Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-21
"Suzii" at the
Adelphi Tonight

There is one glnring blot on the
'scutcheon OF Suzi," Seen in New York
Saturday night Lew Fields musical
comedy, which comes to the Adelphi this
evening is mannerly specimen OF its
| kind. The music OF Alader Renyi is gay
enough; the songs interpolated from
/ others are still gayer The book is no
worse than two or three hundred others.
end the company is Jose Collins aud
! Tom McNaughton.
But there is blot Everybody in
/ Budapest and Sorrento insists on talk
| ing about Susie" when they might go
| through the delectable vocal gymnastics
| OF Teutondom and come out with some
thing like "zootsie" But perhaps Lew
| Fields was trying to be neutral,
However that may be, Susie is one
or those Sans Souci prima donnas who
! spend the hours of Sl5 10 1886 in acute
| amatory misery. The young man in the
l present case is just as ,passlonately In
| love with her as he always is. And
| Susie. like the rest finds him In the usual
| friendly attitude indulged In by tenors
when comforting the principal soprano,
| Consequently, she thinks him false. like
| all the rest, and discovers he isnt-as
Susies have always done--just before the
curtain goes down Mr., Hauerbach does
| the proper sort OF thing In the proper
\ sort of way.
But what is a book" between come
dians2 Fortunately nothing at all. Miss
| Collins. who can sing very well without
| looking as II she we're trying to-that is
what makes her star instead of a
| principal soprano-tries to keep to the
| track. She is arch and merry and very
| vivid for about an act and n half, and
| then arch and tragic and very vivid the
| rest of the time. But Tom McNaughton
| insists on coming in and giving the au-
opp,atbirp 10, OF tg
good thing for any audience and par
tlcularly good for "Suzi."
If Mr.. ,McNauEhton had lived in the
good old days OF Frank Daniels-instead
of existing i'm Australia or the Strand
Harry b. Smith would have done
book around him. Nowadays he's only
hauled in to keep things going while the
chorus-a most ravishing chorus-takes
| rest But he does. He puts on his wig
I with a Mount Ararat on the place where
| the bald spot ought to grow. He dons his
nattlest pair of mishts and his Congress
boots. He wrinkles up his face and his
! legs and proceeds to the comedians true
business in llfe supplying straw to the
manufacturers of musical comedy Bricks.
Very good straw, too, us everyone at the
Adelphl tonight will learn.
Sui is not all McNaughton nor iubi-
liant jose There is Connie Ediss with the
Whitechapel accent. Truly as somebody
in "Suzi" will remark this evening, she
is not. n weakness but a rock of Glib
raltar. In spite OF Wllsonian neutrality,
long may she wave There is also bash
ful tenor. His eyes are modest, his eye
brows are delicate, his mustache Is posi-
lively ingrowing. FrtZie Won Busing
tends to the singing that is left after
Miss Collins gets through and tends to II
WELL
How they ever hnd new titles for pop
ular songs-they don't always hnd new
tunes-Is one of the mysteries OF the
American theatre. "Suzi" has n good
many of both Heaven Measured You
for AIe,i is rather good eugenics, while
Angling" is a good deal better. 1.-The
Ocean, the Ocean" proves the suspicion
that even the wild waves are doing the
one-step. Paul Lincke has contributed
comic love song IN "Teenie. Eenie, Wee
ME" that just its Connie Ediss-which Is
Il good-slzed accomplisnment-and Franz
Lehar comes In at the end with THE
Best Toast of All'' to close the affair on
the right note.
Putting ON Seven "Potashes"
In the minor part OF the book agent who
gets mistaken for millionaire in Potash
and Perlmutter." at the Garfick, there is
a certain William Parke who came very
close to giving Pittsfeld, Mass, a new
theatre. Fifty citizens who got tired OF
one-night-stand starvation bought out the
local theatre. turned it over 10 Mr.. Parke
and a resident stock company, and saw
good drama week after week for the first
time in the towns history. Mr.. Parke
might he there nov, showing America
what an intelligent manager can do With
a company If another stock house at
ten-twent -thirt' handn't taken similar
notion.
This summer Mr. Parke found a vivid
contrast 10 stock production. Instead of
putting on seven different plays in two
months he Tut on one play seven times
in three months. In other words, he re-
hearsed all the Potash and Perlmutter'
companies that went out on the road in
September The same words and the same
business" and the same scenery but
with 500 assorted actors, This went on
week after week and month after month,
until toward the end Mr.. Parte was re-
hearsing four companies at once, morn
ing, noon and night, Yet there is a popu-
lar supersttition that a stock company is
a deadly grind.
News Notes
Christmas Eve Margaret Ellington in
yades New York with a new play by
Henry Arthur Jones. The Lie" Two
nights earlier "The Song of Songs" win
display its doubtful charms to the au-
dieHces at the Eltinge with John Mason
Thomas Wise. Dorothy Donnelly, Ernest
Glendlnning. Irene FeRwick and Cyril
Keightley
It develops that the play called Poor
Little Thing" which is to be produced
az the Bandbox-newest OF little thea
tres"-ls from the French of Jules Le-
maitre.
Ina C,aire. back from London, where
there were too many Of such charming
young creatures, is to appear In a new
musical comedy by Rida Johnson Young,
who made Harvard famous, and William
Schroeder, composer. Harry ConOr, For
rest Huff and Alan Nude will assist IN
Lady Luxury"
With England war-girt and London
rs 42-CENTIMETRE SII