Evening star., 1915-11-30
Belasco,


The complacent situation of a man ir
the hands of friend was enjoyed last
night by Al Jolson, who appears in one
of the more recent spectacular Gre
ations that have become identified with
the Winter Garden in New York.
There were friendly hands ready tc
applaud on every pretext whether this
energetic survivor of the spirit OF
! American negro chose to express him
self in terms of blunt comic appeal or
strove to introduce touch of genuine
emotion and sentiment into one of the
unpretentious ditties of the hour.
1t looked as if the stage of the the
ater had assembled enough people to
| outnumber an average audience. The
preliminary announcements of the play,
which read like advertisements of a
| burlesque show on a Medicine Hat cir
cult We're not fulfilled to an extent
that left the large audience appreciably
| shocked Whether this is because the
show was in reality innocuous or
whether audiences have become thor
oushly inoculated is a matter too
| abstruse for off hand decision.
If Mr.. Jolson drifted into an occa-
sional expletiye which would have
aroused violent Indignation in the
times when the Black Crook rep
resented the climax of theatrical devil
ishness, he permitted himself no
greater liberty than the legitimate
drama now assumes in striving for
, realistic rhetoric.
If some of his quippishness seems to
the sophisticated mind open to fnsId-
ious double meaning. the public, grown
blase, resented it less than they did the
ancient and honorable joke about the
tomato which was thrown at the actor
and wouldn't have hurt SO much II 1t
had not been in can.
| 1t had been made known in an un-
official way that Jolson had been ill.
Last nights performance was con
elusive assurance of his recovery. He
was working continuously and. numer-
Gus as were his temperatures from
scene to scene. the audience awarded
| him a welcome every time. III there
are any tricks that Mr.. Jolson has
| in his outfit of rnirthful magic which
he did not display last night. he may
as well dispense with them entirely,
| for the assortment was so compre-
| hensive as to be more than satisfying.
He started in. chronologically speaking,
with his earliest hit and pronounced
the word Pittsburgh in way that
makes Przemysl sound easy. He romp-
| ed over the runway employed 10
demonstrate that chorus ladies loco
! mote in a manner characteristic OF
| ordinary human beings, and at the con-
| clusion of the performance. as an extra
added attraction, took off his wig.
washed his face and revealed h1msell
so the boys who knew MIN IN. Washing
ton could recognize him on terms OF
familiar reminiscence.
For the sake of the advance agent $
credit let it be chonicled, without fur
ther delay, that there are girls IN the
show. OF course, Kitty Doner doesn't
count. She is as athletic. vigorous and
snappily juvenile as any college youth
who ever trained for a foot ball game,
and is bounced about the stage in a
way that demonstrates the scientific
proposition that. matter, is indestruct-
BILE. She sings a little, too; everybody
does-a little. She also dances great
deal, and in this respect, likewise,
everybody follows suit.
The list of girls, commencing with
pretty BERTHE. May and Alice, going
through the list to Mildred. Vera and
Eleanor, numbers at least twoscore, and
they exhibit a series of costume designs
which range all the way from the alb
ruptly bizarre to the most magnificent
illustration of the French costumers s
skill
The book and lyrics, by Harold At
teridge include an effort to weave the
loose ends of incident into a thread OF
story about a telephone mix-up: and
the music. by Messrs. Romberg and
Carroll, has sprightly rhythms in
which the drums and cymbals are by
no means neglected.