Variety (November 1921)

Friday, November II, lftl tfetifriMXt^ 17 BROADWAY REVIEWS ANNA CHRISTIE C. <•••••••••< ...* O. O. Taylor " " b Huhr AesssUa » Marl • • * . . • i ••••••••••••• .WilUMI • ••••• .O*orss • ■••.••••••••••BocbbIs Blair nm»m.Psslias Lord t Bvkt «T..••••••••••••Frank Steaaon ...«•••••••••••••••• »Ol6 Axvmtsob Baffly. Hao— and Kennedy another "Anna Christie" is play from the pen of Eugene O'Neill —another play produced by Arthur Hopkins, with Pauline Lord feat- ured, stage settings by Robert Ed- inond Jones. The combination, in most respects, is a felicitous one, mainly from the standpoint of stage artistry. Its commercial success will depend upon whether the public Is prepared to accept a heroine who ja a graduate from a brothcL Occa- sionally it does, but not generally— mostly In plays , by foreign play- wrights. With a native author tho gamble becomes an extra hazxard. Eugene O'Neill always takes for his play subjects the sordid, bitter things of life. In this instance he regales us with a Swedish girl with a "one way brain," brought up on a drab farm in the West by relatives, ■educed by one of the men of the family, grows tired of the slavery and winds up in a brothel. The house is raided, she is sentenced to jail, becomes ill. and, on being re- leased, como to New York to join ber father, whom she had not seen since Infancy. He is a dull-wittod seaman in charge of a coal barge, where he resides with a besotted concubine. A wreck at sea brings to the barge a coal stoker, who fairs in love with her and she with him. The father hud taken the girl to sea where no harm can come to her, and right out of the sea comes the very thing he dreads*—a seaman. Her father has come to a realization that marriage with a follower of the sea is no course for his child. He had neglected -her mother, and all other seamen he had known had done the same. The stoker wants to marry the girl, but she tells him her past in the presence of her father, and the only solace they know is to go forth and get drunk. A)l of which is a fine depiction of a certain phase of the sordid side of life, with a bid for popular ap- proval by taving the stoker return 4n tho last act and forgive the girl her past through a realization that she is redeemed by the purity of her love for him. It is one of those plays that reads a lot better than it plays, which, generally speaking, is no reflection oh the acting, stage direction or production. Pauline Lord* with her monoton- ous intoning, stock mannerisms, such as plucking at her sleeves, folding her arms, etc., is eminently fitted for the role of the unmoral "easiest way** girl. A slow-witted, uneducated Swedish woman would probably conduct herself just that way under the circumstances. But one cannot help remembering she utilized the same bag of tricks when she appeared as leading lady with Ben Ami last season. George Marlon scored the artistic success of the evening with a splen- did characterization of the father— an almost perfect Swedish dialect. He is first seen as a happy-go-lucky ■esmwn, human and kindly even to the drink-soaked mistress of his domicile, then confronted with the problem of figuring cut how t« care for his daughter, growing heavier in physique as the problem becomes more weighty—all the time obsessed with the one belief that It is the *devll sea" that is responsible for all his troubles. Frank Shannon, as the Irish stoker, contributed an uneven per- formance, alternately excellent and ■nedlocre. It is a well written part, but not played "wlnnlngly," with the requisite light comedy touches interspersing the tragic passages. In the last act he gave the impres- sion he was reciting rather than visualizing overpowering sorrow. Eugenie Blair, only In tho first set, played legitimately and with rare dramatic art, the role of a be- sotted concubine of seamen. It is s difficult role that a lesser artist might readily over? 