Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-19
AMUSEMENT
SECTION
WALTER P. EATON
SEES BUNNY" AND
VERY GOOD, EDDIE"
In This Weeks New York Let
ter He Talks on Two Sue
cesses of the Season
Rx WALTER PRITcHARp EATON

bY WAblbh GhllGf1AhD ETA L YIN
The present writer admits to childish
weakness for plot in musical comedy.
He is foolish enough to like best a musical
play, other things being equal, that Is a
play, that has at least the appearance of
unity and form, and doesn't seem to be
a vaudeville program escaped out Of
Keith's theatre. He also has "A childish
weakness for lyrics in a musical comedy
which have some relation to this plot.
When one or more of the characters
breaks forth into song, he likes to have
that song about somebody or something at
least remotely related to the story. still
further. he Is so childish as to admit
certain fondness for lyrics, which sound
a little more as II they had been written
by Gilbert than by the Sweet Singer of
Michigan--no, that is not quite fair be-
cause few lyrics ever could be as amusing
ss the Sweet Singers! What we are try
ing to say Is that we have a fondness for
lyrics which do not shatter quite all the
rules of meter, grammar, syntaN and
sanity
In short, we found VERY Good, Eddie"
delightful entertainment Very good,
Eddie" which. of course, gets its title
from one of Fred Stones ridiculous say
ings in "Chin Chin" started out in life
some time ago MS a farce, by Philip
Bartholomae called "Over Night" 1t
was not a bad sort of farce, either, and
lived the usual life of such entertain
ments. Now It has been taken in hand
by Guy Bolton, with the aid of Jerome
Kern to write the tunes and Schuyler
Green to write the lyrics, and made into
a musical comedy. Miss Elizabeth Mar
bury has hand in the management and
II is playing in the tiny Princess Theatre.
which permits of an intimacy and deli
cacy quite unattainabe In large house.
Everybody concerned has done his work
we'll. Quite enough of the original farce
has been retained to make perfectly CO.
herent story, in which you can take an
& Intelligent interest. The lyrics all have
TO do with this story, they fit neatly into
the scheme, they are written in rhythmic
measures and have no little wit and
sparkle, and they are sung to tunes
that are pleasant. The chorus is small.
modest, pretty, and each member has
bit to do before the evening is over.
The company is composed of competent
players, who could handle the piece as
straight farce, and they get their effects
without horseplay. Moreover, the whole
thing is as clean as whistle, free from
vulgarity and bald sex appeal, and being
acted in the little Princess Theatre has
an air of delightful intimacy that at
times is not unremniscent of the old
Weberfield days. All in all, it's q mighty
good entertainment.
There is no need to go into particulars
about the cast, further than to say that
It contains pretty little Alice Dovey and
our old friend, Ada Lewis, and Ernest
Treux, who has at last been allowed to
grow up sufficiently to play role in
long trousers, though they still keep him
on the sunny side of maturity and make
him sing an amusing song about the woes
of the man who wears a 13 collar. He
gives very neat and ingratiating per-
formance. Oh! and we must not forget
the chief comedian John B. Hazard,
tvb nj
was all In the days work and goes on |
about his business of being a hotel clerk. |
Hazard is quite funny enough to attract |
attention, even If he had not once written |
that immortal ballad, "Ain't 1t Awful, |
Mabel?"
The present writer was standing at the |
rear of the Hudson Theatre during the |
first presentation of Austin Strongs new |
play, Bunny" and a man asked him If |
the author were English
Hardly" we replied. "He considers
himself an American. surely. though his
step-grandfather was Stevenson"
Who's Stevenson was the next
question.
But we are not all like that in New
York!
Bunny" is the kind of a play that
might have been written for the late Sol
Smith Russell. Nay, it is the kind of
play that was written for the late Sol
Smith Russell. Only, alas, it is now
played by Lewis S, Stone, who is an eX-
cellent actor, but rather fitted by nature
for virile parts than the role of the alb
Bent-minded dreamer 1t is a fine thing
for an actor TO try to broaden his scope
and for a manager to let him try. But
natures limitations have to be recog-
missed. after all. Francis Wilson never
did give that performance OF Hamlet.
The scene is laid in England-"some-
where In England'-in the year 1871
which permits of quaint costumes. The
hero is a poet and bookworm, who keeps
3 quaint, secondhand book shop wherein
all the action takes place Quaintness Is
sought as a keynote of everything, In