The Theater: New Play in Manhattan, Nov. 15, 1954

Quadrille brought the Lunts back to Broadway in a Noel Coward period piece they had played for two seasons in London. It is, for Coward, rather Victorian in spirit as well as in setting; it scents its sinfulness with lavender, bodices its escalades in whalebone. The story takes a long evening to unfold, but can be summarized in a sentence. A marchioness and an American rail baron pursue their eloping spouses (Edna Best and Brian Aherne), fall in love while separating the lovers, and themselves elope in turn.

The whole thing is decorously...

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