Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-01-08
MAKING MUSICAL PLAY.
II Is NeverEndins Process In Which
Originality Is Stunned.

II Is NeverEndins Process In Which
Originality Is Stunned.
The making of musical comedy goes
merrily on and the making of many
dollars through the presentation of
these shows continues quite as mer-
rily no doubt, says the New York
Times. For where one fails to score
heavily with the public another is soon
ready to take its place. The musical
comedy, when all Is said and done. Is
the staple article in the managerial
shop. Fashions in plays may change.
or seem to change, the cycle Of prob
lem plays may give way to that OF
melodrama or domestic comedy and
farce-but musical comedy remains
about the same from the Beginning to
the end. In fact, it is so much the
same that those who are called upon to
pass judgment upon the respective
merits of one such show as compared
with another find themelves falling
into stock phrases to describe it.
Somewhere or other, after the new
est productions of this kind, one is al
most sure to read that its tunes will
be, whistled all over town, phrase
which makes glad the hearts of the
music publishers and is generally re-
garded as being the one compliment
to be most priced. On the other
hnf IN he q
slight on the composer is now taken
as amatter of fact of course. Nobody's
feelings are hurt when his choice
melodies are described as reminiscent,
for it is taken as a matter of course
that the tunes will be reminiscent,
and it has been discovered further
more that the nearer they are to
some that have come before the bet
ter chance that they will become the
popular rage. How does any one sup
pose the gallery boy could takes up
and carry the air of chorus the first
time he heard it If 1t contained new
and difficult combinations in harmony
Leaving the so-called musical side of
this style of entertainment to consider
it's 'literry phases" one finds that
here, too, the reminiscent quality pre-
walls. The locals may vary-the char
acters are nearly always the same.
There is the youthful lover signing
like furnace and ready at the proper
cue to burst into the words of a ten
der love dirty, while the music pub
fishers sit back and make guesses
whether TIE number will be as popll-
/ lar as "Violets." He must have a
duet, also, with the heroine and he
must be able to outwit scheming reia-
tives or designing potentates. Nine
times out of ten the schemers are for.
eigners-us French or Italian
who make bad linguistic breaks but
are handy with their feet" and atone
for their wickedness in song and
dance before the evening is quite over
The father of the heroine is always a
fierce man who, for al, his fierceness
is not able to keep out of scrapes
from which he is rescued by the hero
before curtain falls, thus enabling
father to bestow the parental blessin g
on union which he had hitherto re
garded as impossible.
The comedy" In many o. these
shows Is their saddest feature, Once
in great while man like Raymond
| Hitchcock, Frank Daniels, Lew Fields
or Joe Weber will appear with some
thing genuinely amusing and original.
, but for the most part the gentlemen
who pose as funny men have abso-
lutely no sense Of humor. To them
the ability to fall down a flight of
stairs represents the genu' ne comic
spirit. 1t is not surprising that they
are so deceived, for In nine cases out
of ten their audiences are of the same
opinion. There is, in fact, nothing so
inane, so banal, SO trivial, but that it
will bring a laugh from so-le part of
the house, If it is the conf, mar who
! resorts to it. The average musical
comedy visitor goes on the assump-
ton that the man with the grotesqua
makeup must be funny because that is
what he is intended to be. And so
the compliment of laughter is paid
even when he is most funereal.
No discussion of musical comedy
would be complete without refer
ence to the girls of the chorus, who.
though coming last, are a long way
from being of least importance. To
one who attends these shows with any
sort of regularity there is the ever
present question: Where do the
girls come from: where, DO they. go?
Almost every new show brings lit
tie host of fresh and pretty faces, for
the dav Sc the superannuated chorus
girl is over.