Life — June 9, 1927 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

Bittersweet E had planned a tenderly sad little piece on the closing of the Neighborhood Playhouse and the consequent abortive finish of the current Grand Street Follies, but now we learn that the production is moving uptown to the Little Theatre. This will reduce the pathos of our article by one-half, but we still feel pretty sad about the closing of the Neighborhood Playhouse. We can not recall any occasion when we did not have a good time there. = HE new Grand Street Follies (on Forty-fourth Street by now) seem just about the best of the series. Probably whatever thin spots there were have been fixed up by this time, and the good spots were very good in- deed. As usual, these young people from Grand Strect excel in mocking their elders. Albert Carroll, for several years the keystone of these productions, again furnishes some uncanny characterizations, including those of Mrs. Fiske, Miss Barrymore and Miss Barrymore's brother John, One of the tantalizing things about Mr, Carroll's imitations is his ability to underplay. Just as you recognize a gesture of Mrs, Fiske’s or an intonation of Mr. Barrymore’s that no one has ever caught before, Mr. Carroll discards it and never uses it again. It is all very prodigal and has, we imagine, some connection with real art. UL S, SiS “aN M R. CARROLL seems to have communicated some of M4 his skill to the rest of the company, for there are other amazing imitations, some quite broad but all good. Dorothy Sands as Jane Cowl and Laura Hope Crews (the latter as good an imitation as Miss Crews herself could give), Paula ‘Trueman as Helen Menken and Jeane Eagels, and the Messrs Heller and Hulicius as Moran and Mack, all seemed perfectly delightful to this section of the press, whose greatest dramatic delights are good imitations and the Six Brown Brothers. URING the week, when “Abic’s Irish Rose’ was celebrating its fifth anniversary, we held an oppo- sition meeting at the fifth anniversary of “Kempy” (in revival), And what a humorous little play that is! And what a pleasant family of actors the Nugents are! The Dad Bence of Nugent pére, with his constant con- cern lest his women-folk fall off their chairs, is likely to become one of our favorite comedy parts of history the more we think about it. And the wrench scene, be- tween Miss Ruth and Master Elliott, one of the nicest. “Kempy” was the first revival of Mr. Murray Phil- lips in his attempt to accustom New Yorkers and visitors to the two-dollar top. A lot of people are going to be suspicious of any show which costs them only two dollars to see, but if they are all as good as “Kempy,” perhaps Mr. Phillips can win the public over yet. The Amer- ican people will stand for anything, even to having their money saved. HERE was a time when any revival of Gilbert and Sullivan was just so much velvet and we would go ‘way uptown or over to Newark or to Odd Fellows’ Hall just to see our favorites performed, in no matter how sleazy a fashion. But Winthrop Ames has changed all that and now we know what a Gilbert and Sullivan revival can be. This is bad for the other revivalists, and probably by now they are sick and tired of hearing the name “Ames” thrown up at them, But the fact remains that we are not satisfied with “Ruddigore it is now done at the Cos- mopolitan, nor with “Pati "as done at the Masqu “Ruddigore” is frankly one of the old-school revivals such as we used to welcome so indiscriminately and, compared with what we know now, is like playing the score on an old-fashioned melodcon, “Patience” shows a little more of the Ames influence, but not enough. In the first place, the stage is too small. The various art theatres suffer enough in loss of illusion through small stages without the commer theatre’s taking the same handicap on itself. What is the use in being a commercial theatre if you aren't going to have room enough? With less scenery and one or two changes in the cast, this production of “Patience” might not be at all bad; but it would have been better to let Mr. Ames take his time with both “Ruddigore” and “Pa- tience’—but there, we had determined not to mention Mr. Ames again. OXE line in “Ruddigore” struck home to this depart- ment, in view of a certain extra-mural sortie dulged in by its conductor. When Mad Margaret said: “T made an affidavit once, but it died,” we blushed. ‘The line probably has always been in the ‘script, but we have never heard it spoken sv loudly before. Robert Benchley. comicbooks.com