Langdon Mitchells four-act high comedy satirizing marriage and divorce in New York society opened on 19 November 1906 for 66 performances at the Lyric Theatre. Starring Minnie Maddern Fiske as Cynthia Karslake, who is divorced from her husband, John, and plans to marry the recently divorced Judge Phillimore. The judge's ex-wife, Vida, becomes engaged to John, but the plans of both couples are unsettled by Sir Wilfred Cates-Darby (played by George Arliss), who flirts with both women. Cynthia regrets her divorce from John, but she arrives at his home and discovers that a wedding has just concluded. She is relieved to learn that Cates-Darby has married Vida and that John, who also regrets their divorce, wants to remarry. The New York Idea was revived on Broadway in 1915 (with Grace George) and in 1933, but neither production was successful. Alice Brady played Cynthia in a 1920 motion picture version.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.