New-York tribune., 1920-08-31
Best and Worst
Are Both Mingled
In New Revue
::::Creenwich Village Follies
of 1920" at Theater of
That Name Has Beauty
and Banality as Extremes

John. Murray Anderson, who devised
and staged sThe Greenwich Village
Follies of l920," must have been born
and raised, we take it, somewhere east
of Suez, where the best is like the
worst. His hospitality is all-inclusive.
After seeing Margaret Severn do the
extraordinary dance of the foolish doll
with the mask by w. ]. Benda. one is
moved to believe that Anderson is
producer with true touch of Genius
for revue, but before that impression
has had time to set he pops an .mita-
tion of Eva Tanguay into his show.
Surely salvation cannot lie .nis way.
What could 5s more thankless shan an
imitation of Eva Tanguay? Here the
sole reward of faithfulness is only
greater devastation. John Murray An
derson is producer who is capable of
devising a stage picture as gorgeous as
"The Song of the Samovar," and then
turning about and entrusting q large
portion of his show to a performer
named Frank Crumit, whose manner and
method are distressingly like that of
J. NJ. ~. ~. secretary lIyiuB " pc d
good fellow at stag smoker.
Mr.. Anderson is pioneer in almost
everything which is most novel and
beautiful in the mounting and costum-
ing of musical comedy, but when he
is confronted with the necessity of in
Producing an amusing interlude he en-
cages Collins and Hart. There is a
consistency in the work of this pro-
ducer, but it is wholly in regard to
visual things Like his previous
shows. "The Greenwich Village Fol
the eye Ziegfeld has done nothing so
fine as the. Russian number which we
have already mentioned, and the Valen-
tine song and the Sin-Shop are almost
as fine.
The rest is hit or miss. Anderson's
theory seems to be that any familiar
vaudeville act may be made over into
something new and striking by placing
it in front of gorgeous silver curtain
Street with the Wrigley advertisement.
We don't intend to imply that all the
vaudeville acts which are introduced
into "The Greenwich Village Follis" are
poor. Collins and Hart, for instance,
with their burlesque acrobatics, are
nightly amusing, and so are Pee Wee
Myers and Ford Hanford, THE
Rube- ohemians." Mr.. Hanford, indeed,
is able to play "Dear Old Daddy" on
saw and do other amazing things.
Some of the other vaudeville acts
are not so good Miss Sylvia Clark is
particularly dull ard Miss Venita
Gculds limitations seemed to us dis
tressingly futile. Savoy and Brennan,
or the other hand, are very funny, but
even such az act as theirs seems alien
to Anderson's scheme of production.
They are introduced into the show but
by no manner of means woven into it.
A man with such fresh and original
turn for things which are truly fine
in fabric and in color ought to bring
the same spirit to his choice of verbal
fantasies. Old jokes are still old jokes
even if they are dressed in scloth of
gold Somehow we are not quite able
to reconcile overhead lighting and silk
hangings with 'I'm glad you asked
me
In one respect the performance is ad-
mirable throughout. The dancing is
conspicuously good. Ivan Bankoff and
Mile Phebe made the Samovar number
thrilling, as we'll as beautiful. Mar
garet Severn is one of the loveliest
performers we have seen on the stage,
and James Clamons is an amazing
stunt dancer.
, Anderson has added touch of show
inanship to his equipment as an imagi-
native and tasteful producer. For the
first time he has been able to put pace
into one of his shows. "The Greenwich
Follies of 1920" is admirably brisk 1t
went smoothly at its first night per
formance, and the "Tams" number, in
which the audience was enlisted to help
out in the general effect, brought a
touch of excitement which endured
throughout the evening.
Thomas ]. Gray wrote the dialogue,
and the music is by A. Baldwin Sloane.