't. The other roles are minor ones, but all of them played acceptably. A fog Rrene created*by Hobert Kd- mond Jones Is a fine bit of stage illusion. Jolo. Street Settlement, at _ qy * str eet, la a creditable pleoe of work. Mr. OraAville-Barker's play la too well known to need e ment, and Its last not, with Its tended discussion la the Shaw ner. Is as tiresome as ever, as tiro- some as the rest Is interesting and at times brilliant with Its discuss ion of sea and the clothing business. What remains Is the manner of work being offered beyond the Broadway dead line. Warren Dahler's settings and the dress designing of Aline Bernstein all help, while so far as acting Is concerned. Mr. Whitford Kane has put on a cast better than Broad- way's average. His own delightful Irish accent somewhat detracts from bis attempt to portray a middle-class Englishman, but that is a detail. Certainly Montague Rutherford gave a distinguished impersonation of the hard-hearted but attractive Madras, while War- burton Gamble as Philip still swam bravely on (rhetorically) in the hist act. An extremely effective bit is that offered by Albert Carroll as Mr. Wlndlesham. and Evelyn Carter amused in an actor-proof part. The six—or is it seven?—daughters were amusing in the ensemble, and Er- nita Lascclles and Margaret Linden brought a contrasting beauty to the cast. As Miss Chancellor, Kathcrlne llrook probably did as effective character work as any. On the whole, a presentation of a near-classic that revives the hope New York may have a repertolro theatre worth supporting. Lccd. THE GREAT WAY Prologue FUginuld rule Lulu Tt^itrire Woo;l Jaime , If. Kills Reed Ihab*l Martha Me£3lng;r Auntie Charlotte Cmmi'l.; J one I.uim Trtoroni u B'n l*ulce (afterward Mnic do i'Etoile) H?len Freeman "V" Eva Ite.ntnn L* Vajeru Ysobel Del Rey Manager Kraft Walton ImprotMrio Max Ho.«l Maectro Juan <!e la Cnis A Oltnna Marian Marcua Clarke Jane Duval D.ilsell Don Quixote J. C. Hyde THE SKIRT J. Dennis Bui nestosu ••••••••• ^^ „_ - ••••••••••«« _ pesjg lag* ••••••••••«•••,,.,.IrrfSf Brooks • •••••*•••••••••••JMnS BtsstSn .T/n^C •-!•••*• J- WSSda *— WI * IIW 10VSJ. •••••••• Jssk Wsrrsa Paul Slumber WllUasa Howard Hickman •••■••»••••••••••••••••••• midto Cvrtoy • •••••••• ••••••••••«• •».• •Pall Bishop Hanroy i Frlosd Rod Klfby. miumimumi «I<oota Hendricks Dostot Rod Frank Finals* MADRAS HOUSE T".ini» Henry Huxtable WhUf'ir.l *ath»Tino lluxtiihlf j Evelyn C.irhr din in^Um J Huxtable .Mine Mm .\1;ilim i Huxtable Arii-m II. M..ruioi I'JiUra Atiiinlo «'lnra HuxtnUl* Julia Huxtable.. fcrnma Huxtable. J*n.' Huxtable... Major Hlpplfiey ?Mllp Madras...... J»»-Mra Madmii 'oiiHiHnsine Minima Amrlia Ma<lrn» Kum l«.-;itrlce S;t< U.«| i M:irle rinrkiinl Eather Mitrh. II Knihfrlix- S:ivt<• Thomatt. .. .iH-iuns Cl.-unh W»rburt>»n (Jainhle Marx:<rft I.tn<l>-n ^lontHtfU.' Itui h'-rlonl .Eugenia XVoo-l\vari| i *<•* IVrrtn Statr Eufni' Powers *J»rlon C.atrt Ernlta !.hikt|Im | ?J r lirlKKtiM-lc John K'/che j ., , , . ..,..,..,,, f... Mr«. i'.rlM M r...-i, »....;.. .1.. n.„.i... ! t hi' I'.nk the,.lie |iM>Klilll In! Horace Fish in dedicating' his book sot forth that it was "To Helen Freeman, who reminded one of beauty." Perhaps it was that dedi- cation that grot the novel produced as a play. Miss Freeman and Mr. Fish are named as the authors of the stage version. What they have done Is to take the book practically chapter by chapter without any re- gard to dramatic values, not that there was any too great a sugges- tion of the dramatic, as suited for the spoken drama present in the book. The res bit is a rather fantastical but decidedly elaborate production that is colorful. A series of charac- ters wander through the seven scenes of the four acts and do not advance the play to any great de- gree at any time. "A bad woman kills herself, but first she kills her parents, her friends and her lover." That is one of the lines in the play that crops up several times. By the same token it might be said that "a bad plays kills a gorgeous production, a clever actress and a fairly good sup- porting company." The bad woman heroine "of this particular story is a Spanish street walker who falls in love and through that love