Dulcy

Dulcy (1921), a comedy by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. [Frazee Theatre, 246 perf.] Dulcinea Smith (Lynn Fontanne) is an ambitious but feather‐brained young lady given to spouting bromides and getting her husband, Gordon (John Westley), into jams whenever she attempts to help him out. Since Gordon is about to merge his business with that of C. Rogers Forbes (Wallis Clark), Dulcy invites the Forbeses and their daughter Angela (Norma Lee) for a weekend. She also invites the scenario writer Vincent Leach (Howard Lindsay), who is in love with Angela; her brother, Bill (Gregory Kelly); and a rich young man she has met at a party, Schuyler Van Dyck (Gilbert Douglas). She manages to irritate Mr. Forbes by encouraging Angela and Vincent to elope and by having Schuyler offer to support Gordon in a venture in opposition to Mr. Forbes. But Blair Patterson (George Allison) arrives, announcing that Schuyler is actually simply a harmless madman who thinks he is rich. Luckily for Dulcy, Forbes sees Patterson, who is an attorney for the real Van Dycks, and offers Gordon an even better deal than he did at first. And then it is discovered that Angela eloped not with Vincent, but with Bill. Though things have turned out well, Dulcy promises never again to meddle. After all, “A burnt child dreads the fire. Once bitten—” Heywood Broun wrote in the Tribune, “Dulcy is an ingenious trick play and the patter which introduces the legerdemain is even better than the stunts.” The George C. Tyler and H. H. Frazee production not only established the reputations of Kaufman and Connelly but made a star of Fontanne.