The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-01-08

"Toot TNOotT One Long Shisfle of Joy
Girls and Melody.

Edgar Allen Wooif. Berton BrAley,
anu Jerome Kern. assisted by Henry
w. savage. the prince of all producers,
have taken Rupert Hughes farce. "Ex-
cuse Me,' brought the lines up to date.
peopIod the company with a huge lot
of singers. dancers. and comedians,
backed ~ By beauty chorus, and
have made of it one of the best mu-
sica! comedies that the great white
way vii. have seen In long time
when il once let's there, which Will no
doubt he srGn.
lts one long whistle of real, uhal-
loyed joy. and the packed house at
the AcAacmy last night was, incident
ally. the biggest seen there since the
war tax seemed 10 have a psyohoiog ical
effect on the theat4rgoing public. The
music might be said to be the most
pretcntious that jerome Kern mas yet
turned out, though the best liked mel
ody in the piece was composed by krni.
Brettenfeld. a soldier OF the Sen en-
teenth infantry. and Is entitled. The
Last Long Mile" II has Hitting
march swing that had the audience
keeping time with its feet and an AL
most insane desire to join in the
chorus.
Other songs pleasing were Kan The
Kaiser" another march, when You
Wake Up Dancing with dancing ac-
compartment; and a topical song lit 4
Immaterial to Me- sung to repeated
encores by Harry Fern as the Pullman
porter.
AS ia usual in Savage productions a
real Broadway cast and chorus inter
preted the piece and in company OF
so many principals of first magnitude
1t Is almost impossible 10 choose De-
tween them. Eddie CARVE MS the fat
and bibulous Jimmie Wellington, who
with his wife is on the way to Reno
for q divorce, created gales Of laugh
ter by his overwhelmingly funny inn
personation. and Eddie can dance, too,
despite his embonpoint. FRANCES
DemRrest. with little to do. ably as
sisted az the wIte of Jimmy. Harry
Fern as the Pullman porter liz an unctu-
Gus comedian and extracted many
laughs from a not too unwilling auii-
ence. His singing OF the aforesaid
topical cong scored heavily. Louise
Groody, n dainty miss of much grace
and charm. danced her way into the
hearts of the audience. with original
and difficult steps. Earl Benharn as
the pseudo minister on a lark 3ust
after his marriage and settling down
to pulpit work. also proved to be a
nimble dancer AS two fake Greek
dancers with classic manners and
dress. Donald Sawyer and Ruth Ha'd-
ing burlesqued the craze for CLASSICAL
dancing. Mr. Sawyer being particular
~ good in his dancing numbers. Har-
~ Benham with a ringing tenor voice
and splendid stage presence sang aad
made love delightfully."-; and Greek
Evans displayed q baritone with a 90
nervousness like a bell, leading the
Last Long Mile" to many encores. AL
bsrta Burton in sticky part an the
little wife looking for parson. war
suffering with such severe cold. that
il was impossible for her to do justice
to her part either vocaliy or dramati
cally, though II was easy to see she
Ia talented. The chorus carried more
than the usual road numbers. all good
TO look at on the female aide, with
dancing and vocal ability 20 spare
while the male chorus OF eighteen
voices sang delightfully."-. Allen Gooisfy
Richmond boy, who has been on tine
stage for several years. was noted
among the chorus men. and given tbs
glad hand by his many friends in the
audience. Go and see ''Toot foot" II
will do you good today.
A. NJ S.