Variety (February 1910)

IB VARIEtY "MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT." "Morning, Noon and Night" is a bur- lesque ■how with one principal woman and that tells the tale of its weakness right off the reel. There is much that is good in the show, but the real meat is lost through the lack of principal women. Sixteen chorus girls are carried, and they are far ahead of the sad outfits that haye been showing up at the Eighth Avenue with almost unfailing regularity. The pro- gram does not say who put on the num- bers or trained the chorister, but whoever did has something coming for the latter Job. The chorus is a smooth working ma- chine, going through their various duties in a lively business like fashion and look- ing good at all times. The costumes are up to the standard, but do not get beyond that stage. The way in which the girls get them on and carry them makes them look doubly effective. The show is not strong in numbers, which was to be ex- pected, as there is only one woman to lead them. The few that were forth- coming did nicely, although nothing new or novel was shown, and most of the se- lections were very badly chosen. The best of the lot was the "Bambooland." It gave the chorus a chance to get busy and they showed plenty of life and ginger, putting the number over to repeated encores "The Drummer in the Band," lead by one of the men also came across to a bit of enthusiasm. Both these showed in the burlesque. None of the other numbers got very far, although the girls did their best. The light effects dampened one or two of the numbers. Why burlesque pro- ducers will insist upon darkening the stage and bringing the girls on in the dim light is an unsolved mystery. The pieces are of the usual sort Besides the opening piece and the burlesque, a morning rehearsal in a vaudeville house is given, and also a mushy hit called "New Year's Eve at the Club," The two together are called the seceud act, the program calling the whole show a Musical Farce in three acts. The two bits mentioned have been seen in bur- lesque before. Another show on the west- ern wheel is doing the "Rehearsal" word for word. Doing it much better and get- ting a great deal more out of it. It seems a bit queer for two shows on the same wheel to be playing the same piece, ft is well known that burlesque pro- ducers have been in a quandary for ideas, but it didn't seem as though it would come to this. It is not badly done in this case, however, and much of the best com- edy in the show is stationed in the re- hearsal. "The Night at the Club" affair doesn't seem right A good fellow is down and out he comes to his club and is in- formed by his former pals that being broke he is no longer wanted. Going out- side a beggar approaches him and he gives her his last dollar. Pretty sentiment !■ it not. It is done well enough, but what's the use. It does seem, though, that as long as it is to be used, and it is a swell club, another table besides the one used in the bare stage rehearsal might be placed In the club. A five dollar limit poker game looked as much out of place in the sur- roundings of that club, as the dress suits worn by the quartet employed, would in a club such as this one is supposed to be. The comedy in the show is fair. A great deal of It runs to the passing of money, but in one or two instances new arrange- ments for getting the ever abundant stage bills is enforced, and these are really funny. A safe cracking incident is also made laughable. There are other very good bits. The lines, however, and there is much of the comedy supposed to come from the lines, are badly frayed. Teddy Burns is the big feature with the show, his name coming second only to the title. Teddy is always prominent in the proceedings. He played several characters during the running. His favorite being a high grade tramp. The program calls him a hold-up man. Burns does very well, considering that he has so much to do. He manages to hand out a good many laughs and does not become tiresome, even though he is on the stage a great deal. He shows up rather well as the down and outer in the club scene, wearing the only dress clothes that look the part, and, although carrying quite a souse, looks more prosperous than his brother clubmen who do the firing. Sid Braham is next to Burns in the com- edy department. He is a fair Hebrew comedian in the pieces, and a very poor German in the rehearsal stunt. He gets quite as many laughs from the orchestra pit as he does from the Hebrew, but this is due entirely to the fat part handed him. He is not really bad in the bit, but is simply not a good German. His Hebrew is a bit different than the regular, but not enough so to make it stand out He works with Burns quite a bit during the show and managed to hold up his end. Walter Johnson is the straight, and a very good one. Walter has a very good idea of dress and looks natty at all stages of the game. He is perhaps a bit inclined to overdress. The diamond settings he wears with his dress clothes should be left in the theatre safe. It doesn't belong in the picture. A white waistcoat should also replace the gray one now worn. Gray is not worn by our set with evening clothes, Walter. At the head of one number John- son does a good bit of baton juggling, and pulled out one of the best numbers on the program. Walter is a useful boy around a burlesque show. He is one of the show's best features. Fred De Forest does an Italian, play- ing the role very well, although he has very little to do. The manner of playing warrants n fattening of the role. Other members of the cast make up the Min- strel Four, who figure quite prominently in the proceedings. The boys form a very agreeable singing quartet, but they might brighten up their minstrel specialty as to clothes, jokes and selections. The boys are the main part of the club affair, their singing being the only excuse for it: Their specialty was a big hit, but they would do better work as a straight singing four, unless something better than the minstrel thing can be thought of. Virginia Ware has it pretty soft. She is the one principal woman in the com- pany, but even at that she hasn't a great deal to do. Virginia is a nice looking girl with a pretty, small voice and a good idea of how to act, but she is not strong enough to hold up the entire female end of a burlesque troupe. This is saying noth- ing against Dorothy's ability, for there are few if any women who could do It Two or three other principal women would help Miss Ware rather than detract from her. Virginia wears several pretty