The Washington herald., 1919-04-07
National-.A A New Girl"
By EARLE DORSEY.


Charles Dillingham; has given the
stage another hit in his "A New
Girl" unless we have ascribed too
much importance to its effect on
Sunday night audience at the Ma
tional last evening. In the matter
of applause, OF course. 1919 Sunday
night audiences in Washington are
proverbially bucolic in their en-
thusiasm.
"a New Girl is the latest output of
Anne Caldwell, best remembered for
her work in "Chln Chin" and Jack o.
Lantern" 1t is unfair to judge this
latest efrusion by the standards OF
either "Chin Chin or "Jack o. Lam
term" though it will possibly serve to
illustrate through his absence, the re-
markabie aid to any performance In
the comedy methods of Fred Stone
Possibly the most remarkable char
acteristic OF the new play is its hne
settings and the thoroughly en1cient
npanner in which Fred Latham and
Edward Royce have staged II. II Is
not costumed quite so gorgeously as
Mr.. Cohan's sartorial sunburst, rhe
Velvet Lady" yet in the high Visipii-
ity of its gowns, 1t suggests frin
cess Theater Offering.
L Is DOSSlDle Aio
Theater sirnile a step further and re-
mark that Jerome Kern, the composer.
seems to have edited one Of the song
hits of that eminent Princess Theater
hit, '1Oh, Lady! I-ady!-"1 Found You
and You Found Me-" to be exact-and
re-issued It in "A New Girl under the
title of Teacher, Teacher"
One must avoid. however, drifting
into mere captious phrasing in the
matter Of "a New Girls music. Kern
has not been overly careful about
originality in his new pieces, but they
were tuneful. Like nearly all Kern's
stuff, they are written in flowing
measured unhurried tempo. He has
written a musical introduction to that
old negro folk-song. THE Day OF
Jubilee" and re-issued it as a finale
number under the uncamouflaged
title of "Jubilo." However. there is
another number which may attain
victrola currency, "a Happy Wedding
Day"
When one gets to the plot, 1t is the
usual musical comedy variety, which
can best be hit off by our old ortho-
graphical friend, "gossamer." JAG
Queline Fay has a cruel guardian who
wants her to marry his son Chester,
the same being a deprecatory, cring
ing hick who apologies for being
alive. Jacqueline loves a navy lieu
tenant and she marries him during a
house party. To prevent an annul-
ment, the navy lieutenant mas
querades as a seminary girl, swipes
Jacqueline from the arms OF her
teacher and escapes. We didn't know
how he finally evaded the courts de-
cree on the annulment, for newspa-
pers have a tricky habit Of galloping
to press and some forty-five minutes
must be cut from the action of "A
New Girl to bring it within the con-
yentional time limits, but you can
wager the court was circumvented
Mention of the cast carries with it
latent memory of Leave It To Jane"
This is impaired by the Temperance
of two of the principals of that splen-
did production-Ann Orr and Olin
Rowland. Ann is a perfect limb of a
girl and while she cavorts a bit more
abundantly than she did in Leave 1t
To Jane" and lends immense help
in putting over the songs. she hasn't
the part she had in the George Ade
adaptation. Olin HowIand, also, hasn't
as good a part, but he's a splendid
comedian. somewhere under his hide.
He seems to do all his new part calls
for, but always and eternally, to our
mind, he falls six inches short of
actual comic greatness.
Alexander Clark-as was the con-
Ventional. crusty type of musical
comedy villain Douglas Stevenson,
late or Mr.. Cohan's Royal Vaga-
bond" played the young naval lieu
tenant. He's a good-looking young
ster, but he doesn't seem to have
found his niche. Helen Shipman was
at least acceptable as the sweet
young heroine. but we wish we could
say the same for the negro charac-
terization of Nellie Fillmore. when
will thespians learn that the South
ern negro type cannot be studied
south of Columbus Circle? Scott
Welsh has a/pleasing voice for cho-
rus numbers, which is the chief re-