Judge — March 12, 1932 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

y you happen to be the kind of theatregoer who wants his drama with a lot of meat in it and who can't conceive of even a polite comedy as deserving of his rapt it have at least three se s showing the wife of a baronet being physically cajoled on a chaise-longue by a hand- 0 player from the Ar- xentine, you will not be persuaded by what I have to say of John Van Dru- There's Always Julie For if ever a comedy simultancously had next to nothing and a whole lot in it, the exhibit in point is that one. cral years ago, in “Ariane”, Cl: Anet wrote a novel wholly, sin; without even minor deviation occupied with a love affair. Van Druten has now done the same thing with a play. What is more—and if you are the kind of theatregoer alluded to, what is worse—he has gone Anct one better hy ng what Miss Mac West defines as “sex”, he has contrived his play as little more than a duologue, he has avoided anything resembling what our French friends insist upon is “theatrical drama,” and he has been, in general, as dramatically passive about the whole business as a Marti- nez Sierra chock full of hop. But he has, at the same time, written a sure and honest amusing pla Under the hypnosis of the admirable performances of the Mlle. Best and the M. Marshall in the two central roles, it may be believed by some that the play itself is no particular shakes and that it is only the excellent acting th es it seem so. Such is the customary critical disposition of folk convinced that, given. suf- ficiently good actors, all that is needed for a wonderful ev ng in the theatre is to tear up the playwright’s script and thus not hamstring the feeund vir- tuosity of the performers. But, de- spite the very commendable contribu- tion of the Mlle. Best dothe M. Marshall, it is entirely evident on this occasion that down at the bottom of the high pleasure of the evening is Mr. John Van Druten himself. Strain- ttention save some young ten’s and whetting and very who are JUDGE THEATRE Jean Nathan lessly—that is, in the theatre, for he doubtless ploughed and furrowed like all hell in his working chambers—and with an uncommon gift for simple and winning English, he has negotiated a comedy that, in its very simplicity, tells a love story in all its light com- plexities more truthfully, more under- standingly and certainly more con- vincingly than such a story is gener- ally told in the theatre. “He knows his two characters inside and out; he knows what they do not say even bet- ter than what he must make them sav; and he knows that real depth and what often passes in the theatre for pro- fundity have very little in common, He has, in a word, done a good job. . ee “Couustos,” adapted by John An- derson from the German of the Herren Lothar and Sebesi, provides the kind of theatrical entertainment at will in all probability convert the Theatre once more into a What the play was like in the original, I do not know, as it is impossible for me to read all the Ger- man scripts that annually come to my desk and still have time left for my aily beer devotions, But if. it was anything like what M. Anderson has led us to believe it was. the hitherto periodical Lothar must be slipping badly. Telling the tale of a young woms who goes 1 over a railroad ac dent and mistakes a yokel doctor for her romantic fiancé, with the medico's humoring her by going off on a honey- moon with her, the play promptly proceeds to the routine stage wham wherewith an audience is theoretically kept on tenter-hooks regarding the imminent danger to the young woman's chastity. The second acts of such exhibits are usually laid in a boudoir; the second act of this one is laid in a hotel restaurant, That is the sole dif- -e. Although the German locale characters are preserved pter, the suggestion of any- thing German is as far removed from the script and sta as from the French Chamber of Deputies. A 16 minor character modeled after Molnar and played very realistically by Len- nox Pawle is the only even dimly hu morous light that penetrates the wet fog. . * * “When the Bough Breaks.” Mr. Jerome Sackheim, who has been devoting his literary carcer to Holly- wood belles-lettres, has tried to gain absolution for his past sins by com- posing what he believes to be a truth ful, honest and uncompromising play. He has not, alas, succeeded, for he has mistaken obstreperousness for truth, bravado for honesty and bad taste (and doubtless defective experi- ence) for forthrightness. His inten- tion was commendable enough, but it is to be feared that his immersion in the Hollywood Kultur has got in its usual dirty work. * * * old critical stencil as to the in- feriority of the book to the score does not hold good in the case of “Face the Music,” the lampoon. of New York police, show business and what not on view in the New Amster- dam. Chief credit for the success of the exhibit goes not to Irving Berlin but to Moss Hart who, doubtless in- spired by “Of Thee I Sing,” has con- fected an often genuinely revue script. Your usually s dignified professor, indeed, gave issu least a dozen times during the x to such loud guffaws that sev eral of his old friends present had to look twice to make certain it was lv in the old seat at H-101 and not som with money in the show. ‘ace the Music” enjoys the fur- nical id and one of some prepossessing d by Hassard Short and some very able comiques in the persons of Mary Boland, who has never been quite so h Tombes and Hugh O' trious, Andrew onnell. It has herine Carrington, a lead st of more than usual at- tracti ss. And it has, to boot, a conside amount of waggishness in the matter of its staging, Ali in all, (Page 32, please) ing comicbooks.com