New York Clipper (Jun 1923)

14 THE N£W YORK CLIPPER June 6, 1923 DRJUuMTtCamd MtrSICJlL 'ADRIENNE" FIRST SUMMER SHOW IS BRIGHT AND PLEASING "ADRIENNE," a musical comedy in two acts with libretto by A. Seymour Drown and mu]»ic l^y AltMrrt Von Tilvcr, Prewntcd at the George M. Cohan Thea- tre on Monday evening. May J8. CAST. Sid Darrel Charlo Cahill WWm Nora MaJone Lauia .Arnold Prison Guard John Kearney First PrivMr.. WiUiam Creco Second Prisoner Mohamed Haussatn Third Prijimcr Robert Maznx Bnnk Allen Dilly U. Van nrac* Clayton Mabel Ferry- Thomas Robert Starr John Grey Richard Carle Mrs. John (trey Jean Newcomb Bob Goirliin Dan Healy Adrienne Grey Vivien'nc Segal Stephen Hayes Ilarry Fender Shrine AttemUnt John Reamer "Adrienne,'* the first of the summer shows to reach Broadway has set a high mark for those that arc to follow as it contains far more entertainment than many of the winter productions which arc supinsed to be the leaders in musical en- tertainment. The siumner show, usually very short in the comedy line, depending more upon the chorus and danang to put it over has become something of a habit but "Adriame" is different and is genuine- ly amusing with numerous laughs. There are two comedians in the cast, and good ones too. Billy B. Van is the first and Richard Carle, the second. Van has been away from musical shows for a long time, havmg been for the past two or three years in vaudeville with James J. Cor- bett. Carle has been in musical shows but has been seen but little along Broadway. Carle does about the best work of years in the role of a iDarried man whose flirta- teous desires are continually spoiled by his large and jealous wife who keeps a con- ttnual eye on him and appears at the most inopportune times and places. The book is not particularly funny and so it is up to Carle to do considerable clowning himself and he does it cleverly. Billy van is as good in this piece as he was in "The Rainbow Girl" which kept andiences laughing at the New Amster- dam for a full year and then put in two more on the road. Van is a jailbird, who upon the day of completing his sentence resolves that his crociced path has ended and that in future he is to be straightforward and honest. But he leaves the tail broke and before he gets out of its sight is approached by two old cronies who prevail him upon to go back to the easy way of getting money. The pair that approach him have a novel idea as to the way to get some easy money. They have made the acquaintance of ".Adrienne," a young heiress who has be- come interested in the spirit world and they plan a means of enlightening her in re^rd to the octnilt matters and at the same time relieve her of her for- tune. Vivienne Segal is the heiress and she sings and acts charmingly. She is in love with Harry Fender, the tenor, and he tries, aided by her father and mother to prevent her from going to the Temple to witness the spirit scenes, but all these fail and she leaves to learn the mystery and incidentally to lose all her jewels. She is at the last miraculously saved, the robbers are foiled, and all ends happily. This mi^bt not have happened if Van, upon whom the conspirators depended to put the plan over, had not found a bottle of gin and this kmhi pot an end to his scheming and he filled the {Bit with but- ter, did some amnsinff danang and a fall or two that was leally wonderfnl. The dancing is a big feature of the show and the chorus lavishly dressed in some scenes and almost entirely disrobed in others is line The day of the walking chorus is all over and Dave Bennett who put the dances on evidently well realized it when he started with "Adrienne." No big Broadway chorus ever worked harder than this one and much of the work is won- derful. There are a whole row of dancers in solos in duets, Carlos and Inez arc fine, Mary Kitchen, clever; Fridkin and Rhoda, the Keene Twins and others cover them- selves with dancing glory. Lou Lockett, late of vaudeville, does some of the best dancing of his career. Miss Sicgel displayed a voice which seems to be steadily improving in quality and size and her vocal art is fine. In sev- eral numbers she was really charming, the duet "Love Is AH" being particularly fine. Miss Siegcl has evidently been de- voting much time to the improvement of her' singing as her tones while full and dear are delivered without the slightest effort and_ the quality is excellent. There is considerable good singing in the piece, especially that of the Lyric Four, a female quartette that did about the finest bit of work heard on Broadway in many a day. Their voices blend beauti- fully and they sang with a