Possibly William Faversham was satisfied with "Her Friend the King", in which he is now playing at the Apollo theater, for it does give him an opportunity to perform three acts in the debonair fashion that becomes him so well. But the play can hardly be said to meet any other standards of taste. The manuscript might well have been a composite of the theater's most familiar scenes, for there is scarcely a situation that has not become painfully hackneyed through years of repetition; and their quality is not improved by the latest transmission. With such material the struggles of Mr. Faversham and, his supporting company to infuse life into the creation never achieve more than a few brief moments of success.

The plot deals with an exiled king and the machinations of the rich American widow who is in love with him to restore him to the throne. As a subplot there is a prince, the destined husband of the king's daughter, who meets the princess incognito so as to be loved for himself alone. Other playwrights have employed dramatic or humorous incidents from nuclei as unpromising as this. But the lines of the present attraction at the Apollo are so amateurish and crudely done that there is no such happy issue. When comedy is the object, the authors take such labored pains to make their point obvious that any possible effect is lost, and in one appalling case actually repeated the same gag twice within five minutes. Similarly many dramatic possibilities are spoiled by the inadequacy of the lines allotted to the speakers on such occasions.

Under such conditions, the best of acting is liable to be submerged. Yet Mr. Faversham succeeds in injecting a considerable amount of gracious humor into his role, and Ara Gerald, although her part was exceptionally maltreated by the playwrights, is both attractive and capable. Miss Atherton plays the conventional caricature of an English governess.