New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
By Ralph Block

| Into n musical stage that is so often
crab. so rarely splendid in fuliilment
rs well as promise, the adornements Of
THE Riviera Girl" come like a sum-
mer wind blowing fresh from field of
flowers. Music that follows the richly
I devious paths of Hungarian melody, a
style of stage decoration so magma
tive as to cary the eye and the mind
/ far way from the narrow walls OF a
! theatre, and the charming voice and
/ presence of Vida Bcnnett-al these
distinguish the new musical comedy at
/ the New Amsterdam Theatre alike
/ from the heavily weighted comedies Of
yesteryear and the light and frothy
musical shows of to-day.
Only the tale that Messrs. Bolton
| and Wodehouse, those twins Of the
| musical stage, have fashioned must
take a hcsitating scrutiny and the
narrowed eyelid; not for what it does
| lack in itself but for what little meas
| ure Of good quality IL does present by
/ the side of so much splendor, so much
accompanying delicacy and magniii'
cence. 1t is passable enough, indeed,
| alone, albeit with memories giving the
| echo here and there-this tale of n
variety singer at Monte Carlo, beloved
! by noble youth, who cannot win his
! fathers consent to a marriage. The
| young man schemes TO wed her first
| to a pennless baron, and, once with
| a title gained, to get her divorce and
marry her himself. But his father
! takes a hand IN the scheme, making
| sure the baron is false one, and that
| once he has his bride he will refuse
| TO give her up.
! 1t is the baron who is the surprise
/ OF the plot, turning out 10 baron at
all, but prince. Thus the lady weds
him after all; the young man is con-
/ so!cd with another, and the finale Of
convention is achieved without mis-
/ hap. All this is novel enough, and
! gives Mr.. Josef Urban, the painter
| more than the opportunity he needs
/ But somehow as a story it lacks the
! grace of its adornments, of those
things and people that dress it up. II
/ is just little mean, with too much
| passing of brides, too much Of that
| cyricism which is we'll enough under
; its own frank declaration, but seems
/ somehow out of place in what at mo-
! Of light opera.
! Yet it is ingratitude itself 70 carp
( at the Bolton and the Wodehouse for
| the tale they have fashioned, for do
/ they not, after all, create the frame
which makes the sight of Miss Ben
nett possible again? Not that any
+ trick of Fate could have kept her
/ from Broadway, for so much of grace
and so much understanding could not
/ have remained long hidden. Her voice
: is fine and clear. and has grown in
/ richness and range. The Riviera girl
acts as well as she sings, with deli
4 cate grace. Only her dancing is some
/ times ineXpert.
( But il Miss Bennett is half of the en-
tertainment of the play, Mr.. Urban,
once more the silent actor, is at least
/ a five-siXths. Out of the empyrean
blue, the golden hue of oranges and
those rich puppies of the Mediterranean
! he has fashioned three settings that
4 give new distinction TO the art OF the
/ stage-an art that until late years was
more foolish than learned. Even cas-
ually these settings are beautiful, but
: to a closer scrutiny they disclose har-
monies of line and color that can give
deeper satisfaction to public starved
/ so much in the theatre by the thinness
/ of aesthetic fare.
? The remaining one-sixth Of satisfac-
tion is composed of the excellencies Of
the Kalman music, the comedy of Sam
Hardy, who relieves the inevitable
/ American tourist Of much that is in
ane and last night sang a very funny
song full of all the words rhyming with
/ Quogue; the all too infrequent dancing
! of a young woman named Marjorie
/ Bentley, and the beauties of intelligent
costuming and of well trained en-