Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-27
THE THEATRE
A Musical Comedy
of the Great War


Last night the American Theatre re-
called Itself to the days of the Deutsches
Theatre with a musical comedy of the
great war, almost fresh from Berlin,
thinner Feste Druff." The only Inter
mediator between Inter den Linden and
Girard avenue was Rudolph Christians
admirable little company from the Irving
Place Theatre New York II was naive
ntertsinment-which Is a good thing for
entertainment TO be-and II was very good
fun.
AS preliminaries, a speaker before the
curtain took q swing at grape Juice di-
plomacy and the German Consul gave
two military bows, all amid the enthusi-
asm of a small but earnestly Teutonic
house. Then the curtain went up. with
the assistance of IN orchestra enerEetical-
ly and ably conducted by Victor Wagner.
and we gazed upon what one OF the come
dians described as die Junfrau und die
Jungfrau." For we were In a Swiss
hotel before the war. There we found a
Frenchman proving the periidy Of his
race by making love to a married woman
the wife OF a German. As he did II TO
really charming song, THE Eyes OF
Beautiful woman the audience was
quite willing TO forgive him long before
he died in Belgian skirmlsh-see the
third act-and cleared the lady's charac-
ter to the husband who happened to be
hanging round. The lady herself testified
TO her innocence by Joining the Red
Cross.
In between came a good deal OF very
excellent patriotism and some equally
good humor. The Germans in the audi
ence supplied part of the former by not
finding it necessary to advertise their
inner reverence for their national anthem
by standing up. a goodly quantity over
flowed from the stage in speech ana
song The whole company sang Of spill
ing the last drop OF their blood for the
Vaterland: and when they came to that
magic word, the comic porter, who had
just Joined the army to escape his wife,
saluted with impressive self-conscious-
ness. The patriotism, be 1t said to the
credit of the librettlsts, Hermann Haller
and Wilt Wolf, was we'll mixed with
fun. They rhymed Submarine" with
''Zeppeline' and served spring soup
to the soldiers which was described as
"a la Zeppelin nit Submarine Kloesse."
The comic sergeant gave another DEM
onstration Of Germany's perfect prepared
ness by hauling out a little French die
tonary and beginning lessons
The music was excellent. Walter kol-
los score had melody in the characters
tic Teutonic-Viennese fashion running
from waltz through comic ragtime to
military march. only once did it descend
to a barber shop chord, and the senti-
mentality of Forget Me Not accounted
for that
The performance itself ran quite as high
as libretto or music, If not higher While
Margarete Christians was piquantly beau
tiful and Cenzi Goetzer full of high
spirits, Hans Unterkircher and Richard
Feist put some acting as we'll as singing
into the parts of the rival men. But the
comedians were the more memorable.
for they were thoroughly German. rich,
unctuous. But how could they help it
when their names were Christian Rub and
Eudi Rahe and they had such amusing
samples to distribute as That's not
Joke. It's from Schiller. It's Art" or
Belgian or Belgian what speaks
French is French"
Probably the best part of the evening
was the feeling it gave you of how Berlin
and all Germany, shut in by a ring of
foes, Is really taking the war. This
little bit. half patriotism, half Joke.
brought up the real Berlin as "Tipperary"
brings up the real London. But it also
brought up by that very touch OF true,
humorous humanity, a newer and keener
realization that. over the water there
under the shadow of Hin No. 6O real,
ordinary, average men were even then
killing each other. to no purpose but the
sowing Of damnable hate.