develops an ambition to climb in the world. She manages to reach the heights via the operatic stage, buoyed by the false hope that the man she loves will be waiting there to receive her. But when she finally achieves her greatest- triumph she discovers that he has wedded another, and her world of roses turns to ashes. There was sufficient in the theme had it been properly handled to have made a play worth while frm a com- mercial sense, but at present all that can be said for it is that it may be hailed as an artistic triumph. As far as Miss Freeman is con- cerned it is exactly that. She un- dertook a role that was most diffi- cult, carried the burden of the entire play and finally emerged victorious even though she had to pull an ex- tremely nervous compajiy along with her. Moroni Olsen, who essayed the role of the lend opposite Miss Free- man, left much to be desired. He was neither the cold Kuglish nor the fiery Spanish, boili bloods suppos- edly Mowing it) his system. As to the other members of the east they were f.ir too nervous on Mond;iy ni'.rht to lie judged by th° perfrom- .tnee they ga\c. They, were nil at a dis'idvntaue. for the plav opened ""eold"' in N'«\v York without the benefit of the whipping into shape period on tour. There is one thiiiK. howeve the publishers of Air. Kish's ove.-Minked. .Hid fluir was ill Richard O. Herndon brought this fares comedy by Howard Hickman to the Bijou Nor. 7, with Bessie Barriscale starred, but It is not for Broadway, not this year of the Lord in the present state of the public purse. Perhaps Mr. Herndon figures on the road tour, with packed houses whooping things up, crowding in drawn by Miss Barrlscale's picture fame. If so, he will not have to lug only a couple of pretty sets but a rather large cast around the coun- try. The cast was competent, but Mr. Hickman padded what there was of his main idea with pretty broad hokum, and some of it slowed things up and came after the action itself was obviously halted. It all has to do with a girl who quarrels with her beau and then masquerades as a boy and goes to his ranch for a visit. The second act is clean fun, with a rip-roaring party fixed up at the revamped saloon (hat flourished in the days before prohibition. They stage some fake shooting, and then a real bandit comes in. Mr. Hickman didn't plant this climax deep enough, and Oscar Eagle, who directed, brought it about very carelessly. The roughneck was upon us and off before we realized, and so went for nothing. Every- thing ends happily in tho last act. as expected. Miss Barriscale has lost nothing of her charm or art by her stay in pictures, and Paul Harvey, new to us as a leading man, lived up to his coast stock reputation. Louis Hen- dricks made a bit effective, and Ruth Hammond was her usual pleasant self as a bubbling ingenue. Minor roles were assumed adequately, but the unsophisticated hokum handed these players must have made it hard for them to face Broadway, though the author himself did well enough with one of these lesser roles. railroad station with a strange man on the bench beside her. She has a million flirts and co- quetries, whims, moods and pos- tures. But never is she called upon to be wiclced, for she is playing the role of a girl who is making be- lieve she is very old, kept present- able by a miraculous knack for cos- metics, and her behavior Is and must be severely circumspect. She wears ankle-lengths entirely. For her last scene she dons colonials. And she outlooks the giddy flappers who wear so much less these days, and who havo so much less, no mat- ter how much less they wear. Always a wonder of feminine charm, Miss Burke has the graces of the skilled actress anl the deft artist as well as the endowments of facial beauty and fluent hands. The cast was all that Erlanger, Dillingham and Ziegfeld, combining in this presentation, could have as- sembled. Not a false note came from any throat. The list of. players at the head of this review is a roll of honor for perfect performances. If "Only 38" survives, if "Clar- ence" was