frocks. She was at her best in the "Bambooland" number, which she lead In capital style and brought away to several hearty en- cores. For the rest she has been handed several old songs that none could get any- thing out of. Morning, Noon and Night is a clean show, a damn and a hell creeps out now and again, but aside from this and one bit of business not funny in the least, that with the telescope, to make no mistake, nothing objectionable is noticeable and nothing was put in for the Eighth Avenue either. The show as a whole makes bet- ter than average burlesque entertainment. Dath. VANITY FAIR. Gus Hill, the apostle of laughter, is pre- senting a shining example of what bur- lesque of the right sort really amounts to, in this week's attraction at the Mur- ray Hill. Here is a show without a Jew, tiamp, "nigger," Irishman or Dutchman being characterized; a performance with- out a word or action which would call forth protest from a delegation of prudes; a first part and afterpiece abso- lutely free from vulgarity, shimmering with pretty costumes worn by girls who are sufficiently talented to more than qualify in the positions they are placed, and on entertainment which in its en- tirety upsets the excuse of the "smut" venders who claim they are "giving the public what it wants." What show-goers want in burlesque is cleanliness, talent and merriment; Gus Hill has demonstrated that in the accumula- tion of a corpulent bank roll which "Van- ity Fair" is steadily fattening, if the packed house which laughed itself tired on Tuesday evening can be taken as a criterion. There was a great many women in the audience and they every one found the same things to laugh at that the men did, without seeing or hearing a thing which might make them ashamed for their sex or their surroundings. There was not an interval of sixty seconds either in the first part, "A Night at Rector's." or the performance of "Fun in a Music Hall," which closed the show, but what there was sounds of mirth ranging from little laughs to big laughs and on as far as billows of laughs. There were shrieks and outbursts of laughter; sounds of joy which would put to rout the disciples of "honkey-tonk" tradition who swims against the tide of double meaning or open vulgarity, whereas there is always opportunity to float buoy- antly along upon the billows of clean and wholesome merriment. The opener shows the sixteen chorus girls in six changes of clothes. The dress- ing evidences good taste in the frame up of color schemes and the wardrobe looks clean and well kempt. While there are no ra- diant beauties to be singled out among the hard working lot of helpers in the success- ful task of entertaining, all the girls make a good appearance, size up nicely and cer- tainly work hard and with commendable interest in everything wherein they are concerned. With six shifts of clothes in the first part and two more in the closing scenes they are kept busy fixing them- selves, and when they are on the stage they are a busy lot of folks. Lena Lacouver is the first woman prin- cipal to the fore, and she is on the job when the curtain rises with a stageful of girls behind her. Between her and Jeanne Brooks there is little choice from the view- point of comeliness, but Miss Lacouver has more numbers and is kept proportionately oftener on view. Winifred Francis runs through both pieces with a maid part played right up to the notch. These three women constitute a trio of skilful and painstaking leaders of the feminine divi- sion, all being happily cast Near the close of the first part Miss Lacouver leada the girls in an Amazon march, all decked In green tights and trimmings to match. Two numbers comprised the olio: Welch and Maitland, in eccentric grotesques, and Noble and Brooks in an interlude of songs and talks. Both numbers were decidedly pleasing along entirely different lines. The girl in the acrobatic team was conspicuous for extreme suppleness in her contortion displays and dancing, while the man pro- voked approval for his acrobatic skill and laughs for his comedy. Miss Brooks led the second olio feature with "Shakey Eyes," and going into the double talk the team put across many laughs without urg- ing. Their closing song sent them away well rewarded with applause. Billie Ritchie, Rich McAllister and Chas. Cardon were the comedy strength -of the show, and Billie Ritchie was the keystone of the structure. He was here, there and everywhere, all over the place. Nobody played up to him, nobody "fed" him and nobody got within striking distance of him in the comedy line. He popped up on every hand, and McAllister and Cardon were right there when he was not. McAl- lister's stumpy little figure seemed as apt to roll as it was to walk, and the laughs he provoked were countless. Cardon found a shade fewer opportunities falling to his lot, but he made the most of every one of them and was effective as a mirth pro- voker along most artistic lines. As a dele- gate from the "Wooly West," Al Zimmer- man made acceptable headway, and in a straight role in the opener Billy Noble held his own and then some. There were "bits" without number, comedy scenes crowded thick and fast, and all through the show surprises and little details which made for laughter kept crop- ping out. The playing showed thorough rehearsal and close attention to detail; nothing missed fire, and the performance ran smoothly and smartly all the way through. The musical numbers (of which there were more than a dozen) were pret- tily arranged. Jeanne Brooks scored a particular hit in a "drinking song," and a topical song, which engaged Ritchie, McAl- lister and Cardon won five encores. Most of the singing fell to Miss Lacouver, and she was always there willing and strong. The vocal clement was conspicuously agree- able all through the show a pleasing operatic finale which brought the first part to an end was especially well accomplished, and the last thing the audience heard was a vocal adieu, which left a pleasant memory of the numerous songs which had gone before. Walt It was amateur night Thursday at the Grand Central Palace, New York. Never was such a gathering of the busy stage as- pirants. The occasion was the contest and dance of the New York Amateur Night Society which has headquarters in the Knickerbocker Theatre Building. Cash prizes were offered as well as a season ticket for the Colonial Theatre for the best lady amateur and one for the Polo Grounds for the best man amateur. This is the first publio gathering of the clan, past entertainments and contests having been given in private.