The Play
Skinner, R. Dana
216 THE COMMONWEAL June 30, 1926 THE...
...A certain amount of rearrangement is necessary and also a certain amount of cut- Carroll as Toto, the clown-as polished and apt piece of conventional art as one can see in New York today...
...theatre presents...
...Even when she is standing silently at the side always seemed to me that such organizations as the Theatre of the stage, Miss Sands makes her presence felt in quite an Guild and Neighborhood Playhouse should take the leadership amazing way...
...Then, as always in any Neighborhood production, the wit by making a play upon the more vulgar themes...
...Clare, and Uncle Tom to heaven, and many similar devices wrung the last drop of mirth from the artistic fads of year are not up to the standard of previous years...
...from Florida triumphs descends in a parachute from a passing I have a feeling that even in places like the Neighborhood airplane to obtain concessions from the Eskimos for an Arctic Playhouse, and certainly in the entertainment shops of upper summer resort...
...There the unblushing dogmatism of certain scientists, the countless is something here of the same close and delightful adjustment fads of education, of medical and mental theories, and the that we find in Gilbert and Sullivan...
...This parody on the modern conBy R DANA SKINNER structivist stage setting with a chorus of slaves on a high platThe Grand Street Follies form waving bandanas in imitation of the fans in Carmencita JAM inclined to disagree with those critics in the daily and the Soldier, with a freight elevator to conduct little Eva, press who implied that the Grand Street Follies of this St...
...Feitelbaum, Mother activity...
...I have not seen Florence Reed few indirect references to the theme of The Shanghai Gesture, -in The Shanghai Gesture, but the point is worth making that and to a certain notorious story which appeared in the American the Mother Goshdarn of Dorothy Sands is a characterization Mercury recently...
...The review, however, offers include no lesser personages than the distinguished governor of a chance for direct and pungent satire on every field of human the state, one of his constituents, Mrs...
...Feitelbaum of Milt Gross, travesty, the Follies have managed to extract the maximum of gave her own private interpretation of The Dybbuk to Mrs...
...characteristics...
...It is the greatest educational medium the forms of paraphernalia needed for an unrestricted settlement...
...She has what is popularly called "personal in the form of wit and satire which does not depend for its magnetism," but entirely without the theatrical qualities usually effect upon vulgarity or cheap sophistication...
...In the first place we had the inimitable Albert yet made itself felt with sufficient vigor...
...It is particularly grateful to be able to of real importance by itself, regardless of its qualities of impoint to a general improvement of this sort, because it has personation...
...And as one could point to the present Follies as a high mark in a swift, usual Paula Trueman carried off everything assigned to her satiric, and clean form of review entertainment...
...Were it not for associated with these words...
...that the musical numbers had to be cut too short in order It is in sensing more closely than any other group this possito bring the program to a close at a reasonable hour...
...It is rare to find in any review music that views capable even of shaking political parties, not to mention adapts itself so wittily and accurately to the lyrics...
...Thereafter we watch throughout the evening Broadway, the full possibilities of the review as a department the upbuilding of a North Pole Florida, including the local of the theatre have not been realized...
...But too much comment turns its notables to invest in his new enterprise...
...An American real-estate promoter fresh York stage...
...The theme of a great play may have an The link with the polyglot New York of today is established indirect value in its profound comment on human nature and when the enterprising promoter returns to this city to persuade the clash of human interests...
...Lastly and in a place of due emphasis, In a year that has furnished few bright spots for topical Mae Noble, as the immortal Mrs...
...In third of the numbers are by a new composer, Randall Thomp- a country such as ours, where the art of cartooning has reached son, and the rest are divided between Miss Lily Hyland and something of a summit, we ought to be able to produce reArthur Schwartz...
...Like The excellent music is one of the conspicuous features of a sharp needle, it pricks delicately and allows the thread of the production...
...Then ting to allow more freedom and scope to the excellent musical numbers...
...haps quite true that in the early performances, and particularly Of individual performances, several deserve very special on the first night, the strong hand of showmanship had not mention...
...These celebrities a play into boresome propaganda...
...There was also some interesting the few lapses mentioned (and these could be so easily excised) singing by Juliette Gauthier and Wesley Boynton...
...Among bility of the review that the Neighborhood players have made the satirical numbers, the production of Uncle Tom's Cabin a great contribution to the theatre, They are helping to create at the Northern Lights Art Theatre in the manner of the for quite serious thoughts the enchanting language of laughter...
...The orchestration throughout and about a the argument to be drawn through with the least effort...
...But in their satirical touch, in their quality of there were the two amazingly fine impersonations by Vera subtle and pervasive humor, in the music and in the perfection Allen, of Chrystal Herne as Craig's Wife, and of Catherine of certain individual numbers, these latest Follies at the Neigh- Cornell in Green Hat mood...
...Like the newspaper cartoon, it Irving Berlin, and Texas Guinan (transformed to Guyem...
...In fact, the only lines that could be considered distasteful are a there was Dorothy Sands...
...with grace and sly wit...
...pungent material...
...But on this occasion her complete mastery of There is also a notable lessening of the tendency to cheapen the distinctive voices of Miss Herne and Miss Cornell was a revelation...
...ponderous talk, editorial or dramatic, could never do...
...Suppose, for a moment, adventures in night clubs, carnivals, art theatres, and all other we take it seriously...
...The opening scene itself suggests the full Craig in the apartment downstairs, in a manner that will possibilities...
...We find ourselves in an Eskimo settlement of probably make this particular sketch a classic of the New the polar regions...
...Hitherto Miss Allen's imperborhood Playhouse far excel anything of the kind I have seen sonations have suffered from the persistence of her own vocal there before...
...It is per- the day...
...accomplishes through witty exaggeration what many lines of From then on the travesty proceeds with a merry pace...
...216 THE COMMONWEAL June 30, 1926 THE PLAY Moscow Art Theatre's musical studio was easily the supreme delight of the evening...
...the more direct this satire, the more amusing it Goshdarn, transposed in key and inference from the lurid lady becomes and correspondingly the more effective in applying of the Chinese play, Craig's Wife, the Great God Brown, the caustic to needful places...
...My only objection is numberless exhibitions of intolerance...
Vol. 4 • June 1926 • No. 8
