Judge — August 25, 1928 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

JUDGE 4 | fogs) us survey of European theatrical con- A ditions convinces me of one thing and that is that there is a lot of pretty bum champagne being produced in’ France nd that the beer in Germany, while certainly nothing to make | faces at, still isn’t up to the standard of Hauptmann’s and Sudermann’s heyday. True enough, there are certain theatres in Germany where the brands on sale in the lobby are in the best tradition of classic enter- | tainment, but there are others where what you get is 1 sad decline from the palmy days. I am speaking, mind you, of theatri The state of affairs in other quarters iy more prosperous. For | example, there is a place just around the corner fr | one of Reinhardt's Berlin theatres where the beer is ‘so tasty that, after say eighteen or twenty Seidel of | it, one is moved to drop into the café seve blocks: | away, near the Kleinestheater, where the same brand is on tap but where the Seidel are somewhat larger. While theatrical conditions are not all that one might wish for in Berlin—the beer at no less than three important theatres iy slightly too warm and at not less than two others a bit too cold—the situation in Munich, Stuttgart and Dresden, particularly in these days conditions alone, a | Munich, is much more encouraging. In these cities, the lager itself, ay well as its keeping and service, is genuinely artistic. While not detracting from. the dramatic manuscripts that are put on as adjuncts to it, it offers its own raison d’étre (as the Alsatians put it) in its detraction of the critical attention from the actors. I don’t say that there aren't many Ger- ctors who are not very talented; what I imply ere are a whole lot m man that several quarts al, But while, as I have indicated, the beer generally is all and even ny American deserves, something seems to be lacking. Maybe it is that the imports of Pilsner from Bohemia are not as large as they used to be. For when all is said and done, and with a duc and most profound enbriu, Hof- briu, Pschorrbriu, Culmbacher, Wirzburger, Ma- thaserbriu, Lowenbriiu, Augustinerbriu, Hackerbrau, chelbriiu 1all the other estimable German malt tonics, it and is Pilsner, an alien brew, that made and make Germany what it is. > man who has ever drunk Pilsner, that topaz nonesucl be enchanted by anything else, however hypnotic. So I suppose theatrical conditions in Bohemia must be better than anywhere else in Europe. In France, as hinted, much of the champagne is of | the Impressionistic school. The 1: e the same is in the great days of Rostand, Herview i help a great d much more than nee to was can ever GANG te SHOW Se By f } a GEORGE JEAN NATHAN and Porto-Riche, but the product is amateurish, Here and there, if one is sufficiently experienced in’ the matter of the Paris theatres and their environs, one may capture a bottle of authentic vintage, but what is dispensed generally to visiting erities tastes as if it came from He de Staten. To enjoy the most dra matic French champagnes one must review the E lish theatre, for London is where the best is sent. The English drama may in the doldrums, but cer tainly the English theatre isn’t. ‘The bar in it is still producing some very elegant stuff. Even my nurse presently informs me that it wasn’t the fault of the liquor [drank there. As for the Italian theatre, I don’t like chianti. But to return to the French. Say what you will about the French theatre, it shows better sense when it comes to revues and music shows than any other theatre. As I have been observing now for twenty years, no sane man can enjoy a revuc or a musical show unless he has something more under his belt than his undershirt. The French see to it that he has and are duly rewarded by his going back home and proclaiming that never anywhere has he seen such shows as the French put on, sa result, the s +h revue producers clean up big every ye » White and Archie Selwyn wonders that those gentlemen only imagined they saw and that, when they look at them later on in the cold Broadway light, usually turn out to be things they themselves put on ten years before and had forgotten all about in the meantime. As [ have said, however, the Frenchman knows his business, and that is part of it. Give me 1 champagne, maybe four or tive bottles, and even a French chorus girl without any clothes on looks like Marilyn Miller with all her clothes on to me, And give me a half dozen pon terward, readily obtainable in any Paris and Tam ready to enjoy immoderately audeville acts that [ saw and was bored to tthe I fifteen years ago. Theatrical Hungary far as I investigated them, showed a lamentable decline in the quality of th vkay. The drama has suffered seri ously as a consequence. The ‘Tokay of pre-war is apparently no more; the species currently ough go of cogna revue house, all the death by conditions in y. so seems to no more body than a comed. It doesn’t taste bad, but neither, for that matter, do certain brands of tooth-paste. It some of its former melk But something is wrong with it, Perhaps those twenty or thir! of Prunelle de l'Isére I had before sampling it may have had something to do with it. ’ comicbooks.com