a sensation, if "A Bill of Divorcement" is a furore, then "In- timate Strangers" should have mon- uments erected to it. Even New York, which has the strangest and least accountable tastes In stage entertainment, which glorifies horrors and crowns half- wits, can scarcely be so Insular as to withhold obeisance from Miss Burke and appreciation from Mr. Tarklngton in this simple, lovely, amusing und ielightful exposition of a tlekllngly pleasant comedy by an adorable star and a sterling com- pany, all prosented ami projected as it should be; and all clean, sophis- ticated, chaste and bright, a com- pliment to the theatre and to its .Mtipi»ortcr8. IxUt. INTIMATE STRANGERS Button Maiiter Charles Abb© AlAtfll ••••••••••»•••••••••••••• Alii C» a^iim Isabel BUlio Burke Florence France* Howard Johnnie White Glenn Hunter Henry Frank J. Kirk Aunt Ellen Kliaabeth 1'attcrson lfattle Clare Wcldon Ml* I'.rtKNtiHk IVeker . . Muri* <!•» I *b*ue«»||'ir Kafherliu! Proo'< - Ml W !i!<lUt»haui MLert Cairo!! Tli;« production, *<i>?hborliood current at Playhouse oC the the . thai i> »«>;,. ad in . nv • one 111: i f ."-< >'S the pl:i> ;-lld i.-» still sufficiently inlerestfd t«» find "in whaf it is all inom t\ill want t-» id tiie I'OO.'v. |, Just as though she hadn't been away a week—the same chic, charming Billie Burke. And she can't hide herself under a role in which she plays "past 28." If she played past 68, the probably couldn't —Blllle is still Billie, and not even Booth Tarklngton can change her to William. "Intimate Strangers'* Is as typi- cally Tarklngton as was "Seven- teen" or "Clarence." The fead, played by Lunt. who created Clar- ence, is almost Clarence himself; only, instead of being a near-hero of the war, he is a near-hero of a romantic meeting at a wayside rail- road station whence all traffic has been cut off by the weather. Thereafter the action is notice- ably similar—the young niece wor- ships and makes love to him like s> hardened vampire, and the older be uty la shy and elusive. Between the ingenue and the juvenile, the ingenue and the middle-aged lead, the Juvenile and the past -28 star, there are many episodes tasting like "«evrjnt'»en ] " Wlso like "Only 38," in which Mary Ryan is appearing, and which is a staart bit similar in ac- tion; between the girl and an aunt are scenes that might be the Amer- icanized translation of parallel ones In "A Bill of Divorcement"—and yet. probably, none of the authors or these three successes has seen any of the other's plays; but Tarklngton is the same Tarklngton the earlier Tarklngtons were. No pointing out of similarities should be regarded as deprecating "Intimate Strangers." It Is a whole- some, witty, superficially philosophi- cal yet cannily psychologies 1 prog- ress of healthy American narrative developed In comedy of purest American vein. Tarklngton is perhaps the fore- most interpreter of Uncle Sam's cit- izens. He doesn't select a great many or a great variety of them to interpret l»y way of the stage, but those he pictures one sees, one rec- ognizes, and on*» understands. Tark- iiiKlon always has a theme, if not a plot. Just what his theme is in "In- timate Strangers" cannot be Im- pulsively extracted; probably It might be epitomized with a degree of fairness as: "There is mor«> charm and more woman in a left-over from the gen- eration recently departed than in a comer of the ^eui-ratioii now shift- ing into high." T;irkington wouldn't make It as slungv mm that. His notion of flip lingo iy M iM "jV'-^b" aod "roily." lit* lives in Indianapolis. I»uI. the principal concern, even outsiiiniug a Turkiiiglon pi ••ini« , rc. i.