Judge — September 11, 1926 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

os 4am JUDGE JUDGING ‘he SHOWS ( sy, the author uoose Ankles,” has been kind enough to save the dramatic critics a lot of trouble. Usually when a play like his comes along and shows itself to be half good nnd half bad, the boys have to sit down and expl n to their customers, visible diffi- mirse to the occult phases of dramatic. criticism, U not without considers culty and much re Various whys and wherefores, the Whereins and whereases, of the mamu- scripts high and low spots. Doctor anney, doubtless mindful. of the heat and, hot or cold, of the grand fake that the boys put up anyway: has spared them the bother of indi- cating what is good and what is bad aciously dividing it into four distinct and definite parts. two of them amusing and the other about his piece by g twoas dull as anything that has come this way for at least a week. ‘The acts of “Loose Ankles” are, up to ten-thirty, divided into two scenes each. The first of these scenes are terrible; the second are comical in a vaudeville smart-crack fashion and are made doubly funny by a new clown, Osgood Perkins. Thus, all that the critical boys have to do is to instruct their readers to skip the first set of scenes and take in the second. Doctor Janney begins his evening's job with one of those stage wills that stipulates that unless the heroine marries, swims the English Channel in the costume of Marie Antoinette, engages in a pie-eating contest with Suzanne Lenglen or does something of the sort by three minutes after six next Tuesday afternoon, the fortune will go elsewhere. For the first half hour a stage full of extremely bad actors, in the réles of relatives, fuss and fume around discoursing on ose Ankle | (Biltmore)—Reported on in | opposite colun “My Country” (46th St. ficent Mai bal Irish Rose.” lash modeled after “Abi | | “The Little Spitfire” (Cort)—Deseribed in this | | issue, mericana” (Belmont)—A reference to ts the gla ure, man who F-rug optician, its best fe eyes in bear rug (Guild)—The ‘Theater al with this 0 nets it Mrs. Bea J turns commer idy sum. The Home Towners’” (Hudson)— st corge Cohan comedy to be reviewed next week. “The Great God Brown’ (Klaw)—The best American play of last season and still the best American pl this. (Carroll) New edition of Earl 1, to be discussed in the nes Sunshine” (Layrie)—See “Sunny.” New Am "1 itisins all the sunshine thet wrence Lane Man's Wo man” (Sth St. All persons w rick Gaicties™ (Gar rents, otherw “Kitty's Kisses” — (Play Doruthy Dilley and Nick Long all right. But when they aren “Scandals” (Apollo)—Entertaining | show that would be better without the Howard Brothers. “The Ghost Train” (Eltinge)—Mystery ooey. “Pyramids” (Cohan)—I decline to go to this one, Enough is enough. “The Girl Friend” (Vanderbilt)—Shabby music show, “The Mouse of Ussher (Mayfair)—Very dull “The Vagabond King” (Casino)—Com- mendable song show. “‘Abie's Irish Rose” (Republic)—A practical joke. “The Great Temptations” (Winter Garden) Big spectacular revue that makes for an entertaining evening. “Honest Liars” (Harris)—Pitfe. Yanthe” (Plymouth)—Fine Gilbert and revival, It will delight you | Laff That OF” (Wallack's)—Poor stuff “4 Night in Paris” (sth St.) Fairly di verting revue —— = 4 "fe Eeapetienietallen. | | the aforesaid will, with the high- minded heroine ba jancing herself against the grand piano at stage right and handing out snappy remarks on the low quality of human beings that they all are. This ordeal over, the curtain falls, and when it rises again discloses: several young men in the roles of professional hoofers who live off (hh The ensuing half hour is given over minty of foolish fat women. to their comie remarks and is di verting. “The second act is similarly separated into stuf that is pretty awful and. stuff that) contains the essence of laughter. If you are one of those idiotic souls who want to know how such dooflickuses come out in the end, you may be informed that the heroine marries one of | the rs—a straight lad from theceoun- just twelve hours after she has laid eves on him for the first time in her life. ‘Thus does the American drama hold) Mirror candy up. to mature. As Thave noted, the best perform- ance is that of P rhins in the role of a cynical dancing grafter. ‘The rest of the aggregation is what made Chicago famous. II n't expe { anything of a called “The Little Spit- fire.” oe in the case of Mr. Myron iC; one isn’t disap- pointed. The heroine is named “Gypsy” and the other characters live at Southampton, L. I., and turn up their noses at her. If you don’t know what the rest of the play is like. you must have left off going to the theater the day Abra was shot. Doctor Fi is an other study of American society in (Continued on page 26) ‘ugan’s piece, mam Lincoln n’s masterpiece comicbooks.com | r—