New-York tribune., 1916-06-13
Girls, Scenery and Cos
tunes Compete for
First Prize.
ALL OF BROADWAY
IN THE AUDIENCE
Mr.. Ziegfeld's Annual Offering
Is at Times Brilliant and al
Times Very Dull.

Broadway at large. from George VI.
Cohan all the way up 10 Thomas II.
ince' packed itself into the New Am
Sterdam Theatre last night, upon the
festive occasion Of the presentation by
Flo Iiegfeld Of the tenth anniversary
edition OF his celebrated "Follies." Mr.
Ziegfeld's annual entertainments are
unique. Their reputation endures
from year to year. because Mr.. Ziec-
field never has disappointed his au-
diences. Exclusive Of the Cohan re-
vues, which are eight years younger
than the "Follies," the same cannot be
said of any other series Of musical
productions.
mus one finds the current entertain
ment crowded with everything that Mr.
Ziegfeld's audiences have come to ex-
poct in Mr.. 2iegfeld's "Follies." De-
spite few weaknesses, its success is
assured. 1t is, in the first place. a
wonderful beauty show beauty show
in which girls, scenery and costumes
run one another hard race No girl,
unless she were superlatively beauti-
ful, could long endure in the midst OF
Mr.. Urban's blues. colds, oranges and
what-nots. Mr.. Ziegfeld also has kept
the production up on his customary
high artistic plane, STOPPING rarely 10
the tawdry makeshifts that character
ize so many musical plays. As a pro-
ducer he has demonstrated his skill
anew, his only error having been the
selection Of George V. Hobart as 8u-
thor.
The Shakespearian celebration. as
might have been expected. furnishes
Mr. Hobart with considerable material
rather too much. in fact. There are
travesties upon Julius Caesar" "Ro-
meo and Juliet" "Othello" and others,
travesties which are lifted out Of the
ordinary by the beauty of the settings,
not by the spoken line. The best of
these was the Romeo and Juliet" bur
lesque, with Bernard Granville and Ina
Claire as the principals. Bert Williams
was an interesting Othello, although
hardly screamingly humorous. BY bur
lesquing the Shakespearian plays, in
stead Of satirizng our tercentenary
celebration, Mr.. Hobart remained well
within the confines Of the obvious.
When the production left Shakes
peare behind II there was a noticeable
Improvement. The second part of the
show is zippy and truly Ziegfeldian A
motion picture number gave the players
opportunity for series of impersona-
tiOns. ranging from excellent to terri
BILE. The former included Sam B. Hardy,
as Lou-Tellegen Ina Claire, as Jane
Cowl, and Fannie Brice, as Theda Bara.
Another reason for the superiority Of
the second part was that it contained
plenty of dancing. This years "Folies'
numbers among its principals half a
dozen or thereabouts of the best dan
GERS in the country. Indeed, next to its
claims as beauty show it will be
largely as dancing exhibition that the
"Follies" will make its stand.
Ina Claire. Ann Pennington, Bernard
Granville, Bert Williams and W. c.
Fields are once more prominent in the
production. Miss Claire is beautiful
and accomplished. and Miss Pennington
created q small sensation by her dane
ing. Mr.. Fields was not quite at home
until he arrived on the croquet grounds,
and the dusky Williams, unfortunately,
never did succeed in being vastly hu-
morous. There is no inclination, how
ever, to place the blame for this phe-
nomenon upon Mr.. Williams. The
agile Granville, Of course, danced with
all his accustomed deXterity.
Among the prominent newcomers are
Fannie Brice, who came previously
close TO running away with the enter
tainment last night. She is. beyond
the suspicion Of doubt, the funniest
woman on the stage to-day. Also pres
ent were William Rock and petite
Frances White, who have been beat
ing east by way of the vaudeville stage.
Some Of the more prominent beauties
we're Allyn King and Justine Johnson,
both of whom were good actresses
while they confined themselves to pos
ing.
In a production of this sort. Of
course, the credit or fault is attributable
largely 10 the director Ned Wayburn,
in this instance. Most of his work he
has done well. but the horrible chapter
on unpreparedness should come out in
stantly. Indeed, the ragged first night
performance was quite sufficient dem
onstration Of the horrors Of unreadi-
ness. Any novelty that the entertain
ment possesses is concerned with the
otd 44lbf anu AOA Li4Ao dlob VII W
is undoubtedly responsible
Gene Buck has written a series of
rather uninsrired lyrics, and Louis
Hirsch, Jerome D. Kern and David
Stamper have contributed some tink-
+ ling. ice-in-the- glass music. All of il
is pleasing, although there is no num-
/ Der TO compare with last years mem
Orable Hello, Frisco"
Ii is IN keenness that the present
production is lacking. For example,
it cannot be compared with the current
/ Cohan revue as piece of satire. Early
/ in their career it was the aim OF the
/ "Follies" TO poke fun at the issues of
/ the day, but recently there has been a
/ tendency to drift away from this ideal
and 10 depend more and more upon the
appeal TO the eye. II is to be doubted
/ II this is altogether a wise move. For
/ example. no production titled "The
/ Follies of 1916" should utterly ignore
/ the present political situation. This
/ one does. however, if one excludes d
/ couple of feeting and offensive carl
catures Of Colonel Roosevelt and Mr.
Bryan.
However, the "Follies" are going 10
l be popular Just as popular as their
predecessors, no doubt. IL. or they, is
or are the worlds greatest beauty
/ show