New-York tribune., 1919-06-17
Drama
New Edition of The Follies
Lives Up to Tradition
of Beauty
By Haywood Broun

The thirteenth edition of the Zieg-
field Follies is among the most beau
tiful of the series. 1t possesses at
least one quality often absent from its
predecessors, for the present cast has
an excellent voice. The singing of John
Steele was among the best features of
the performance at the New Amster-
dam Theatre last night. Particularly
in the Irving Berlin number, "a Pretty
Girl Is Like a Melody" his voice
showed to excellent advantage. AS
long as he was singing popular music
the young man seemed frightened to
death, but Shubert's seranade was easy
for him, as was the Barcarolle and
Traumerei. Steele sings we'll enough
not to do the occasional fearful falset-
to stunts which he threw in for good
measure.
The comedy honors of the evening
went very easily to Eddie Cantor. The
knockabout sketch "At the Osteo-
paths" is among the most amusing
bits of violence We have ever seen on
Cantor are the authors, and Mr.. Can
tor has certainly not used his privilege
of authorship to spare himself. All
the wound stripes which have been
written into the piece fall to him. Few
performers have the unbounded vi
tality of Cantor and his work is
hugely funny. He is usually vulgar,
but we doubt whether the pure in
heart will be injured to any great ex-
tent by his quips and his antics.
Marilynn Miller dances entrancingly
and sings very little. She was gor-
geous in minstrel number And yet
it is almost a pity that she dances.
Sometimes one would like to have her
merely stand still, for here sare lines
for the sculptor
The appeal to the eye is almost con-
stant and Joseph Urban has never done
better The two tabeaus arranged by
Ben Ali Haggin are both eminently
successful. We doubt whether the
show will receive the Endorsement of
DR.. Straton or Rabbi Wise, but the
Godiva picture is beautiful for all
that.
from the usual Follies fault of being
too long, and the evening was not free OF
dull spots which might be cut. A long
dance number by Maurice and Walton
seemed to us a bore. We were some
what disappointed in Ray and Johnny
Dooley. They were funny at times,
but though they fall as hard and as
often as their relatives at the Winter
Garden and the Century Roof. some
thing of the Newtonian inspiration,
which possesses William and Gordon,
is lacking.
Bert Williams was exceedingly funny
in Rennold Wolf sketch, in which he
plays the part of the assistant to, a
sharp shooter, but none of his songs in
the first two-thirds of the performance
was in the least effective. 1t is a long
time since we have seen Williams. ir
a good song, but the fault lies, en-
trely with his material, we think Phi
Dwyer is good as an eloquent dog, anc
is assisted capably by Mary Hay, one
of the most diminutive, but also9amone
the most personable, of the Follies
beauties.
We should not fail to mention that
Johnny Dooley is very funny in q bur
lesque of classical dance. Will Rog-
ers is missed, but on the whole we
found the present Follies more humor-
Gus than the last one, and perhaps
more beautiful as we'll. We mean
scenically beautiful. The young ladies
of the chorus seem to us to be shade
less prepossessing than they were long
years ago. Perhaps the years have
something to do with it. AS usual, the
show is staged expertly and every num-
ber goes along at the proper Follies
pace.
Ziegfeld should receive his annual
tribute from those who write for the
theatre because in his own field he does
his work supremely we'll He has been
q considerable figure in bringing beauty
and taste to American musical shows.
Whatever the ethics of the Follies may
be, they may safely be left to others
who are more expert in these matters.