‘piper Paid’ at Ritz Theatre

The story of an American girl involved with three men in Europe, once told by the Anglo-Jewish novelist, Sarah B. Smith, in the form of a running novel in The Day, a Jewish daily in New York, is now one of the more interesting productions on Broadway. It is “Piper Paid” at the Ritz theatre.

It is a story of a girl who is engaged to one man, loves another, and has an incidental affair with a third. The third, an American correspondent abroad, a married man, father of two children, tries to commit suicide when he is told by the girl that she really does not care for him. He shoots himself but is only crippled.

Out of guilty conscience, the girl makes up her mind to take care of the cripple although she loves somebody else. She gives up her finance, lets the man she loves go away to America, and herself remains in Paris with the crippled fellow and his wife, helping them to get along. She pays for her casual affair.

The audience is deeply absorbed. Edith Barrett, in the role of the woman who pays, compels the attention of the deeply absorbed audience which is most sensitive in its reactions to the different situations in which the girl finds herself. It greets the solution of the troubles when the girl is finally in the arms of the man she really loves.

“Piper Paid” is Mrs. Smith’s first dramatic production and was written in collaboration with Viola Brothers Shore. The play is well done and gives the American a good view of how other Americans live in Paris.

Despite the tragic background against which the play proceeds, the performance furnishes many moments of healthy laughter. The humor is amply provided by Harry Green, screen and stage actor in the role of a Jewish dress manufacturer.

—B.S.