- a Millie Ituik*- premier^ mo leave us hastoii to ;idd to the verdict, al- ready expressed in paragraph I. that Miss Uiirkf in the dainty, c-ute- nosed. golden -red-haired girl ot* "Jerry" and before, thai. She isn't naughty at all in this, though she does sleep j 11 n:*• 1 it In a desolated A PERFECT FOOL Julian Mitchell is tho stur of Kd Wynn's new rhow. "A Perfect Fool," opening Nov. 7 at the Cohan. Mr. Mitchell isn't on the stage. Only his work is ther« In tho numbers, and the number* are the single item of the evening that do not tire. Kd Wynn was there, of courwe. It's his show. You eould tell it without reading the program, that says he's the star; that he wrote the book, lyrics and music. There's nothing in either for him to brag about ex- cepting a bit of dialog now and then that carries a shaft of laughter. All the other laughter comes from the Wynn idea of humor that should gain its end from the transients that may be in New York if they live far enough back in the country when home. Not the least of the comedy Is from the Wynn grotesque schemo of costuming, frequently changed, that seems always to blend with his physical proportions and facial ex- pressions. Wynn is all over the stage and nearly all of the time. The show appears to be short on playing ma- terial. It rang up at 8.50 and down around 11. Still that was long enough to get an overdose of Wynn. Ed Wynn for 20 minutes as a mo- nologist can be funny. But if Kd Wynn as a two-hour monologist at $3.30 is funny enough to draw peo- ple Into the Cohan, then he's a won- der as an entertainer and may Jus- tify himself for the kind of a show he has put on Broadway at that scale to compete with others. Also If "A Perfect Fool" gets over the perfect fools will be the Har- rises, the Dlllinghams and all mu- sical comedy makers who not alone give a real production to a Broad- way stage, but pay talent to enter- tain. They will see this show and the gross of the salary list ought to paralyse them. There Isn't a salary among the principals other than Wynn's own. possibly excepting a couple of specialty turns, and one of these is used for principals. It's Just Wynn all the time other than when Mr. Mitchell's lively and lik- able numbers make an auditor for- get the star. Even some of the 24- lnch looking chorus girls have been made into dancers by Mitchell, who has done exception- ally here, perhaps not because It Just happened, but there had to be something there besides Wynn. "A Perfect Fool" bespeaks Wynn's perfect confidence in hlms^f as an all-night comedian. He clowns, mostly in "one"; does everything he does too much, and starts bis first and best laugh In the first 10 min- utes. It Is, with the plan of speak- ing of the plot, taken from the turn he did on the Century roof. That plan in general Is thereafter some- what closely followed. There are other interludes with Wynn in them, such as when he did a part In "The World's Worst ArrohUs" (without" mentioning Jean liedini). or when l»e did the hurlesque mind reading, now the standard sure-fire of 100 or more vaudeville acts. Hut they don't do it just like Wynn. Wynn a ml True Rice, have lengthy word cueing that gives Wynn a ( h nice to send across a correct an- swer often. Mr Itice addressed Wynn as Rajah. Wynn picked Sam IIhiiih in the audience but In the wrong location while mind reading, lie 'old Mr. Harris he would like to see a statement of one of his shows. Tie* chances are thst Harris, who heard it from his orchestra seat, was th'nkiinr "Why a Music Mox?" For Wynn's own specialty (rest incidental) he dragged on a toy wagon and from It drew various comedy safety devices for noiseless Mtiip, waterless rubbers and no" on, stretching this oat with tho rest. For a couple it could havo been made real laughable, but Wynn seemed to exhaust the wagon full. The novelty scene was an en- larged Corona typewriter, taking up the greater part of the stage, with the legs of the chorus girls when first showing becoming the stems of the keys. It was expected the girls would dance on the keys, but noth- ing beyond the leg exposure oc- curred, though there was a song here. The one score on merit aside from tho star'M went to True Rice, who did a little of much and got away with it each time, particularly his acrobatic work, though for an acro- bat and in a production as a holder of a speaking role Mr. Rice held up remarkably. He, with Flo Newton, had several "one" scenes with Wynn. One of the other vaudevlllians, Fred Ardath, could