The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-16
4RAZzLE-DAzZLE"
 AMUSING LONDON American-Made Revue Is a
 Big Hit in England
ARE OTHER SUCCESSES
Daddy Long Legs" Is Among For tunate Number, While Show Shop and Boomerang" Fail to Please
 the British Theatrical Taste

l
 the British Theatrical Taste
 London, June 24.-(Special )-ReW1e-
 loving London was given its big 1 gest revue yet this week when Al
 bert de Courvilles latest offering,
 ''Razzle-Dazzle." was successfully pro-
 duced at historic Drury Lane. There it
 succeeded the American flm "The Birth
 of a Nation." and the judicious who grieved at the spectacle of the theatre
 of David Garrick turned into movies" I house are no less scandalized that it | should now have capitulated to the type
 of girl-show that is designed primarily
 for the delectation of the nut (now a
 military one), who is the British equiv alent of the tired business man Of United States of America.
 Albert de Courville. however, who l gets most of his ideas in the United | States, is fond of doing things on a big scale, and as Drury Lane is England's | biggest theatre, this young impresario has long had his eye on it as the locale | for monster musical show.
 "Razzle-Dazzle." like most of the oth- CT big so-called revues that have suc- ceeded here, is largely an American product. It was produced by William J. Wilson of New York. Its bright particular star is Shirley Kellogg, who came over here from the United States some five years ago to appear in a simi- | lar entertainment at the London Hippo | drome and later married the manager, 1 De Courville, an ex-newspaper man, and became his permanent leading woman. Some people opine that Shir-
 ley iS not quite equal to being the principal of such big productions, but | she is pretty and vivacious and has
 something of voice and invariably gets across. which is the principal
 thing.
 It had been planned that another American. the former Camille Clifford,
 now the Hon. Mrs. Lyndhurst Bruce, l should make her reappearance in Lon- ] don in "Razzle- Dazzle" but she failed
 to do so for reasons that have not been | explained. George Formby. the Lan- 1 cashire comedian. also was announced | to make his debut in revue in "Razzle- 1 Dazzle" but he was i'll and the man 1 agement, after once postponing the first | night to enable him to appear, decided to go on without him. with the result l that the show. on the first night, was 1 d ries of big "spectacles' joined togeth-
 CT by variety turns and p1aylets, hard l ly any of the latter of first class qua1-
 ity. Shirley Kellogg. wonderfully ] gowned, sang number of raggy melodies with considerable success, but the real individual hit of the evening l was made by an American comedian Robert Emmet Kean. who, though he l didn't appear until nearly mignight when the huge audience. representing all London, was nearly tired out after
 an interminable wait for the last big
 scene, provoked hearty laughter and | got fine hand" at the finish.
 l William J. Wilson's finest s'effects, wa s
 scored with big Highland scene called
 scotland Forever" in which a couple 1 or hundred shapey girls, attired in tar
 tans and kits, and wonderfully drilled,
 took part It delighted the house as did another big set representing Britain's bat tie fleet at sea. A much -boomed skating spectacle, with real ice on the lines of the famous one at the New York Hippo drome fell rather flat after being waited for for over four hours. We had heard | or the l5O people on skates in the New York show and were disappointed to see I only six at the Lane! The war, with the resulting shortage of men is, of course, | to blame for this. In fact, question was asked in Parliament regarding the 1 a large number of men were being en- ployed at Drury Lane in putting up for eign-made machinery to provide skating | spectacle"
 | The American plays on view in London now number four. They are Romance" which, with Doris Keane as star, has passed its 250th performance and is go- ing stronger than ever, The Barton Mys- tery.' by Walter Hackett,' which con a For IT the perennial Peg O My Heart,' and Daddy Long Legs which, put on at the Duke of York's, seems to have hit the bull's-eye plumb in the center. Peg Q My Heart" after having been trans ferred from one theatre to another until it had registered goodness knows how many performances was recently with drawn, finally, so it was stated, but Lon don declined to be deprived of it, so it is back at its old home the Globe" Moya Mannering an Irish girl. again plays Peg, in which part she replaced Laurette Taylor. whom the Zeppelins upset so badly.
 Meanwhile two big American successes. produced almost simultaneously have both expired after h~cvuragingly short runs. These were The Boomerang" and
 The Show Shop" both produced by AL fred Butt. who brought Peg across. Both plays were warmly acclaimed by the crit les and had tfae advantage of popular players, but. in spite of this failed to make good Various reasons are assigned for their collapse. which is said to have cost Butt dear. True. it is that the new "theatre-tax" has made play going lot more expensive likewise true that the tastes of Londoners are mostly for the banal just now. But on the other hand you have the fact that people are falling over each other to see two or three shows like The Bing Boys are Here at the AL hambra and "Bric-a- Brac" at the Palace, and that Romance" and Daddy Long Legs" about which there is nothing banal whatever. continue to turn em away" The fact seems to be that far as American plays in England are con cerned. it's case of you never can tell.
 
 The Pursuit of the Penny Tyler Dennett In World Outlook for June.
 An inventive genius down in Oklahoma is reported to have put out an improved style of colection-box which must appeal to all who have had any experience in that occult subject called church finance. It receives quarter or any amount in excess of that in the usual orderly way, 1 but dime rings bell. nickel blows a whistle and a penny sets off an explo- sion. If the prospective contributor ap- pears to be asleep. the box makes a noise | like an approaching trolley car and an automatic camera takes his picture.
 The story of this invention was copied | In al hv q al cat