The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-03-09

Even Their HATS Arc Funny.
When you see Tho Old Town" this
afternoon or evening. as you should.
IL you like to laugh. don't be dis
couraged by the slowness OF the FIRST
act Wait until that inspired idiot,
Fred Stone. gets properly into his
stride and you Will forget the dragging
OF the first part, the soubrctte's cold.
the weak singing of the chorus, and
the costumes. many or which are
sadly in need of attention from
cleaner, II not from the Board of
Health. for this man will make you
laugh IL you never smiled before
Before the curtain went up on the
hrst act. the overture augured well
Tor the success of the performance be-
cause 1t was tunetul and pretty and
the house orchestra played 1t exceed
ingly well. assisted by a good nrst
violin. an excellent drummer. and the
musical director of the company.
Charles Zimmerman, who took tae
whole front and top off the piano and
then beat IT until it sounded like a
concert grand Instead of an ordinary
upright. But with the riso of the
curtain. the performance sluinped and
hopes went down. and It was not un-
I'll stone got up on wire and began
to display few of his inexhaustible
assortment OF talented absurdlties that
the deadheads began to sec where their
money had gone to. True. he and
Montgomery had sung an anus
InE nonsense Jingle. Travel. Trnvol.
Lutte star. but they had fol-
lowed It with e patter from the
dark ages about the gorilla and the
;nanager--''When they caught him,
he Who. the managcr?" NO the
gorilla that George Ado should be
ashamed of. IL he wrote it. which /
Then Montgomery. Stone, and two
girls did quartetted song and dance.
III which Stone was again so absurl
that the audience made them do II over
again and. after that. everything went
with joyful whoop. Montg emery
and stone stole the kiltics and "breoks''
of two burning Scots-"Hague &
Hague" Stone said they were. also
defining them rs "a couple of wops"-
and sang foolish medley OF Scotch
airs. stone drawing roars from tho
house with HIS business" with a Harry
Lauder stick.
Followed bonny orchestral intro
auction to the second act, n hand" for
an unusually pretty setting. and then
long, uproarious laugh. punctuated
by generous and genuine applause for
the work of others in the company as
well as for the versatile genius OF
stone and the cleverness of the team
work with Montgomery
me ponies whtrled and twtrled and
pranced through dance any one stcu
OF which would put the average able
bodied man out OF commission for a
week. and did it with we'll trained
precision that reflected great credit
who played Mrs. Bslwether. Mrs
Malaprop part. exceedingly well, sang
a duet, East and West" with James
q, Reaney. who played the bit of Jim
Flanders. with musical background
by principals and chorus, which was
we'll written in the first place. and
remarkably we'll worked up by the
gtfssl Ill ,fnr
spite OF his lack of a good chorus to
work with. and finally gave US an op-
portunity to hear Reaney's ringing,
musical, and "rangy'' baritone 70 great
of the company. How he would have
sung Prince Aladar in "rhe Spring
Maidl"
Montgomery and Stone, in makeup
that made the house weep. Gang Good
by, Christina Swanson" with Swed-
ish accent and wound up with an eccen-
trio dance that made our sides ache.
And they pulled of an utterly unex-
pected and wonderfully timed burlesGue
baseball play that drew spontaneous
shout Montgomery made u hit was
"a Modern Japanese" during which
the ensemble work was particula ri y
pleasing, and then Stone came on as 4
Mexican vaQuero. He had already
walked u wire. danced like a human
scarecrow. had squealed and bowed
until tears of laughter rolled down our
faces. had twisted one foot in "A rope
ard. swinging down a bove the stage. had
made even the orchestra shake at his
simian antics, and now he gave an eX-
hibiticn OF fancy ropa throwing so
fast. 30 clever and so faultless that
the house went wild and stopped the
action OF the piece until he was work
ed out.
There Is plenty of other comedy in
the piece-George AIDES witty lines,
some suffragettes and a politician who.
like the most conspicuous OF all Amor
lean actors. has heard the call of the
people"-but stone and Montgomery
are the show, with Stone the hilltop
per. Why, each of them wears q hat
that Is worth the price of admission.
W. D. G..