New-York tribune., 1918-03-04
By Haywood Broun

.h4!S itlHbGZ, Il dancer. ErneStue Myers
By Haywood Broun
The authors OF 'Fol,ow the Girl"
have employed the principle Of the Sc
lective draft, but they raised the age
limit. The new musical comedy at
the Forty-fourth Street Roof Theatre
has called a number Of familiar jokes
/ into service. and at least one of the
songs was borrowed from an early sue
/ cess. However, this Swing Song. which
comes, ! think. from "Veronique," is
delightful melody and nobody will be
! likely to object TO its revival. I'm not
SO sure about the jokes 1t depends
/ on mood and temperament. 1t must
be great 20 be young and able to laugh
at a reference to "the trail Of the
/ lonesome spine" Some men from the
feet We're all but convulsed by this
/ one
Curiously enough, Irwin Cobb's great
/ line "as much privacy as . goldfish -
see page 253 OF Frank Wilstach's Die
/ tonary Of Similes-faied 20 arouse
any merriment. Perhaps there is n
certain subtlety in the figure which
requires concentration of thought
! impossible in the theatre The point
night be developed by a reference to
/ Clayton Hamiltous "Theory of The
aire," in which mob psychology is dis
oussed at length. AS we remember it,
q man descends several rungs of the
ladder Of civilization when he enters
q theatre. I rather think he just
( closes his eyes and jumps Off if the
show is an average musical comedy.
"Follow the Girl violates only one
/ Of the union rules. and that is war
allowed to introduce his well known
! German dialect speciality until the au
thors have explained that the char
acter he represents is Swiss. Since
those other we'll known Swiss dialect
comedians, Weber and Fields. are soon
/ 20 appear, it might be we'll TO point
out some of the differences between
/ this style and the old German dialect
which is gone. The vowels are little
shorter and the aspirants little
softer and the labials little more
moist. The labial spirant remains
unchanged. Altogether it is very diff
| ticult to detect ihe difference between
/ this Swiss dialect and the talk of the
Bavarian knockabouts, with which ali
theatregoers arc familiar. Back of the
fourth row only an acute ear will no.
tice the change.
George Bickel, by the way, is the
most amusing member of the cast OF
Follow the Girl" Walter Catlett.
who was seen here in $50 Long Lefty"
was occasionally amusing but he did
not have many good opportunities.
The best songs IN moderately at
tractive score are "There's Always One
You Can't Forget" and "Women, Wine
and Jazz" Miss Eileen Van Biene
and Harry Fender sang the first and
Catlett and Miss Mercedes Lorenzo
did the second.
The book. by Henry Blossom. de-
scribes the misadventures of a penni-
less young man who allows people to
mistake him for his millionaire cousin.
The heroine whom he is going to marry
is also pennlless. In the last act the
young man learns that his uncle in
Paris has left him S2,000,00O, and tho
heroine discovers that her father said
he was bankrupt merely because he
was short on the market. He is as a
matter OF fact worth S4,5O0,0OO. Ac
cordingly, the young couple sing
There Is Always One You Can't For
get' for the tenth and last time and
get married.
The Provincetown Players have sue
ceeded in putting three-act plav, with
thirty speaking parts and few slave
women, bowmen and messengers. on
their twelve-foot stage. Occasionall,,
there is disturbing suggestion of
the Black Hole of Calcutta, but for the
most part the producer has done
extraordinarily well. The production
may serve as an example of what NAV
: De accomplished when taste is substi-
tuted for money in the mounting of a
play. The settings are extremely at
tractive.
The play. "Thc Athenian Woman"
is by George Cram Cook 1t is occa-
siona!y eloquent and moving, particu-
larry in the last act. "Thc Athenian
Woman" deals with period, or,
rather, two periods, in Greek history
when the nations had to choose be-
tween war and peace. Peace comes
upon the first occasion when the wom-
en- of Athens, under the leadership of
Aspasa, rebel against the war party.
Fourteen years later war comes again,
and there is no longer force strong
enough 10 avert it.
The play suffers at times from a too
obvious attempt to state present-day
problems in terms of Greece. This
hurtlcs the spectator out of the illu-
sion. A more serious and constant de-
feet keeps the play from being better
than an interesting and creditable eff
fort. The first two acts Of the play
centre upon the struggle between As
pasta, the pacifst, and Periclcss the
militarist. Unfortunately. the con-
tenders are not we'll matched. The
part Of Aspasia s so much better writ
ten and so much better played that the
) tingle of conflict is absent. Ida Rauh.
in spite of fondness for overhead
gestures, does we'll as Aspasia. Cook,
, the author, was not able to make
pericles seem much more than a very
recently commissioned second lieu
tenant in the reserve corps. The most
distinctive piece Of work was done by
Lacey Baker, as Kalia, the wife of
pcrjcles. This young actress has an
extraordinarily moving voice and an
easy grace and presence. shink the
com mbnation is about an approximation
Of what actors know ms authority.