LOVELY PEOPLE

A comedy has some bright moments, but not enough to warrant the extensive, extravagant course it pursues as it ticks off some well bred but not always well behaved Bostonians. Old Professor Abel Winslow is a long time dying and entertains little family feeling toward his two nieces and nephew who hope to realize more at his death than they did during his lifetime. Anna, the Countess Costello, an insolvent intrigante, returns from Europe with her stepdaughter, Maria, whom she hopes to marry off; Roger, who has run several unsuccessful restaurants, is also anxious to inherit; and Janet- whose husband George- a closed mind- has made money, takes them in. For the summer months rent a cottage in a colony on the Cape where the atmosphere is libertine. George, left behind in the hands of Anna's stepdaughter, the deceitful but demure Maria, is forced into a divorce and tricked into marriage. Thea, his eldest daughter, after an experience in the theatre with a devastating roue with a casualty list of devastated women, is left lovelorn and returns to the steadier if stuffier Ed. Uncle Abel's death leaves them no better off, and the Countess returns to Europe with Roger, while Janet- her marriage broken, faces the future alone.... For a feminine audience, an entertainment which is more heavy-handed than light -hearted.