The Play and Screen
Skinner, R. Dana
The Circus Princess THE gorgeous improvidence of the Shuberts when they stage a musical attraction often plays havoc with the lighter values which the piece might have. In the case of The...
...Hassell's performance as the Drain Man in The Servant in the House (the Actors' Theatre revival) will best appreciate the versatility of the man...
...Last of all, let no one forget the circus performers, including the inimitable Poodles Hanneford and family and an amazingly fine group of tumbling clowns, with Bee Starr doing some of her unbelievable stunts on a rope...
...The present piece at the Winter Garden is good entertainment...
...The casting, first of all, has been well done, certainly on the vocal side if not for the rarer combination' of voice and acting...
...She is a little lost in the panorama of The Circus Princess but njakes the most of the occasional moments offered her...
...So far so good...
...This play of life behind the scenes in a fashionable dressmaking establishment is full of good comedy and quite a little pathos...
...Phillips is casting these revivals...
...The personality that looms largest in the performance is, of course, our old friend George Hassell, disguised as a villainous grand duke with a turn for high blood pressure and intrigue...
...The Unknown, pictures him as an armless man who does shooting and other circus stunts with his feet...
...But for those whose winter schedule prevented attendance at every play, and who may now be casting around for a delightful July evening, this play deserves further mention...
...His third revival...
...But when the audience is subjected to the sight of toes serving as a means for smoking cigarettes, for pouring and drinking...
...Hassell has a contortionist face, not unlike the features of William Danforth, capable of so wide a range of caricature that musical comedy simply cannot get along without him...
...But artistry can be sidetracked with fatal ease...
...A Word About Lon Chaney IT IS not without reason that the many fantastic makeups of Lon Chaney on the screen have become a by-word and material for standard jokes...
...Somehow you feel she deserves the chance of starring in one of those intimate reviews where a happy understanding between audience and stage yields half the delight of the evening...
...It is a part into which Leo Carillo fitted with ready-made perfection...
...Lombardi, Ltd...
...Many plays coming to Broadway in the height of the season show nothing comparable to the balanced excellence of these Phillips presentations...
...He overacts outrageously, of course, and carries his clowning just as far as the rights of other actors will permit, but you will hear no complaints from the audience...
...If your nerves are good, you will get no little excitement from watching Hanneford roll in and out under horses' hoofs or ride upon any part of a horse's anatomy except upon his legitimate back...
...Desiree Tabor, though lacking in any unusual charm or distinction, has all the surface qualifications of beauty and stage presence and a voice only slightly less engaging than Mr...
...By consenting to this type of film show, Mr...
...Many of the numbers have already found their way over the radio—such as Dear Eyes That Haunt Me...
...Then, to crown the cup of lighter things, there is that most personable of singing dancers, Gloria Foy...
...In the case of The Circus Princess, however, they have managed to combine with admirable effect all the magnificences of traditional staging with much of the charm of The Student Prince and other productions for which they have justly won laurels...
...The character of Tito Lombardi is particularly well drawn—a man of generous impulse, and so much the artist that he allows everybody to take advantage of him and even drive him to bankruptcy...
...Phillips is doing in bringing us these revivals at popular prices...
...Speaking of Tommy TOMMY, by Howard Londsay and Bertrand Robinson, was duly reviewed and praised in these columns by Miss Helen Walker during its first week...
...Although the latter has just closed, a review of it is being given here in recognition of the fine woi'k Mr...
...If the story does not hold nearly so well as The Student Prince or Princess Flavia, it is still quite adequate to the mood of the seeker after musical entertainment rather than the lover of operetta...
...Kempy, with the Nugents, was the first of the series, and Lombardi, Ltd., by Frederic and Fanny Hatton, with Leo Carillo in the lead, was the second...
...But there have been many worse tenors foisted on the New York public and a good voice graces many a difficult moment...
...The catchy and slightly reminiscent music of the show is by Emmerich Kalman...
...But it has the added delight of an extremely competent cast, including Peg Entwistle, Alan Bunce, the vociferous Maidel Turner, the crabby Lloyd Neal, and the suave Sidney Toler...
...Robertson's...
...In fact, the praise should be loud and insistent for the care with which Mr...
...The stage settings and costumes are properly gaudy and effective, and the dancing, particularly the numbers executed by the sixteen Foster Girls, is vigorous enough for any hot night...
...The Woman of Bronze, in which Margaret Anglin reappears, was reviewed in these columns last week...
...ONCE more Murray Phillips launches on the perilous sea of revival...
...Chaney seriously endangers the sympathy of his bewildered public...
...His supporting cast was excellent, including among others, Helen Deddens, Marion Abbott and a newcomer of great promise in Eunice Hunt...
...He is, or could be, a great artist in this aid to impersonation...
...It has one of those omnibus plots so well designed to leave the showman a completely free hand—made-to-order romance, court costumes of the flamboyant Russia of 1912, a circus troupe that has its chance to give a real circus on the stage, and a final scene in Vienna where, presumably, no musical comedy can possibly fail...
...It falls, of course, into the group distinguished by Seventeen, Clarence, or even our friend Merton of the Movies...
...Unfortunately— for straight plays—Mr...
...coffee and for lighting matches, the loathsome effect passes beyond all borders of art...
...His most recent film...
...His program is to take the successes of recent years and to revive them at pre-war prices with the original star and a first-class supporting cast...
...Their duejs are beyond all question worth while...
...Its bright particular star is young William Janney, a son of the producer, Russel Janney, and a most likely competitor for fame with Glenn Hunter...
...It becomes material for circus side-shows, where the morbid may foregather to see the monstrosities of nature...
...But they will also harbor a lingering regret that the stern demands of musical comedy have deprived us so often of his sterling ability as an actor of the legitimate stage...
...Those who remember Mr...
...He lacks the essential manliness of some of the newer recruits to the musical stage—notably William Williams of the Winthrop Ames Gilbert and Sullivan group, and his acting is rather stiff and overly mannered...
...Guy Robertson sings with vigor, assurance and occasional real power...
Vol. 6 • July 1927 • No. 9
