The Earl of Pawtucket
A comedy in three acts
Opening 23 March 1903 at the Manhattan Theatre, the Broadway play by Augustus Thomas ran for 191 performances.
Lord Cardington has run away to America from England to avoid a summons from the House of Lords and to see how well he can survive without his title. He assumes the identity of a certain Putnam, an American he had befriended in England. He begins to woo Harriet Fordyce, unaware that she is the former Mrs Putnam. A further complication develops when, because Putnam was the last person seen together with Lord Cardington before his mysterious disappearance, Putnam is suspected of his murder. The fake Putnam now finds himself pursued by the police. In a further comic twist, he is also hounded by lawyers demanding alimony from the very woman he is intending to marry. Eventually, all the complications are resolved, and his lordship settles down to a happy future as an American commoner and husband to an amused Harriet.