style and finish that was a delight to the ear. The quar- tette is made up of Edith Holloway, Pauline Miller, Jean Young and Angela Manilla. Evenly balanced vocally, excel- ently rehearsed their singing will be long remembered. The plot of the piece might perhaps be strengtheinnl but as no one wants to bather with that in a stmmier musical show, the piece can run along alright as it is. There is one comedy song which will doid)tlcss be remembered and whistled antf hummed _ along Broadway. It is called "Sing Sing," and is sung early in the show. It carries a very clever lyric and a bright tune. Charles Cahill Wilson recently with a stock company in Brooklyn plays the role of Sid Darrell, the chief conspirator, and he does some surprisingly good work. Dan Healy is fine and other members of the cast are especially good. The costimi- ing and scenery of the piece are all that could be asked. "OFFICER 666" IN FRENCH IS WELL PLAYED AT THE SELWYN "OFFICE* 666." Given in French hy the Silvemail Flayer* and translated front the English of Augustin McHugh tjy Hugo Mancbc and Clou D'Argent. At the Selwyn Thatre on Tuesday. May 29, 1923. CAST. Bateato Kick Long Ptaelan—L'Argcnt 666. .*.Augaste Afamini Wbitner Barnes Carlin Crandall T>aveT3 Gladwin Clarke Silvemail Hdenc Bortoo Eva Le Gallietme Sadie Small Ray Laurel Tliomas Watkins Dan Walker Alfred Wilson H. Paul 'Doucet Mrs. Burton Beverly Sitgreavcs Captain Stone George Dechaux Kearney , — Mareel Rousseau R>'an Hugo Manche .Client , JcM Yovin The Silvemail Players will sail shortly to present a series of American plays in the French tongue, in Paris. They went into training on Tuesday by presenting this American farce to an Axncrican audi- enct: but using more or less pure Gallic diction. True, the French of the different characters varied a trifle and it is more than possible that the langijage they spoke IS more intelligftle on this side of the water than it will be in Paris, but talcing it all in all, they did succeed in putting in the required number of "s'il vous pUit's" je lie comprends pas's" to the square foot and we would not be at all surprised if they met with success in the far country. The production is on the tyi>e of a French version of an American stock com- pany but the performers, all of whom are capable in English, did remarkably well in the strange language. Qarkc Silvemail played the leading male role with confi- dence and understanding and Eva Le Gal- licne made an attractive heroine, acting the part with ease and discretion. Kay Lau- rell seemed a trifle uncertain of her lines but succeeded to get through effeaively and R. Paul Doucet made a convincing villian, excellently cast for the -plot. Auguste Aramini, as "L'Agent" and George Dechaux as "Captain Stone" played their parts well and furthermore spoke French as if they were acctistomed to conversing in that tongue. LAMBS GAMBOL AT CARROLL The Lambs held their annual spring gambol at the Earl Carroll Theatre last Sunday evening, and as might have been expected surpassed all predecessors in va- riety and sparkle of entertainnKnt. In fact, the features came with such fast and furious pace the audience had hardly been able to recover from one laughing spell . before another equally humorou.*: onslaught was aimed at them. The only fault that could have been found with the perform- ance was in that it ran too long, the bill running until after midnight. One of the most impressive of the of- ferings was the opening number by George Christie, entitled 'To Memory Dear." Here an old-time actor, confronted in the Lambs Oub with the mocking spirits of modem players who said that all the pub- lic wants nowadays is "hokum." called forth the shades of various imposing char- acters of Shakespeare, as played by their leading exponents, and proved that the fa- mous poet still packed a dramatic punch. H. Cooper Qiffe portrayed Henry Irving as Shylock, George Le Guere giving an impression of Ada Rehan as Katherine and Frederick Lewis evoking memories of Ed- win Booth as Hamlet. All gave stirring and life-like pictures of these personages and parts. The sight of various young men frisking about in feminine garb is always bound to evoke laughter at such affairs, so nat- urally a number of them capered about in this fashion in a song and dance act called "Leatling Ladies of The Lambs." For a more earnest touch there was "The Finished Story," by Edward Ellis, which started out rather satirically, but wound up with tragedy. A ^oung author had been using his amours, with women as plots for his novels. Unwittingly he has had an affair with his valet's wife and the latter kills him for revenge. The playlet was admirably acted by Frank Morgan and Frederick Burton. .