Variety (Jul 1926)

Wednesday, July 21, 1$2B LEGITIMATE VARIETY 4S PUYSOUTOFTOWN (Continued from i>aj;« 43> Betfly bad been accused. In reality betrays Geor^na, the Smyth's daughter. An enforced marriage on the following morning is the re- sult Here It Is that Betsy at last dls- eovers that her long lost parent Js none other than Sir Henry Bland- ford. b«r sweetheart's guardian. Miss Breton Is a beauty of rare type. Easy to overlook any of the defecii the play may have by virtue of her presence in It. Mr. Hlgglns dees- aa -oamesl maddy" Burn«y, while Qeorge I'» Quere departs from his usual characterizations of a "mamma's boy" to play opposite Mies Breton. John Lorenz, Valentine Sidney, Charles Naughton, Isabel Dawn and Beynold Dennlston are acceptable. Although house practically empty on the night of this review, al- though the audience, meager as it was, apparently was in an appre- ciative mood. Seemingly, "Betsy Nobody" Is destined to go where so many others of Its kind have gone before. Yet if nothing else will be remem- bered, the ephemeral Flora will re- main. Loop. LIVE WIRES Baltimore, July 20. Ralph Marrey's Repertoire Company pre. seated a new play entltl<>«l "Live Wlrei." mitten by and stated by Ralph Murray and produced at the Auditorium Theatre. Saltlmore. week beKlnninc Monday, July 6. Robert Pord Ralph Morfcan John Kenderton William Jeffrey LfOutoe Schuyler Dorothy Leeds Alfred Lowell P'rank Beaston fltenocrapher Jacqueline Nlvoy Walt Henderaon Sumner Gard Oeorze Reynold! Paul Huber 6ar«h Cole Julia Stuart Jane Katherlne Reyner Phil J. Warren Lyons T«ggy Vere L. O. Sokalska fltephen Blaine Wlllard Foster At least two of the charactys are decidedly original. One is a play- wright who tells a manager that his play Is n. g. and that the latter Is a fool If he buys it. The other la the manager who. Instead of getting Bellevue on the phone and then easinp over towards the fire escape, pleads with the dramatist to sell him the play. The latter is obdurate. Ilowovor, he does take the ad- vice of the manager and a more successful fellow playwright. They tell him that what his plays lack is atmosphere. The place to get it, they say, Is any main street met- ropolis forty-flve minutes or radre from Broadway. They could have saved the hero * lot oC trouble if they had told him Just to drop in on a matinee of any John Qolden play. It is evident that this is the sort W atmosphere they had In mind. Had he taken this short cut, however, the hero wouldn't have met up with the fair Jane (that's her name) who la to cause him oompletely to forget the Park Ave- nue Louise who gave him a frlgl- dalre back In the manager's sanc- tum. So the dramatist-hero takes to the sticks and meets Jane and her so very white haired mother, and her weak and j^^ayward brother and the hypocritical village politician and his predatory nephew and the village half-wits and the extra com- •dy relief in the person of a girl adrift from a burlesque troupe. This Lounds like the usual bl- gosh play line-up. It is «.nd is in- tended to be. The play's virtue lies in the fact that Instead of taking the characters seriously the play- wright proceeds to kid them. It is a play within a play idea. Clayton Hamilton and A. K Thomas collab- orated on a play of the kind years ago. Murphy's playwright becomes the hero in the play be is writing and wins the heroine as he type» the last page of his 'script The idea is excellent, and Miu-phy's treatment, for the greater part, effective. It registered solidly with B&itl^ncve andlenceb. • Tb© comody lines scored. The author staged it experUy and cast it with discretion. Ralph Morgan appeared to fine advantage as the playwright- ing hero and Katherlne Revener was the fair one he met in the village post offlce. With tightening up of the first act. broadening of the satire and the heightening of suspense^ this should prove an Al Broadway bet. BratoJtrocJc SHUCKS Stamford, Conn., July 20. Sam H. Harris' new comedy in three acts by Martin Flavin. Staged by Sam Forreat. Setting by Yellcntl. Cyrus Bumpatead Howard I..anK Jenny (wife) Marian Abbott Myra (eldeet daughter) Helen Carew Mable (next) Olive Murray Blaine (youngen^ Mary Loane William Clark (Bill) Richard Abbott Rev. Dr. Stamp Seth ArnoM DOROTHY WHITMORE Prima Donna of ''BLOSSOM TIME" ''ROSIE O'REILY" NO, NO. NANETTE" "3E YOURSELF" and now "The Merry World" Imperial, New York, Indef. « "Shucks/' a comedy by Martin Flavin (who wrote "Children of the Moon" three seasons ago) was liked here. It appears to be a high ly promising piece, with one bad spot which may be ironed out. It pictures the Bumpstead family, Cyrus