Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1924)

68 On the New York Stage Reviews of Broadway's latest offerings in the legitimate theaters By Alison Smith ANEW and startling footnote has just appeared in one of the daily newspaper advertisements for a musical comedy. After the usual rapturous comments on the incomparable star, the hilarious comedian and the glorified chorus, the announcement adds, mysteriously and a bit sternly, "No dramatic critics in the cast." This would be baffling to any one reading the papers of ten years ago. You would then take for granted that the critic's place was in the aisle seat, not on the other side of the footlights. But ever since Robert Benchley, the dramatic critic of Life, broke so hilariously into the "Music Box Revue," there have been rumors of other scribes who were about to make the same venture. The second and even more startling arrival comes with Heywood Broun, who has just joined the cast of "Round the Town." Through his syndicated column in the New York World, Mr. Broun's rambling comments in "It Seems to Me," have been echoed all over the country. This is the first time, however, that they have been broadcasted through his own appearance "in the flesh" as we say in the movies. On the first night, he leaned up against a proscenium arch and delivered his thoughts with the casual charm which makes his column and his reviews absolutely unique in journalism. But, unfortunately, he had little or no support from the rest of the show. "Round the Town" was written by two other journalists — S. Jay Kaufman and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was built on the excellent idea that audiences would enjoy a social evening in the theater with the same line of comment that they read in their daily papers. But somehow it didn't quite come off. There was a conflict between the material in the piece and the actors who delivered it. Harry Fox didn't seem to have the tone of the lyrics written for him by Dorothy Parker. Julius Tanner pounded home his points so vigorously that the poor little jokes were smashed against the footlights before they reached the audience. So that, by the time Mr. Broun ambled out on the stage, he found an utterly bored group of listeners who sat there daring him to make them laugh. So ^"Round the Town" was a cruel error, but that doesn't prevent the idea from being a real possibility. If newspaper readers will eat up personal journalism as eagerly as they do "It Seems to Me," there is no reason why the personal touch in the theater will not be as eagerly welcomed. Unfortunately, the mechanism of the stage show is much more complicated. In addition to wit and wisdom and a graphic style you need the gift of showmanship or you will be suddenly extin Photo by Apeda Suzanna Keener has the title role in the new musical comedy version of "Peg o' My Heart." guished by the glare of the footlights. Balieff, the Russian showman, had this secret and so have the owners of the Music Box, which launched Mr. Benchley so successfully. And there is enough promise in "Round the Town" to convince you that these producers will one day strike the right note which they somehow missed in this revue. This is the most original of the musical comedy ventures ushered in to greet the summer. The rest range from fair to simply awful with the usual medley of legs, lyrics, French stars and burlesques on the current stage successes. "I'll Say She Is," however, is one of the few exceptions. And it is lifted out of the mediocre class by the unaided efforts of the four Marx brothers. This amiable quartet has been wandering up and down their circuits with much applause from their somewhat limited audiences. But this is their first unqualified success in a New York revue. Unquestionably they have glorified it more than an entire cast of Ziegfeld beauties. A good clown is the rarest thing on the stage and when you are faced with four priceless clowns, you have found a miracle in the theater. Of the four I found "Harpo" most appealing. He says not a word through the entire performance — in fact, his big scene consists in leaning" wearily against his brother, but he has that touch of pathos or even deeper tragedy without which no comedy is ever great. Julius, another brother, has a line of patter which is sometimes senseless and sometimes profound and always riotously, convulsingly funny. The rest of the show is devoted to the ladies of the cast headed by Cecile D'Andrea. They are graceful and decorative, but when they come out in one of those endless numbers celebrating "Milady's Dress" — furs from Russia, fans from Timbuktu — I was so bored that I only had strength enough to gasp faintly for more Marx brothers. In fact, they couldn't hurt my feelings by . throwing out the entire extravaganza show and turning the show over to this utterly priceless quartet. Peg Again. "Peg o' My Heart" shows every sign of going on forever in one incarnation after another. Probably when Jackie Coogan is an old man making a stage hit as King Lear, this persistent character will still be going strong. She has been a play, a movie" and popular song, and now she emerges as a musical comedy thinly disguised as "Peg o' My Dreams." Hartley Manners has been fortunate in retaining more of his story in this than ordinarily enters into a musical comedy plot. Still, the drama of the piece isn't