The sun., 1919-04-13

The present day public, which has
been brought up to realism in all OF
its truths and fiction, demands realism
as well In its drama and musical
comedy. and quite frankly that is what
we try to give them. Mr.. Wodehouse
and myself, in picking subjects and
people for our plays. Let us laugh
with the U. s. A. instead Of at Europe
Asia and Africa.
| For many years musical comedy
was filled with tradition. In our first
play, Nobody Home in which I col
Elaborated with Mr.. Wodehouse, I en-
deavored to overthrow tradition
Naturally It could not all be done in
one blow. There still had to be some
haphaZard plot; otherwise the mana
gers wouldn't have had the play. But
already vague outlines of a plot were
taking form and there was a definite
thread of a story. There were irrele-
want scenes. too-not so many, per-
haps-but We did drag in the blue
book scene in which the two comedi-
ans during the action Of the play dis
cussed the ways and means Of the
road according to the Hoyle Of the
highway.
I'm Very Good Eddie taken from
Bartholomae's Over Night the next
attempt. 1t was easier to work out our
theory OF giving the public an honest
to-goodness plot. but 1t was still diff
cult to get away from the irrelevant
scenes. The connecting plot, however
as consequence OF the success Of this
piece, had ceased to make the man
agerial mind fear.
, I'VE had carte blanche in our next
piece, oh, Boyl' and there was moth
ing irrelevant In 1t. From start to fin
ish II was straight and consistent COM
edy with the addition OF music. The
! plot was connected and every song and
: lyric contributed to acceleration OF
| the action. The humor Of oh, Boy!
was based entirely on situation-not
on interjected comedians, and I think
] am right when I say that 1t was the
first successful play OF Its kind to be
attempted along these lines.
"The plot Of these musical comedies
may sometimes seem tenuous but that
is not the fault of the plot. II is due TO
the musical accompaniments-the
interruptions OF the plot. However, II
the plot of any OF our musical cora
edies were played without the musical
accompaniment they would still, be-
lieve, have some reason for existence
as comedy. This am happy to say
was commented upon in our later mu-
steal plays, oh, Lady, Lady!!' and
or. My Dear!'
I'm the plays we write we try to ge,
! as few parts known technically as
straight character parts as possible
What these so-called parts are made
to do in the play Is, to me, less impor.
tant than the interest they create by
themselves. So I try TO make them
human instead OF stereotyped. YOU
can shape the characters in your play
any way that makes them interesting
to the people who see and hear them
While situation IL important, It Is sec.
ondary to character in all plays, ant
In comedies in particular.
I'm the development OF our plot we
endeavor to make everything count
Every line, funny or serious, Is sup
POSED to help the plot continue to hold
This il true Of all drama, but II seems
never before to have been applied tC
musical comedy. This makes the
technique of writing musical comedy
much more difficult than 1t would seem
because II the songs are going to count
in any plot the plot has to be bull
more or less around or at least witt