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- The Royal Family
-
-
- (JANUARY 9, 1928)
-
- The Royal Family. Play has piled upon play about the theatre
- this season. Burlesque, single great success of the lot, is not
- challenged by the rough & tumble history of an august
- theatrical family. It is a story of the Drews and Barrymores say
- some people (including indignant Barrymores); cries of "no,no,"
- from Authors George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. What of it? The
- play amuses.
-
- There is a faint mad thread of plot whereby famed actress
- Cavendish nearly marries a millionaire and retires. Her lovely
- daughter has married; and in the third act retires from married
- life to the fascination of the theatre. The great character is
- aged Fanny Cavendish, pillar of the family tradition. She dies
- at the end. Thus the authors mix sorrow with breathless farce,
- the better to limn the bewildering existence of this astounding
- family. Some fear the play is too acutely written from the
- inside of the theatre to appeal to audiences. The first
- audiences laughed resoundingly; and cried a little, particularly
- when Fanny Cavendish fell sick and died. She was Haidee Wright,
- English actress, excellently welcome, brilliant in her part.
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-