The Playgoer

The new comedy which opened Tuesday night at the Plymouth is probably going to bring its two authors, Thomas Coley and William Roerick, a steady income for many years to come, if not from Broadway at least from the hundreds of Little Theater productions it seems surely slated for. "The Happiest Years" is one of those little domestic comedies that ring enough familiar bells in everyone to give a warm feeling of recognition and remembrance.

That is not to say that everyone has been witness or participant in the problems of a young married couple who must live with their in-laws. For that, and not much else, is the situation confronting the people in "The Happiest Years." But it is really as an essay in feminine logic and psychology that the authors show their astuteness and humor, and it is there that the audience has its most fun. I could cite some examples of this "feminine logic" but it is complex by its very nature, as you know, and an accumulative and personal reasoning process that is without meaning until one has first become acquainted with the particular female. During the course of the evening, you become very well acquainted indeed with the mother-in-law in "The Happiest Years."

Peggy Wood, who must have delighted theatergoers of yesteryear in "Naughty Marietta" and "Bittersweet," is still very delightful to watch, both for her graceful beauty and her thorough characterization of the well-meaning, suspicious mother-in-law who almost wreeks her daughter's marriage. As her sister-in-law and complete opposite, June Walker is bouncy and very funny. The kind of woman who was once called "ente as a bug's car," she is now pudgy and painted, given to wearing fluffy mules around the house because of "foot trouble" but who nevertheless takes samba lessons. Most of the time Miss Walker is on stage she is "simply in stitches" at her husband's jokes (in many ways she is wiser than Miss Wood's fretful female), and the audience is almost that way because of Miss Walker.

The people in "The Happiest Years" are all genuine if rather insignificant people. If it were not derogatory (which would be impolite with these nice folks), they could possibly be said to have eliche personalities. In an era in which successful plays are almost invariably concerned with neurotics or eccentrics (the only recently successful 'domestic comedy,' that was not a farce, I can recall was "Life with Father," which mainly exploited Father's eccentricities, after all), it's rather nice to have some old ordinary people around.