\mong the other offerings were "Our Radio Station," an amusing burlesque by Gene Buck; 'The Bagdad of Romance," by Tom Barry, and "Four Well Known Dames—and a Guy," by Gene Buck and Raymond Hubbell. ALEXAltlDRA CARLISLE DIVORCED Alexandra Carlisle, who plays the part of Oara Jewett in the Selwyn production of "The Fool" at the Times Square The- atre, is now a divorcee. Her former hus- band. Dr. Albert Pfeiffer. was granted a divorce last week in the Massachusetts Probate Court. The doctor charged his wife with deser- tion, saying that she had been constantly on the stage since their marriage. They sefBrated in 1920 and it was agreed that Mrs. Pfeiffer should have the custody of their six-year-old adopted daughter with permission for the doctor to visit the child. Miss Carlisle and Dr. Albert Pfeiffer were married in London in 1912. At that time the actress was appearing in "Eivery- woman." Miss Carlisle has long been in- .terested actively in politics and was a Massachusetts delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1920. HOUDINI IS SKEPTICAL Harr>- Houdini, one of the judges in the Scientific Americans spook contest, ac- knowledged absolute skepticism as to spir- itistic manifestation Suntlay night, although professing a sincere desire to believe. The subject came up at a dinner at the Hotel McAlpin of the Society of American Magicians of which Houdini is president. When asked about his difference with the editor of the Scientific American. which resulted in his temporary dismissal from the board of judges in the maga- zine's contest, Houdini said that the matter has been straightened out and he told of futile endeavors to convince himself that communication with a spirit world was possible. For the past twenty-five years, Houdini said he had been trying to convince him- self that there was some way of commtmi- cating with the spirit world, and had one of the largest libraries in the country on occult subjects. Nowhere had he found evidence that would in any way convince hiiiL All of the tricks done by so-called spirits, could t>e reproduced by him, he said, even to the extent of spirit messages. A compact was entered into between him and five of his relatives now dead to com- municate with each other if possible, but all are dead and not a word had he heard from any of the five. Not only this but he had attended all of the seances and such gatherings as might in some way convince him, but of no avail. "I want to believe," he concluded, "but my mind will not let me. OPERATIC BILL FOR BENEFIT A gala operatic bill, announced for Sun- day evening, June 10, at the Century The- atre, will be the second of three perform- ances for the benefit of the Veteran's Mountain Camp. This show will consist of the five best-liked acts from the five most popular operas, with different sets of prima idonnas, tenors and baritones from the- Metropolitan and Chicago Opera Companies. The program will include the prison scene from 'II Trovatore," with Mmes. Gladys Axman, Eleanora de Cisneros, and Messrs. Nicola Zerola, Guiseppe Inter- rante. The last act from "Rigoletto" wilt be given with Mmes Nina Morgana, Anita Klinova, and Messrs. Harmond Tokahyan, Guiseppe Danise, and Pietro De Biasi. Then will come the Nile scene from "Aida" with Mmes. Marie Rappold, Anita Klinova and Messrs. Manuel Salazar, Vin- cente Ballester. The second act of "Madam Butterfly" will be sung with a real Japanese prima donna, Hara Onuki, in the title role, with Mme. Klinova, and Messrs. Mario Velle, Francesco Curci and Natale Cervi in the other leading roles. The first act from "La Boheme." with Anna Fitziu, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Vin- cente Ballester, and Interrante, De Biasi and Cervi, will be the final offering on the program. TABLET FOR GILLESPIE A bronze memorial tablet in honor of Eugene F. Gillespie of the United States Navy, formerly assistant treasurer of ttie Royal Theatre, was unveiled yesterday in Gillespie Square, Webster avenue and IfiSth street, The Bronx. Taking part in the ceremonies were the Fire Department Band, the Bronx Post of Veterans of For- eign Wars, the Keith Boys' Band, St. Mary's Catholic Union and Drum Corps, the Mayor's Committee of Women on Na- tional Defense, and several hundred neigh- bors who knew Gillespie. KELLNER IS T. & D. MANAGER San Frakcisco, June 4.—William Kell- ncr. formerly on the Ackerman & Harris staff, has been appointed manager of the T.. & D. Theatre. Berkeley, Cal., which house has been added to the West Coast Amusement Co. circuit.