Judge — August 27, 1927 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

JUDGE SUD GE Fr the revue, “Allez-oop,” had gone smoothly on its open- ing night, it would have been pretty hard to sit through. The show was saved, however, by the happy circumstances that every- thing went wrong and it thus turned out to have amusement qualities that’ the management never expected. The fun began a few minutes after the curtain went up, when two pieces of the scenery fell down and handed a couple of the chorus girls jolly whacks on their heads. The gaiety having subsided and the evening having got back to its normal dullness, the George ters then presently came to the rescue by getting tangled up in the drop curtain, which gave a sufficient amount of diversion to an act that would otherwise have been awful. For the next five minutes everything went along evenly, to the boredom of the assembled customers. This deplorable con- dition of affairs w soon remedied, however, by a_ skit called “The Traftie Cop,” dur- ing the progress of which stage waits and the slow taking up of cues succeeded in taking the audience’s | mind off the skit. Again, the show began to move smoothly for a little while, to the ennui of those out front. De- spair seemed about to settle upon the house when, suddenly, all was made merry once more by a male hoofer who, displeased with the way his performance was going, gave issue to a couple of resound- ing cuss words. This heartened the audience and further encour- agement soon followed when the drop curtains got completely balled up, when a travesty of the talking movies went all wrong and when the stage was held up for what seemed to be half an hour by dilatory performers. ** Allez-oop" (Carroll)—See this issue. “The Manhatters"” around to it. (Selwyn)—I still haven't got “Broadway” (Broadburst)—Time does not wither, nor custom stale this one. “The Desert Song’ (Casino)—The tunes deserve 1 better libretto. “The Ladder" (Cort)—A magnificent dud. “Africana” (Daly’s)—A black song and dance show with points. “Rang Tang” (Royale)—Another, with several good numbers, 4 Night in Spain” (44th St.)—Funny low comedy and some nimble hoofing. “The Squall” (48th St.)—There’s nothing In this one, “The Second Man' in this to give you an (Guild)—But there is plenty musing evening. “Merry-Go-Round” (Klaw)—Some sketches with Don Barclay in the lead. diverting “Grand Street Follies” Albert Carroll in the lead. (Little)—Ditto with “* Kisa Me" (Lyric)—Very sour musical comedy. “The Spider” (Music Box)—The old stuff handled with a lot of bounce. mystery ”* (Playhouse)—Jane Cowl “The Mating Season’ (Wallack’s)—One of the worst. Padlocks of 1927") Shubert)—Terx: tries hard, but the show is against h | “The Circus Princess" (Winter Garden)—Com- mendable musical comedy with Kalman melodies. “Peggy-Ann" (Vanderbilt)—Mild song and dance affair. “Rio Rita” (Ziegfeld)—Expensively and taste- fully staged Ziegfeld show. “Her Firat Affair’ (Bayes)—For future review. “The Solitaire Man" (Biltmore)—Ditto. “Tenth Avenue” (Eltinge)—Ditto. “Blood Money" (Hudson)—Same here. “ Ziegfeld Follies” (New Amsterdam)—And bere. “ Burlesque’ (Plymouth)—And here. “Good News’ (Ambassador)—And here. “Secret Service Smith” (Cosmopolitan)—And here again. “Pickwick” (Emplre)—Here too. “Hit the Deck” (Belasco)—Musical version of ‘Shore Leave"; not much. furday’s Children” (Booth)—Praiseworthy comedy on matrimony by Maxwell Anderson. ANG, ee SIMOW'S BY GOREN NATLAN a good mood. This ‘able mood was presently heightened by stage hands who pulled the curtains apart on a jungle scene five minutes before the scheduled time and took the chorus girls un- awares. Meanwhile, during the course of two numbers, several of the lady dancers lost their bal- ance and landed with charming thuds upon their perhaps no less charming rears. few There were a minutes of calm and then the audience was waked up again by a bench song at the beginning of which the bench got sadly mixed up in the folds of the draw- curtain, The next item was called “Attorney for the Defense” and relied for its final kick upon a dummy’s coming to life and hit- ting its defense counsel over the head with a blackjack. To the delight of the audience, this other- wise tedious section of the bill was made gay by the pseudo- dummy’s physical contortions throughout the sketch, due doubt- less to the flies that buzzed about his nose. Once again there was a brief spell during which all went tediously as rehearsed. And pres- ently the audience got another good laugh when the lights failed to go out properly and found a performer still stuck half way up a ladder to the right of the proscenium arch. Scheduled to open on a Mon- day night, the revue was abruptly postponed to the following eve- ning, with this note dispatched by messenger to the reviewers: “Due to a delay in the arrival of one trunk containing costumes and props, it will be impossible to give the opening performance of ‘Allez-oop’ as scheduled.” In other words, “Allez-oop” is exactly the kind of revue whose success or failure depends upon one trunk. (Continued on page 28) comicbooks.com