Old Play in Manhattan

She Stoops to Conquer (by Oliver Goldsmith; produced by the New York City Theatre Company) opened an eight-week repertory season at Manhattan's City Center. Theater has never done as well at the cavernous Center as opera or ballet; but the new engagement had promise. It included among its wares The Corn Is Green and The Devil's Disciple. It could boast of Maurice Evans as its boss. It had a lot of well-known actors on its roster, an advance of $130,000 in its till.

The 178-year-old She Stoops to Conquer displayed, for all its years, surprising bounce and some still unwrinkled humor. The story of a young man who is led to mistake a private house for an inn and a gentleman's daughter for a barmaid, it is not least a classic for possessing a classic farce plot. At times less play than horseplay, She Stoops is happily without meaning and forever on the move.

There are nice performances, beginning with Maurice Evans' reciting of a sprightly modern prologue. As Tony Lumpkin, the celebrated booby of the piece, Ezra (Henry Aldrich) Stone is amusing but cannot avoid the booby trap of badly overdoing things. Celeste Holm and Brian Aherne are an engaging pair of lovers, and Burl Ives a good solid 18th Century father. Almost everybody, indeed, acts agreeably; the hitch is that virtually no two people act in the same style.

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