The Theatre: The New Plays

The Theatre rubs its eyes, sleepy with Summer, this week and begins to look about Broadway for Winter quarters. Five plays will be produced as the overture to the ten months' performance of the season. In their wake, nearly ten score will follow before another June empties the playhouses. Scanning the list of these, one finds the following of primary importance:

Peter Pan—The U. S. had come to believe this fantasy of J. M. Barrie the exclusive privilege of Maude Adams. Some months ago, Charles B. Dillingham went to London with the photographs of 20 actresses. Examining them all carefully, Mr. Barrie selected Marilynn Miller, musical comedy star. She will desert the musical stage to pick up the torch abandoned by Miss Adams.

Hassan—Literary individuals have long wondered why this magnificent poetic spectacle by James Elroy Flecker, English poet, dead in Mesopotamia ten years ago, had never reached the boards. Its success in London last year tempted U. S. producers. It will appear with Mary Nash as star.

Orpheus — Offenbach's operatic comedy will be the massive contribution of German Max Reinhardt to the season's list. Herr Reinhardt will later produce Schnitzler's Dream Play.

Caesar and Cleopatra—The Theatre Guild will finally perform its promise of displaying this play which many consider the best of Bernard Shaw. Helen Hayes and (possibly) Roland Young will have the title parts.

The Guardsman—Ferenc Molnar's first contribution to the Manhattan season will be this continental success in which the Theatre Guild will present Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne (his wife).

The Firebrand—A new author, Edwin Justus Mayer, has contrived a satirical romance of incidents from the life of Benvenuto Cellini. Joseph Schildkraut is principally concerned.

Comedie Francaise—There is a well-defined suspicion, unverified by actual announcement, that Morris Gest, modern Barnum, has persuaded this most famous theatrical organization in the world to come to Manhattan for a brief season.

The Guitrys—Scarcely less famous on the Continent are the Guitrys, father and son, and the latter's wife, Yvonne Printemps. They are expected for their U. S. debut in the early Spring of 1925. They will play in English.

Old Man Minnick—Edna Ferber's noted short story has been dramatized by herself and George S. Kaufman. Appearing as the old man will be O. P. Heggie.

None but the Brave—A bitterly objective War play by Laurence Stallings and Maxwell Anderson is now in rehearsal with Louis Wolheim (Hairy Ape) as star. In the cast are 15 men and 1 woman.

The Werewolf—Laura Hope Crews, Leslie Howard and J. Lennox Pawle will appear presently in what is rumored to be the most offensive (to censors) play that has ever appeared on the U. S. stage. It is adapted from the German of Rudolph Lothar.

Lazybones—Owen Davis, most prolific and versatile of native dramatists, opens his seasonal attack with a comedy, with Martha Bryan Allen leading the cast.

Simon Called Peter—Jules Eckert Goodman and Edward Knoblock have dramatized Robert Keable's novel. The play found considerable success in a Chicago run last Spring.