeau. She was forced to fight her way through the tangling verbal underbrush of a three-act jungle planted by George Middleton and nourished to a state of public display by A. H. Woods.

Whether or not it was wholly the fault of the play is difficult to determine. Certainly Miss Rambeau belied her extensive experience in the Theatre by displaying an unaccountable first-night nervousness She tangled her pronouns and completely disregarded the normal pronunciation of "thermometer." Others in a capable cast were manifestly disturbed by her curious demeanor.

The plot discusses the actions and reactions of a district attorney's wife who has denied herself amatory intrigue in deference to her husband's career and reputation. He is promptly disclosed on the brink of official malpractice. Some three acts of philosophy, maundering and epigram are required to open this rift in their domestic lute and close it happily.

John Corbin: "Matrimony has never seemed quite so tedious."

Fanshastics. This singular title fills one with a foreboding of dislocated locution due to alcohol. Such an impression should be banished. " Fantastics" is applied to husbands by Grace George, welcomed as a perfect description by Annie O'Tandy (Laura Hope Crews), mispronounced by her thereafter. The title was later changed to Merry Wives of Gotham.

Miss George and Miss Crews play twins, separated in Irish childhood, and reunited by their husbands' differences some 40 years after (1873). In the interim, prosperity has presented Miss George with a home in Washington Square, Manhattan. Miss Crews, less selective in the matter of husbands, is a laborer's wife in the shanty colony along the upper reaches of Fifth Avenue. Their husbands come to blows over a piece of property. The richer son falls in love with the poorer daughter as she sings from the stage of Tony Pastor's.

Our stage hardly boasts two more accomplished comediennes than Grace George and Laura Hope Crews. The scenes between them are studies in the impalpable artistry of personality. The cast of their compatriots is evenly competent, distinguished in the playing of Mary Ellis and Arthur Sinclair. Aside from some disturbing descents into melodrama and the rather obvious machinery of plot, the play is a decided addition to the display spread for the metropolitan multitude.

John Corbin: "A pair of feminine portraits for which it would be hard or impossible to find an equal in the entire range of modern comedy."

James Craig: "Between them, these very able and amiable artist's bring no small amount of enjoyment out of a play that otherwise can scarcely be considered of any great consequence."

The Living Mask. Another Pirandello play has come to baffle wit and start psychopathic conversation. The play was originally named Henry IV, because the hero--an embittered contemporary Italian--is discovered at a masquerade carnival in the guise of Emperor Henry IV (the one who went to Canossa barefoot in the snow to ask the Pope's pardon). The masquerading Italian is pitched off his horse onto a stone, and when he wakes up believes himself to be the actual Henry IV.

The play is a study in that kind of personal make-believe which all of us, to a greater or less degree, build up about us.

The play is not as good as Six-Characters in Search of an Author. The best performance is by Robert Edmond Jones, who made the beautiful scenery.

Candidates

Who Will Win the $1,000?

With 1923 safely in the cycle of the past, it is time for the small company of successful American dramatists to build atmospheric castles with the $1,000 Pulitzer prize. This prize is awarded every spring to the best American play of the previous year.*

Although there was hoarse outcry from great groups of intelligentsia over the award last year (Icebound by Owen Davis) the verdict is usually accepted and the winning play recognized as the leader in native dramatic literature. In face of the quantity and quality of successful American plays produced last year, this judgment for 1923 will be no moderate honor.

While the perils of prophecy are proverbial, the prize appears to rest among the following plays:

Tarnish by Gilbert Emery.

Sun Up by Lula Vollnaer.

The Potters by J. P. McEvoy.

You and I by Philip Barry.

Roseanne by Nan Bagby Stevens.

The Changelings by Lee Wilson Dodd.

The inclusion of The Changelings is possibly a trifle arbitrary and may be laid to the dictum of a member of last year's committee that it was the best American play of the year.

Tarnish and Sun Up are deeply imbued with tragedy--both widely divergent in theme. Tarnish is urbane, highly sexed; Sun Up is hidden in the recesses of the Carolina mountains, where such elemental emotions as hatred, cowardice, mother love control existence. Sun Up suffers slightly from a declining last act.

You and I, Harvard prize play, seems not uninfluenced by the Cambridge atmosphere--exceedingly polite, witty, moderately well-dressed. Below this brilliantly prepared surface is a foundation theme of considerable consequence. Strongly in its favor is the symmetry of its construction--a virtue lacking in The Potters, a staccato satire on middle class husbands.

Roseanne is a specialty, an American Negro story played entirely in sepia makeup.

With the exception of Roseanne, the plays have been decided commercial successes. Which will gain the a'dded thousand and the enviable prestige of leadership now rests with the Committee. W. R.

The Best Plays

These are the plays which, in the light of metropolitan criticism, seem most important:

Drama

"LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH !"--Lionel Barrymore adding another notable portrait to the family gallery as the clown who finds life desperately unkind.

THE LADY--Melodramatic reunion of the virtuous chorus girl, the worthless husband, the luckless infant, the irate grandfather--well played and still luxuriously emotional.

THE MIRACLE--Reviewed in this issue.

IN THE NEXT ROOM--Every sure-fire ingredient of a mystery play except a gun.

MOSCOW ART THEATER--The Russians returning a third time to the scene of their original success.

OUTWARD BOUND--A voyage across the strange waters of death; most original idea, one of the best plays, transformed by a flawless cast into an inimitable entertainment.

RAIN--After a flood of 500 performances the saturation point in audiences has not been reached.

SUN UP--Carolina Mountain life cut with the biting knife of realism.

SAINT JOAN--Bernard Shaw and the Theatre Guild happily occupied with history.

TARNISH--Severe demonstration that sacred love cannot remain untainted by love previously profane.

Comedy

CYRANO DE BERGERAC--Our village Hampden become a modern Mansfield in this memorable classic from the French.

THE NERVOUS WRECK--Crockery, powder and pills farce echoing among canvas canyons of the woolly western backdrop.

HE POTTERS -- Savagely amusing satire in which you can recognize almost every one of your acquaintances but yourself.

THE SONG AND DANCE MAN--George M. Cohan giving one of the best performances of the year in a play typically tailored to and by himself.

THE SWAN--A combination of art and popularity rare in the Theatre. A comedy of European Royalty, virtually perfect in playing and production.

Musical

High notes in the present musical score are sustained most successfully by Poppy, Kid Boots, Ziegfeld Follies, Mary Jane McKane, Music Box-Revue, Runnin' Wild.

* The Road Together achieved a modern metropolitan record by opening and closing the same night. Playwright Middleton (author or collaborator of Polly with a Past, Adam and Eva, The Other Rose) objected to Marjorie Rambeau's "indifference" in performance; Producer Woods sustained his objection' and the play was withdrawn. The next day the Woods office discussed cancelling Miss Rambeau's $1,500 a week contract; she was incapacitated with, a, "nervous breakdown."

*The Road Together achieved a modern metropolitan record by opening and closing the same night. Playwright Middleton (author or collaborator of Polly with a Past, Adam and Eva, The Other Rose) objected to Marjorie Rambeau's "indifference" in performing; Producer Woods sustained his objection and the play was withdrawn. The next day the Woods office discussed cancelling Miss Rambeau's $1,500 a week contract; she was incapacitated with a "nervous breakdown."

*"Pulitzer prize plays since 1916. 1917--No award. 1918--Why Marry by Jesse Lynch Williams. 1919--No award. 1920--Beyond the Horizon by Eugene O'Neill. 1921--Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale. 1922--Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill. 1923--Icebound by Owen Davis.