Representative American Plays/The New York Idea

by Langdon Mitchell

Layout 2

THE NEW YORK IDEA
BY
Langdon Mitchell

Copyright, 1907, 1908, by Langdon Mitchell

All rights reserved under the International Copyright Act. Performance forbidden and right of representation reserved. Application for the right of performing this play may he made to Alice Kauser, 1402 Broadway, New York, N. Y.

For amateur performances, permission must be secured from Walter H. Baker and Company, Boston.

Reprinted by permission of Mr. Langdon Mitchell and Walter H. Baker and Company.

 

THE NEW YORK IDEA

The New York Idea represents American social comedy at its best. It portrays impersonally and artistically the effects of our divorce laws upon a group of very human beings, indicating cleverly the restraining influence upon their actions exercised by their varying respect for the importance of social values. They are all, however, fully aware of these values.

Langdon Elwyn Mitchell was born in Philadelphia, February 17, 1862. He is the son of the late Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the physician and novelist. He was educated at St. Paul's School, at Concord, New Hampshire, and after three years' study abroad, studied law at Harvard and Columbia Universities and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1886. He has been a poet and playwright since 1883, his earlier works appearing under the pen-name of John Philip Varley. His first published drama was Sylvian, a tragedy partly in verse, laid in Cordova in the seventeenth century, published in Sylvian and Other Poems (1885). His other poetical work appeared under the title of Poems (1894). Love in the Backwoods (1896) consisted of short stories and novelettes. In 1892 Mr. Mitchell married Miss Marion Lea, of Philadelphia, who created the part of "Vida Phillimore" in The New York Idea. The dramatization of his father's novel The Adventures of Frangois, played by Henry E. Dixey, was not successful, but his play Becky Sharp, founded on Thackeray's Vanity Fair, and played by Mrs. Fiske at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, September 12, 1899, was a decided success for two years and was revived by Mrs. Fiske ten years later. So great indeed was the success of the play that another American version was played during 1900–1, until stopped by injunction, and two versions were given in England during the season of 1901.

The New York Idea was first produced by Mrs. Fiske at the Lyric Theatre, New York City, November 19, 1906, with the cast as given. It was a very successful play and has been revived. Miss Grace George playing it in repertory during the season of 1915-16.

Under the name of Jonathan's Tochter, The New York Idea was translated into German and played at the Kammerspiel Theater, Berlin, under the direction of Max Reinhardt, October 7, 1916. The criticism in the Berlin newspapers, especially the Vossische Zeitung, indicated that from the critics' point of view, the comedy was a charming one, but that international complications prevented at first, an impartial judgment of the play. Since then, it has had considerable success and is now being translated into Danish, Swedish and Hungarian.

Mr. Mitchell wrote no plays for some years, but has recently resumed active work. On October 11, 1916, at Atlantic City, New Jersey, his dramatization of Thackeray's Pendennis was placed on the stage with Mr. John Drew in the leading part of "Major Pendennis." After a satisfactory tryout, it was taken to New York City.

The New York Idea was published in 1908 by W. H. Baker and Company. It is here reprinted through the courtesy of Mr. Mitchell and the publishers. The editor is indebted to Mr. Mitchell for a careful revision of the text made especially for this volume.

For an interesting criticism of Becky Sharp, see William Winter, The Wallet of Time, New York, 1913, vol. 2, pp. 273-286, and, for a very appreciative analysis of The New York Idea see Mr. William Archer's notice of the play in The London Tribune of May 27, 1907, reprinted in the published play. See also for Becky Sharp, Plays of the Present, by J. B. Clapp and E. F. Edgett, New York, 1902, pp. 32-4.