Judge — April 7, 1917 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BETWEEN By CYRIL the Tired Business Man as they were leaving the Cohan and Harris Theater, where they had seen “The Willow Tree.” “Perfectly wonderful!” was the response. “I had seen it before. and cajoled John into going with me to-night. Hes:.:.”” “Oh, yes! I enjoyed it,” broke in the Tired Business Man, “though you know it’s quite impossible—like a fairy A clever idea, to adapt a Japanese legend—if there was such a legend—of a hermit who saves his country by going to the front to a young Englishman disappointed in love who is also awak- ened to duty by a lovely woman. Quite ingenuous, too.” There s a bit of cynicism in his tone. “But the fact that you enjoyed it proves,.my dear, that away down deep in our hearts we all love the romantically impossible, no matter how blasé we may pretend to be.” n't that,” persisted the Tired Business Man. “1 enjoyed a new sensation. That’s all. “Well, I’m sure you wouldn’t have enjoyed it if that hand- some wooden image hadn’t come to life as a handsomer Japanese girl. I know you, John.” “Let it go at that then,” he retorted, as he grected the Critic. ‘Here's an authority. Let's hear his opinion.” “A very entertaining performance,” said the Critic, after introduction, “and it will be something uniquely fine when they have eliminated much of the nonessential in the last act. The first two acts are quite complete in an artistic entity, and the third is necessary only to make the piece contemporancous.” “A wonderful stage picture, that s ventured the Tired Business Man. “And don’t you think Fay Bainter is a stunning actress?” Scenically the play is a gem. And it would be difficult to find a young actress who could even equal Miss Bainter in her dual role. She denotes the innocence and rare charm of the Japanese maiden admirably, and shows contrast without losing charm as the English girl.” And her lightning changes of costume, as well as of personality, got me,” “How did she do it?” “That is a matter of detail that neverinterests me—the pure mechanics of costume-changing, replied the Critic loftily. “But her real art— her acting—is a delight.” “Te IT delightful?” Thus the Débutante to the wife of CURTAINS ANDREW’ “Oh! And don’t you think Shelley Hull is too lovely for anything as the young Englishman?” rippled the Débutante. “Most young women will think so,” dryly returned the Critic. “The smaller parts in the play, aside from Miss Bainter’s work, are the better played. And we must not forget to give Benrimo credit for the general conception, or Cohan and Harris for realizing that conception “Tl give them all the credit in the world,” returned the Tired Business Man. ‘It must be hard as the dickens to take a play and build it up—you know what I mean—to fix it so that the audience can see what the author is getting at. I was thinking how different the sets of today are compared with the sets of other times. Take musical comedy, for instance. It *t so long ago that any old thing was good enough for a set. And now they do almost anything to get effects. Take ‘Oh, Boy!’ for instance ue The Critic snorted. “You needn’t get huffy,” said the Tired Business Man warmly. ‘Oh, Boy!’ is the best musical show that’s been in town for many moons.” “I’m not getting huffy over the show,” retorted the Critic, “although I am bound to admit that their song ‘Till the Clouds Roll By’ reminded me with startling emphasis of ‘O Day of Rest and Gladness,’ which I have hated from childhood, owing toa partiality on the part of our minister to lengthy sermons on the wrath to come; I own that ‘Oh, Boy!’ is a very good musical comedy, and is a worthy successor to ‘Very Good Eddie,’ the Princess’ last production in that line. My objection is to the title. Musical comedy titles are getting more and more inane as years roll on. Even the adaptation of foreign titles is falling off. I can understand the perfectly proper translation of ‘Die Lustige Witwe’ to ‘The Merry Widow’; but the recent effort at ‘Hoheit Tanzt Walzer,’ which resulted in the atrocity of ‘Princess Tra-la-la’ is rather too much for me to stomach. I was prejudiced against ‘Oh, Boy!’ by its title, though I must admit that after seeing the show most of my prejudice was removed. It is really an exceptionally good musical comedy, as musical comedies go.’ “You don’t like even good musical comedies, do you?” said the Débutante curiously. “Oh, I would hardly go so far as to say that,” replied the Critic. “The trouble is that there are so few of them.”” ae comicbooks.com