hardly be de- tected, appearing but a single time, in an artist's studio scene, to smear soft soap or lather over Wynn's face. Ardath mades his rep in vaudeville, smearing. That and other hoke were not as sure Are at the Cohan as In vaudeville. It looked as though Ardath holds a \7ynn contract he is hanging onto. The presumption Is he started with a pall full of lather and saw It re- duced to u dipper's full. The Meyakos, also from vaude- ville, did well la spots. Their spe- cialty was broken Into three places that separated it too widely. An- other success went to a female quartet that sang the old pieces, and registered, but whether through sympathy or for entertainment will probably never be known. Wynn lnnuenoed against the women on their ages, though one looks young, and he must have done it with con- !u nt * J ,T ne « lbes «°t laughs, but they didn't fit in overly well. John Dale was the dancer. Ouy Robertson the Juvenile and Janet Velle the prima donna, with some other names listed, probably of chorus gli-Ia that sounded as familiar. In dressing and production. tho stage became noticeable at times, but there was no steady run of at- tractiveness, and the cheating there was nearly as plain as in the cast- ing. Of the songs one sounded well because the others didn't sound at all. The show held speed, with no encores allowed. B. C. Whitney Is directing Wynn. for an opinion. It seems Impossible J?r ""A Perfect Fool,- hooked un as it Is. to do business at the sea..* against the regular competition in other Broadway theatres. For "A Perfect Fool" is a small-time show in a big-time house. 8imc. THE MAD DOG Padr. Krancolon Fomst RobllScu a.I Hslos Menkwii SiWS"'; CbwU* Kr.u, 5? * ol, '* y Coow»y T**rh* Kherlft ijliaun William Uftrcourt "I don't know whether It Is God. or nature, or my own weak self. What is, is," says a young girl in flnsl surrender to a murderer who had forcibly ravished her. This is the premis.) of "The Mad Dog," u melodrama In three acts, written bv George Scarborough, starting Con- way Tearle, featuring Helen Men- ken, produced by the Messrs. Hhu- bert at the Comedy election night. Of course, there were "extenuating circumstances," remorse, and even- tual redemption, but tho situation, nevertheless, remains unaltered. The "extenuating circumstances' •£0 .that a rlvll engineer Unrts Ms nance in tho arms of "his l>e«t friend" two days before tho mar- riage, kills her, and is sentenced to llfo imprisonment. In Jail lie is known as "the mad dog," because of his ferocity. The play opens with his escape, after seven years, the gin has bathed his wound and this Is the first time after the "seven loan nn«l hungry years" he had been close to a woman or tasted wine. * The murderer-ravlsher escapes to Mexico, safe from pursuit, hut re- turns through an inner urge, risks the girl to shoot him, she refuses. he threatens her with a repetition of the outrage, and she pulN the- trigger. She leaves him weltering In his blood throughout the eni.in; day, refusing to permit an Indhiti servant to relieve his delirium with a drop of water, her heart full oi hate and loathing. In his disordered Incoherence he re-enacts his trial for murder, the death of his moth. » at the shock of his conviction, and the girl relents. It should be stated she is a devout Catholic, reared l»v a kindly padre in a mission in southern Arizona. Mr. Tearle—he of the trouhl.-d eyebrows—is woefully miscast for the role of the murderer. Helen Menken, who gave Midi great promise in "The Triumph «if X," gives a carefully studied, hut rather stilted, fsTfor-msnco of the virginal, religious girl who is the victim tif the escaped convict. She is not overly graceful, and resort.-; to the mechanics of acting by bend- ing in the center to indicate extreme emotion. She is gifted with a cer- tain sincerity, but hers is sn art that requires development before at - tainlng fruition. The remaining live players held minor roles. In tho last act the star Is culled upon to say that "The Mad Dog i* dead" an ominously significant re- mark. Jolo.