GOOD FARE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 26

GOOD FARE

New York Theatres Open Promising Season The talkies do not seem to have I affected the legitimate theatre in New York and many new shows are ready fpr production. The next two or three months promise good fare, says a New York critic. Much is expected of the Civic Repertory performance of Chekhov’s “The Sea Gull,” with Eva Le Gallienne and Jacob Ben-Ami in the leading parts. Advance gossip is rosy-hued over the Alvarez Quintero comedy, “A Hundred Years Old,” in which Otis Skinner will appear. Jane Cowl’s new vehicle, “Jenny,” a comedy by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes, who dramatised “The Age of Innocence,” was popular during its cradle weeks on the road last spring. The first Theatre Guild production. “Karl and Anna.” from the German of Leonhard Franck, will include Alice Brady, Otto Kruger and Frank Conroy in principal roles. In October. Frank McGlynn will appear in a revival of Drinkwater’s “Abraham Lincoln." Among the plays imported from England, Patrick Hamilton’s “Rope's End,” played abroad under the title of “Rope”; Monekton Hole's “Many Waters,” which is to bring Ernest Truex back home; P. G. Wodghouse’s adaptation of Siegfried 'Geyer’s “Candle Light,” in which Gertrude Lawrence and Leslie Howard will appear; the long impending “Berkeley Square,” by John Balderston and J. C. Squire; St. John Ervine’s “The First Mrs. Fraser,” with Grace George in the leading role; “The Middle Watch” farce by lan Hay and Stephen KingHall, and a dramatisation of G. B. Stern’s long and vibrant novel, “The Matriarch,” in which Constance Collier and Dorothy Gish will play. Most of the new plays by American authors are still in the theatrical making; and, by the ruthless nature of things, less is known about them in advance. But they represent the most recent work of such authors as Elmer Rice, Rachel Crothers, George S. Kaufman, Paul Green, S. N. Behrman, Ring Lardner, Lee Wilson Dood, Dana Burnet and Philip Dunning Among the piays still visible from last season are “Journey’s End,” “Let Us Be Gay,” “Bird in Hand,” “Street Scene” and “The Camel Through the Needle’s Eye.” In suclj a display of theatrical wares there is respect for the theatre and the public.