Bumpstead, nice, weak old man, mho had been a clerk all his life. His wife holds over him the bogey of the "man sho might have married." Jenny Bumpstead pounds this man not only Into her husband, but 'Into her three daughters as well, advising them not to make the mis- take she made. Elaine, the young- est, is fed up on the man her mother mlpht have married and gets herself engaped to Bill Clark, the delivery boy with good pros- pects, who works in the store where her father is a clerl^ Her mother orders Bill never to set foot In the house again and tells Elaine she is not to see him. Mrs. Bumstead and her two oldest daughters go off to the movies, leaving her husband to exclaim his good-hearted ^'shucks!" to Elaine. Bill comes back. Before the three know It they liave arranged ao that Elaine will marry him that very night. A preacher is called in and Cyrus Bumpstead, with courage from three glasses of hard cider, leads his daughter to the altar. Mrs. Bumpstead returns as the ceremony Is completed. _ Flying fur starts. It is too much~~ for Cyrus. He collapses. A doctor is called to escamine CyruB, finding his heart has stopped beating. They gather about him at this, the lights go down, a green spot Is thrown on the other side of the room and the dead Cyrus Is seen there. He proceeds to hold a con- versation with the idol his wife might have married and finding him to he not at all the^||cl||j:CLAhe painted, but an ugly. nEort, squat man who says he died In the poor bouse. Some fine writing in "Shucks." Until the middle of the third act it's as nice a domestic comedy as has come to these parts for some time. But Mr. Flavin seems to have a spiritism complex which has crept into this pLiy as an ugly wart. He creates a highly sympathetic and amusing atmosphere and then pro- ceeds to wr^rk it by a ridiculous view of aftor-life. ' Howard I^ing, a ronvlnrinp. well- round<;d picture of Cyrus Bump- stead. Mary Lonne Is very person- able as Elaine. Charles Haltoo pre- sents the character of an enter- taining grave-digger, while Seth Arnold's appearance alone In enough for the deaf Uev. Doctor Stamp. Pratt. FROSTY Chicago. July 15. Cn aii j y ia thr»s aots hj QusUv Bowban, at Adekthl. Chicago. Blbylia Bowhan fea- tared. BUc«d by th« author. Rey CkirdoB Barl Qlibert Jim Hayden WIUU HaU Leonard Trask Wlllard Kent Marlon Pbelpa Genevieve Bertolaccl H*Je Caum Burt John Phelpa Tnm Pndden Shorty ^ Sibylla Bowhan The Accordion Man Johann ScsMr The Violin Man Billy Lando The Harmonica Girl Mary Wiley Cookie Tarn Holer Bis John Tom I'oat Cemedlea eome ftjid go. - AH thtnga beins equal. •'Frosty," with Sibylla Bowhan as its shining light, is des- tined to go. Miss Bowhan was formerly the featured dancer of *'Rose-Marie." Blood la thicker than water, and this about explains the writing and producing of this piece for Sibylla. Her brother, Qustav Bowhan, ia au- thor and atager. He waa at one time a stock actor in an Oak Park stock company. The plot has an eternal melo- dramatic theme. A witty rough and tumble orphan among the lumber- Jacks with a love interest brought in by the 9ollege youth who has come to mako good after failure t>ack home. Usual heroism, villainy, cue giv- ing and comic capers; with Miss Bowhan holding the taper in an otherwise dismal and dark play. Her performance was full of ap- pealing enthuHiasm. It is unfortu- naifl"that she wus hainpei^jd by-th« crude workmanship of the play and a decidedly poor cast, although it has many known stock actors. She far outdistanced them and the play itself. To see her land laughs and tears, one wonders what she might not do with a real play. Miss Bowhan has real histrionic abflity, appearance and class, also the invaluable qualities of song and dance. Above all that, she has well founded oonfldence, ao ahe should not be discouraged over tl^ illvhl failure. As for her brother, Gustav, thai best he oould do to retrieve this ' muddled up mess, which is not b«^ yond repair, is to have It rewritten^ restaged and recast; outside of that there is nothing the matter with "Frosty." As it is, the speed of a |3 pro^ ductlon is a little too much for the play to carry. The script might b* sold to some new enterprising film company, and as the investment can't be much, that much might bt protected. Hal. 'GOSSIP/ lUeFAELAHE'S WEJLV *X3ossip," by Marcel Strauaa and Knid Wlberg, la next on Uat for pro^ ductlon by George MacFarlane. MacFarlane will give the new on4 his attention after setting "Honest Uara" at the Harria, New Torkg next week. From Broadway^s Most Successful Shows To Broadway^s Most Successful Sale! I. 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