The Washington herald., 1920-10-17
THE NEW YORK PLAYS
By GILBERT SELDES.

Said . woman at thu nrst night Of
-gae Treasure just before the nrst
c1rtala went up 'oh. my dear.
Asres = grsw~digger in this play.
Y "a know I simply can't stand those
Skznal shows i wish we hadn't
cSreI~
The SeRe OF that Is not that The
TseaSzre~ is a comedy, The grave
Dagger biaself provides a certain
aneont OS Innocent laughter. No
he Joke Is thak the Theater Guild.
wAscA produced the play. has made
tts repatatiea On drear tragedies,
hlsAscou poetic drama and problem
pszys, II made something like a
s1all fortune out of John Fergu-
60 past performances the dear lady
usss right
sAna even the actors. helped along
st the rather ironic and un-Anglo-
SSxoa hunors Of David Pinski con-
rsred 70 throw n little gloom over
lhe proceedings In case Pinski is
aa zntsailSzr nane> may mention
r1at he has written for twenty years
far TIA TsddSSA theater. and this Is
his nrsc Appearance on or near
RrknsH1y> his plays hare been
uarssatsa and PahlIshsd- At last he
i ac1sd and richly deserves il
J rentfnred The Tavern when
1t was p-OdRced The amusing part
of Lhis EsI1re Is hat IL follows al
mps1 fur an entire act the lines of
= a little pAylst George N Cohan
pm On sL n SAmbol OF FroDc of
s.ne snIL Ia this the conversation
wnch had utterly no sense. was
line by linz taken from the old
s11ndhJS7 Of relodrarA Governor.
we demand the uuth- -Unhand
Lfat Wrmn- and 50 on Conan
was arEeh II set the thing into
T"r or mto vaudeville But be
appa-sll5y saved the idea gave II
stnne cphes5on- and worked il into
TsE@
"A Phlade5phia newspaper man.
Jhn Lloyd BslterstDn- who has
been living abroad since the begin
mig of Tia var. Is soon 10 have =
vaudeville sketch prDdnced- On a
rpent visit to this country ! re-
newes my acquaintance with Bal
6srDn and IN 4 spirit of 1evity re-
n1rked that our playurights never
p ID three locales for their plays:
Earth Heaven and He'll They had
used the first and last not daring
to touch Heaven A few days later
Ralders-Dn read NE his playlet, re-
siding from that conversation It
-Ss produced here in New York by
te Dutch Treat Club under the title
ca Gross Stu- and so captiyated
tse audience that two offers wers
irnmediately made for it It will
nov appear in \ revue under the
nce of Beyond the Beyond"
-Mecca- Is the third of that series
of spararles which Oscar Asche
began IN London. and which he has
been unable to finish because he is
stlu tied up in the third year
OF the run Of '-Chu-Chin-Chow"
sphrcdite- got itself a production
elsewhere. but Mecca" had to come
to the Century for its first night
and SO coming had the inestimab BILE
advantage of Michael Fosine, whose
banets are the high point of the
gorgeous spectacle
i saw Fokine at work on one oc-
czsior, training American girls as
II they were members of the Rus
sian ballet CBy the way, do they
call It the Soldiers. Sailors and
Workmen's Ballet now?) It was
worth the girls while to labor un-
AGT LAdl las udSIeT~ because OF tle
Chorrs he trained for "Aphrodite. "
/ believe not a single one returned
for "Necca"-for the excellent res-
son that one seasons training with
Eokine had given them such pres
tige that they had set up as dancers.
teachers OF ballet. and otherwise be-
came too prosperous TO continue
rs a spectacle Mecca" is luxurious
IT has. so far. caused no comment
on morality. That is apparently re-
served for "Afgar." which is still to
come
Fred stone celebrated an ami
Nersary Of sorts when he returned
to New York. but as Tip Top" has
been seen in the great world before.
and as Stone himself is a fixture,
little remains to be said. Except,
of course. that he is the liveliest
fixture in the world. Another show
which opened one day earlier than
Stone is "Jim-Jam-Jems." in which
some Of the authors of Listen
Bester" were implicated. What Sa-
Noy and Brennon do not do to an
automobile is done by Harry Lang
don, and though I could not trace
tbe relations between the title. the
plot and a collection of epfgrams
occasionally seen on the bookstalIs.
I~suppose that is because 1 missed
line or two in watching Ada Mae
Woods and the other attractive
personages on the scene.
John Murray Anderson Is a pro-
sucer who astonished this world