Life — November 23, 1916 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

What Goeth on the Stage at Present E may now calmly turn from such routine oc- currences as the war in Europe, the settlement of a closely contested presi- dential election and four years more of Josephus to the contemplation of art in the form of the production of “The Century Girl” at what was once the New Theatre, It measures the importance of the girl-and- music form of entertain- ment in American eyes that the most costly of New York's theatres should now be given over to it, that a very considerable fortune should be spent on staging it, and that its weekly salary list exceeds that of any entertainment in town except opera at the Metro- politan, This production points the fact that in this country more energy, more brains of a certain sort and more moncy are bestowed on the girl-and-mu kind of amusement than on any other. With all this effort “The Century Girl” differs from its many predecessors only in quantity, in the fact that ingeni- ous and effective use is made of the big theatre's revolving s and that Mr. Joseph Urban has supplied some unusu- ally beautiful settings. From the list of composers, producers and performers it is evident that Messrs. Dillingham and Ziegfeld set out to include the names of as many persons as possible who are best known in their respective lin The ficld of discovery was entirely neglected, and therefore there is little that is strik- ingly novel or original in the whole long bill. The best two numbers are a won- derful scene under the sea and a bur- lesque of life in the Stone Age, when courtship was carried on with a club as its principal accessory. This skit was evidently suggested by similar efforts in artistic amateur circles, where there was more humor but less opportunity for spectacular effect. The financial success of the new en- terprise still hangs in the balance. Its chances with the public are not improved by the fact that the management per- sistently advertises seats in the galleries “LIVE E * POST-GRADUATE COURSE FOR SOCIETY COLUMN WRITERS at reasonable prices and yet has permitted the desirable seats to get into the hands of speculators who have the effrontery to demand for them the ridiculous sum of ten dollars each. It remains to be seen whether the public is silly enough to stand for such extortion. Bg re w ovee T is evidence of general prosperity that, even with the gen- eral mediocrity of the season's offerings, available theatres are so scarce in New York that so admirable an attraction as “The Yellow Jacket,” by Messrs. Hazleton and Benrimo, could find room for nothing but afternoon performances, and only four of these a weck. In the present production the quaint Chinese play is given with a handsome mounting and as competent a cast as when it was first given here some four years ago. Some of the artists are the same as then, and in other cases it has been improved, so that the presentation now is quite as delightful as it originally was. Although “The Yellow Jacket” has been successfully performed in other languages and all over the world, it still seems to be a bit over the heads of average New York theatregoers. WAYHO SOV BA BR HETHER Mr. George Ber- nard Shaw is at his best or not quite at his best, whether you agree with what he attempts to set forth or do not agree, whether you regard him as a philosopher or as a self-advertising charlatan, you are bound to find him interesting, whether in reading or in anything like adequate performance. In the case of “ Get- ting Married" there is no fault to be found with the stage