New Plays in Manhattan

The Story of Mary Surratt (by John Patrick; produced by Russell Lewis & Howard Young) is not too widely known, considering its connection with the most famous murder in U.S. history. Mrs. Surratt's Washington boardinghouse was the meeting place for John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators (one of whom was her son). After Lincoln's assassination, the widow Surratt was among those tried before a military commission and hanged.

There is still some doubt that she was involved in the conspiracy. Her trial, in any case, was highly irregular. Defense counsel (Senator Reverdy Johnson, played by Kent Smith as an early Maryland beau of Mary's) was insulted, witnesses were intimidated, Government-held evidence was deliberately suppressed.

Playwright Patrick (The Hasty Heart) is in no doubt whatever: he insists that Mary Surratt was innocent. He virtually insists, as well, that she was framed. The vindictive, unjudicial spirit in which she was tried serves Playwright Patrick, indeed, as a text for a broad protest against injustice.

Mary Surratt's story allows for a much stronger protest than it does for a play. As a piece of half-forgotten history, the play has a factual interest, if not complete factual accuracy; and a good deal of the trial has dramatic force. Mary Surratt herself (well acted by Dorothy Gish) is portrayed as a very human woman. But the play as a whole is by no means dramatic. Intense partisanship has robbed the play of all psychological suspense: the audience has no opportunity to play either detective or judge.

John Loves Mary (by Norman Krasna; produced by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, in association with Joshua Logan) is just one of those things, dubbed good popular entertainment, that frequently run for a year. As in his Dear Ruth (which ran even longer and will soon reappear as a movie), Playwright Krasna has worked up a farcical facer in the way of plot, peppered the goings-on liberally with gags, and relied on youth for general appeal. The handling is slick and the staging brisk. About all that a captious customer can complain of: John Loves Mary seems worked by a crank, is too predictable, too protracted, not notably funny.

John loves Mary and has come back from war to marry her. But, oh, the complications! John's pal Fred has come home earlier minus the English girl he loved. John, like a true pal, has married the girl to get her into the U.S. The idea, of course, is that she will immediately divorce John and marry Fred. But Fred has already got himself married to another, and is to become a father at any moment. This pretty how-de-do becomes even prettier when John and Fred try to hide the facts from Mary and her hard-bitten U.S. Senator of a father. Complications and crises abound, for Playwright Krasna is a bear for plot, and he hangs on to one for dear life. Parts of the play are fun, bits of it are funny, but most of it is just Hollywood in Broadway clothing. William Prince as John, Tom Ewell as Fred, and Loring Smith as the Senator give it something extra. The role of the unwanted English bride is the stage debut of Pamela Gordon, 28-year-old daughter of Actress Gertrude Lawrence.

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