New Plays in Manhattan

Merry-Go-Round. This second Richard Herndon revue with few people against many backgrounds may be dismissed as a sample of unseasoned summer hash, flung in a heap and presented in a panic. But out of respect to the memory of its saucy ancestor, Americana, be it recorded that William Collier calls Charles A. Lindbergh a "fly-by-nighter," that Marie Cahill recites a telephone monologue, that Evelyn Bennett dances like chained lightning, that Knox Herold catches the stern spirit of Bill Hart in a movie burlesque. Miss Bennett,* whilom "Baby Eva Tanguay" of vaudeville, looks like a street cherub with the legs of a high-jumper. So pronounced is her dancing ability, it is a shame she is allowed to spoil her effects by squeaking forth in song.

A Very Wise Virgin. "It's a wise virgin knows her own boiling point," declares 18-year-old Flapper-Siren Betty. Seeing her ensnare a best friend's fiance, one infers that Betty has known her own boiling point well and often. Her triumph is not for long, however. Along comes a Russian lady-of-the-world whose experience extends over and beyond the boiling point, who therefore lures away the bewildered fiance, leaving Betty to marry a bashful doctor of twoscore years and more. Ultimately the best friend recaptures the twice-pilfered fiance. Joan Bourdelle, as Betty of the coy knees and bold lips, lends color to otherwise flat drama.

Tales of Rigo. Apparently, the astral body of Drift, a play that lived a short life last season at the Cherry Lane Theatre, is up and doing. It now ambles on the stage of the Lyric in a stagnant incarnation, punctuated at grateful intervals by tolerable, vaguely familiar songs. The plot concerns one Rigo, polychromatic gypsy musician, onetime darling of society, now embittered enemy. His melodious followers ramble the forests in simple glee, vocalizing over three stumps, serenading the birds, celebrating Zita, Rigo's elfin granddaughter. She falls in love with a society man. There is mystery about Zita's male parentage which, when unriddled, restores society to good standing in the woods and Zita to her rich lover. For sheer dramatic prostration, Tales of Rigo is positively pathological. On the second night, two cats wandered across the stage./-

*No relation to Actor Richard Bennett.

/- It sometimes happens that one cat will sift through the cordon of stagehands to blink before footlights. When stage hands permit two cats to go astray in such embarrassment, the audience may well consider the production a casual one.