The Washington herald., 1919-04-21
Shubert- rt-Belasco-'The Crowded
Hour

OF the making of war melodramas
there is no end. and the latest of
these, and perhaps the greatest, Is
The Crowded Hour" which strikes
a new variant of an ancient theme
with considerable degree Of sue
cess That theme-the purging of hu-
man character in the crucible of the
big shows made more poignantly
realistic in this new Selwyn-Pollack
piece than in any other play of the
war period that has come within our
ken. Its every scene is written with
vivid sincerity which carries il far
beyond the reaches of conventional
melodrama. Its virtues as a we'll
constructed piece of dramaturgy are
obvious. Its failings as human
document are no less so.
Peggy Lawrence is the joint Sell
wyn-Pollack heroine-a "Follies'' girl
whose liaison with New York youth
has broken up his home. War comes ::
the New Yorker is turned by the
death of his brother at the front
from Stacker complacency into a cru
sader of the A. E. F. The girl fol-
lows him across. enlisting as a tele-
phone operator Her motive frankly
was selfish-to keep her lover for her
Sell Dul SHc dlSO Is puIBtu ana tA-
allied when her big chance comes.
All that there is to THE Crowded
Hour is packed into one pulsating,
concentrated scene in which Peggy
holds her key and switchboard even
as the Huns, who had broken through
the British line below ST. Quentin, are
coming swiftly onward. She stays at
her post until a connection" is made
over the wires, and her warning of
the peril reaches a division in danger
of enf1lade. So cunningly is this scene
contrived that a genuine Illusion, a
genuine feel of war, is created; the
stand of the American engineers at
Chaulny curing the sensational open
ing of the German drive a year ago
is the historical background of the
episode.
If it We're not for the fact that mod
ern war is itself one great super
melodrama which makes all theatrical
efforts at its stimulation seem pale and
drab, THE Crowded Hour would
have grip and punch far beyond
that which We are inclined TO award
it. A jaded. hear'-sick world gives &
faint reaction to The old stimuli in
these days of convalescence. Now
that for five months there has been no
slaughter. no further clangor of war,
the play radiates that curious and in
definable suggestion OF belonging to a
past age. OF unfolding incidents that
seem remote and alien to the ieaping
hearts and minds of men-the men
whose eyes are turned anxi0osIy and
earnestly to the future healing OF the
worlds Wounds
The play is well-acted, although we
hardly think that Florence Johns, in
the role of Peggy. Is going to cause
either Jane Cowl or Willette Kershaw
to lie awake o. nights. Allan Dine
hart, last seen in Washington in "A
Very Good Young Man." enacts the
part of Billy Laidlaw in an accepta BILE
manner. William Keighley plays Lieut..
Caswell excellentIy; Eugene Nau as
Grandmere Buvaise. Eugene Geinova
as Marthe and Emile De Varny as
Capt. Soulier gave realistic French at
mosphere to the piece
The production Is of the character
istic Selwyn standard and nothing has
been left undone to preserve the quail
ity of melodrama which undoubtedly
ranks as the chief American contribu-
ton to war drama for the current