Judge — April 3, 1926 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

UDGING ‘he SHOWS” ue revival of “East Lynne,” I down in the Greenwich Village Theater, has been the occasion for much superior spoofing on the part of all the critical boys who con- sider “The Green Hat” a great play. They roar sardonically at the old dose of balderdash in the apparent conviction that, when you compare it with some such modern master piece as “The Shanghai Gesture.” i is just too funny for words. Now, surely, I am not one to argue that old lady Wood's dramatized tome is anything but magnificent tripe, but if it is any worse than two or three of this year’s plays that have been praised as sound and authentic drama something is decidedly wrong with my powers of critical judgment. It is argued that the language in which “East Lynne” is couched is ridiculously high flown. It certainly is, but the language of “The Green Hat” is scarcely less so. I agree to meet anyone with a copy of the script of the latter play and match each rhetorical absurdity of “East Lynne” with one from the Arlen flapdoodle. If such a speech as Lady Isabel's, “Think what it has been for me to live in the same house with her who is now your wife, to watch the envied caresses which once were mine, to see your great love for her; think what it was for me to watch by the deathbed of my own child, to see his decaying strength, to be alone with him in his dying hour, and not be able to tell him J was his mother; and then, to see you soothe her petty grief and I, his mother, standing by —oh! it has been to me as the bitter- ness of death!”—if, as I say, such a slice of plum cake is argued to be enough to make a horse laugh, what of the speeches of Iris March in the ° by Geonpe Jeam Nathan “The Great God Brown" (Garrick)—Still at the head of the list. Alias the Deacon’ (Hi the bottom, Still very near Hor) —Seott bootlegger “The Shanghai Gest sereen scene from Vantine’s. (Beck)—The big “Craig's Wife” (Morosco)—An honest somewhat exaggerated, but commen “still Waters” (Miller)—A propaganda play of the vintage of 1890. “The Green Hat” (Broadhurst)—Laura Jean Libbey has an affair with Pinero’s valet. “Vanities” (Carroll)—Julius Tannen and Joe Cook nightly disrobe in toto and sit in bathtubs full of Peruna. reenwich)—A revival of the “The Makropoulos Secret” (Hopkins. apek, the Czech Rider Haggard, at his worst Lore Em and Leare ately amusing comedy (Harris) —Moder » the vernacul “The Wisdom Tooth” (Little of Jeux: says this is the |b York. Th that the edit editor “The Trouper” (5nd St.)—See this iss “The Student Pri isfactory mu * (Century) —Still, the comedy in New York “A Night in Paris” (ditto, upstairs)— An agreeable revue in an agreeable music hall. "Not Herbert” (Klaw)—Crooks. “The Last crooks, f Mrs, Cheyney” (Fulton) —More “Easy Come, Easy Go (Biltmore)—Still more ¢ “Square Crooks" (Daly’s)—Still more crooks “The Creaking Chair” (Ly more crooks. um) —Still even “Ninety Horse Power (Ritz)—To be re viewed anon. “Juno and the Paycock” (Mayfair)—Ditto “Cradle Snatchers” (Music Box)—A comical The Butter and Egy Man” Another. (Longacre) “The Jest” (Plymouth)—Passiovate Italian melodra 15 Amsterdam)—First- dancing show with La Miller and Le Do1 ss the chief toe- “The Virgin” (Ce “Young Woodley" (Belmont)—An English comedy that you'll like. “The Cocoanuts” (Lyn Family Marx. c)—The eminent “The Monkey Talks” (Ni boulevard vaudeville with the life-like monkey. “Twelce Miles Out” (Playhouse)—Melo- drama in the old manner. (Comedy)—Ibby’s Seandin: at the Broadhurst? If Sir Francis Levison talks like an over- educated dinge barber, what of Arlen’s Napier Harpenden? There is no doubt that “East Lynne” seems to-day utterly non- sensical, as, forsooth, it seemed many years ago when it was first produced. Its revival will give you some fair chuckles. But one shouldn't be a hypocrite in such matters. il r THEY took the plot and about three-quarters of the dialogue out of “The Trouper.” by the Nugents, it wouldn't be such a bad show. For about a quarter of the lines are genu- inely amusing. But just as you periodically find yourself being amused, in pops the plot again with a lot of plot dialogue that spoils everything. The best part of the evening lies in the wise-cracks that the authors have sprinkled through the play Some of these are gala. But the rest of the proceedings are about as mer: as a chorus girl on Sunday morning. The plot alone, told in cold blood, is enough to send a chill running down one’s spine. An old actor, who has never laid eyes on his baby daughter, one day comes to a small town in sylvania and, lo and behold! finds her grown to young womanhood and lovely to look upon. The girl has always dreamed of her father as one of the great men of the profession and the old gentleman busies himself pathetically in an effort to foster his child’s sweet delusion. Another thing that strains at the old fellow’s heart is the wish that in this child of his there may flow the blood of a great actress, but the girl, it seems, would rather marry and settle down (Continued on page 29) comicbooks.com