The Washington herald., 1918-12-06
Special Correspondent of The Washington Herald.

Special Correspondent OF The Washington Herald.
| New York. Dec. 5.-Musical comedy
in New York does not need music so
much as bang-up scenic effects.
! dropped into a musical comedy the
other night on Broadway and the
curtain went up revealing the stage
| flooded in blue light. 1t got more
| applause than several snappy musi-
/ cal numbers. 1t used to be that the
! basis Of a musical comedy meant
nothing beyond a prima donna and a
I naval lieutenant. Lack of plot has
/ for years furnished dramatic re-
viewers with choicest satiricIl ilings.
| But the artist has now come to the
| theater and things are changed.
! Black and white striped chintz sold
at a premium.
Then came painted furniture and
! Fifth avenue bird cages. roof gar
dens and Paul Poiret fantasies.
Joseph Urban began to burn the mid
night oil and there appeared great
! blue bowls and the jutting fountains.
The third act ballroom and the sec
Ond act yacht scene vanished.
| The thing now in musical comedy
| is to catch the spirit of the times
scenically. Greenwich Village studios.
| department store sections, hotel
| lounges and railway terminals are
I being glOrified.
! Dillingham; opened a show with an
antique shop and threw in a snr9-
torium scene for good measure. The
smoking room in a woman's club,
the society Canteen and the women =
voting booth came next.
Even chorus girls do not have to
| be beautiful any more. They can
make the frumpiest dowd beautiful
| by the electrical effects. Proper cos
metics under the amber lights make
grandmama of 60 look like Il Times
| square flapper at the giddy age Of IL
Dresses, too, can be made beautiful
at small cost with the aid of the
| electrical flooding process. Many of
them are made of paper. In one of
the dressing rooms the other night
there was a scream and a sudden
puff of smoke. A chorus girl lighting
a between-aCt cigarette fired her cos
/ tune. Dammit" was her only COM
ment as they got her another one in
jiffy.
Down in the tranquil gentility of
| Gramercy Park, flanked by veteran
trees. there stands today, and there
will stand tomorrow and so on every
day forever, a bronze Hamlet just
about to utter his immortal soliloquy
on life and death. The granite ped
!estal on which he stands bears the
| chiseled story, Edwin Booth. 1888
1895"
! 1t was not that the memory OF the
| great tragedian needed this element
defying perpetuation. But the Play
ers, the professional club which he
! founded and to which he presented his
own home in the grandeur of the old
| private park, placed the memorial
there, just outside his window. as its
| tribute to its founder a5 an actor, a
! clubfellow and a man.
1t was only twenty-five years ago
| that the great Booth passed on to
| higher spheres. Not a night passes
that his name Is not toasted in rev.
erence at the Players. No actor pos
sibly will ever be so beloved.
| There is no disputing the fact that
there are going 10 be now and then
a soldier boy who will buy a Gerns n
| helmet and go back home to lie like
! blazes. 1t Is bit human and most
| people will forgive them. In front of
one of those department store drug
stores the other day on Thirty-fourth
street / saw a young man in a new
! uniform talking to two wide-eyed and
| plainly admiring young girls. He
said 'I started running toward the
| big German gun when a big fathead
| climbed out with his hands over his
head and started to yell 'Kamerad.'
All he got out was kan My bay
onet went into his mouth and out
the back of his head. l speared six
in six minutes, and believe ME
1t was a great story but the young
man was an elevator RUNNER where
I live and had been at a camp near
New York only two weeks when the
war ended.