Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-01-04
albuquerque Morning Journal Sunday, January H. 1920
MAYT|ME PRETTY
MUSICAL COME by
WITH SENTIMENT

with 5ENl IWEN |
Hoop skirts and apple blossoms,
victorian manners, love and sweetly
scented sentiment in an old Manhat-
tan garden, that's the way "Maytime"
opens; and it carries its very human
romance right through the period of
gioVe-fitting trousers, gentlemanly
dlssoluteness, bangs and bustles.
down to modern New York, with it's
speed aud sophistication and a strong
suggestion of the Midnight Revue.
It's a mighty pretty play, MAY
time and Albuquerque filled the
mouse Friday night to see the most
pleasing production which has APP
peared here in many moon. And
the audience laughed, and grew moist
al the eyes, and was amused and re-
freshed with a bright and divertinG
tale which carried them through
tour fairly long acts without ever
growing boresome
How true worth triumphs over
aristocratic excavation, as the movies
would say. and how true love was sac
rlficed to family pride, to blossom
again and be fulfilled in a later gen
GRAFTON, is shown by Otillie Van Zandt
and Richard Wayne. Ottillie. the
daughter of old Colonel Van Zandt, is
delicately charming creature, whose
grace and failure" have captivated
the honest Richards, one of her faith
er's tenants.
But the aristocratic, and somewhat
mercenary old blue blood, will have
none of poor Richard. Ottillie must
wed her cousin and keep the family
fortune intact, and when she is dis
covered in Dicks arms, her lover is
ordered away to never darken the
Van Iandt door again, But Ottillie
promises to wait FOR him, and he
promises to return for her; which
spectacle of simple faith and untried
love softened many countenances and
afforded some emotional twinges.
Meanwhile the lovers, in a very
pretty scene, have buried a jewel cask
with Ottillie's ring. lock of her hair
which Dick has carried, and most inn
portant of all deed from Richards
father to the Colonel for the land on
which his house is built, under a lit
tie apple tree which is Dicks birth
day gift to Ottillie They did not know
that the piece of blue paper was a
deed. 1t blew out of the window and
they seized upon it to write their song
"Will You Remember" which they
buried with the casket.
Richard goes away and becomes a
very rich man. The years pass, Ottil-
lie marries her arstocratic cousin be-
cause father insists. after which piece
of villainy there is nothing left for
him to do but die. Richard returns
in fifteen years and meets his boy
hood love at Madame Delphines
Night club fashionable place, only
to find that he should have disre-
garded the author of the story and
have written to Ottillie
Claude Van Zandt, the husband
cynical and dissipated, and infatuated
with Richard with whom he has had
a suit over the lost deed, appears upon
the scene and becomes so disagreeable
that cousin Matthew Van Zandt, the
irresistible ladies' man, hastily an
nounces Richards engagement to
Alice Tremaine, who loves him, in
order to save the family name. That's
the first half, and it includes Aunt
Matilda Van Zandt, one of those out
rageous maiden ladies OF the Victor
ian era in compartment, and of the
stone age when 1t came to a man,
Cousin Matthew was cast as the com
ediau of the play, and while not quite
convincing as the scion of an old blue
stocking family, he was delightful as
the "favorite of the harem," and
sighed that his abilities could not
have been furnished wider scope,
though he adhered to the rule, zone
at time" finding himself irresistible
to widows. til
Jump. Jim Crow" an old
dance and song was the most engag
ing barn dance, or schottische, and
brought to life Thackeray and Dick
ems. Cousin Matthew who had
actually married Aunt Matilda for her
money, and had survived the ordeal
to wed charming widow number one
also with money, led the dance with
grace naughty as the devil when you
jump Jim Crow"
Then a jump of thirty years to the
diSposing of poor Ottillies possessions
to pay her defunct husbands debts,
A CoCkney auctioneer was, capital and
Matthew and his third, and awful
creature with more money. We're
there, aud of course Richard comes to
buy everything and give 1t back to
Ottillie. Still handsome and still with
tIt lovely voice OF MS yuulil, ne Sings,
Sweetheart, Sweetheart" to the pic
ture, and when both vainly stretch
out longing hands to their lost youth,
even the hardened and worldly audi
ence feels that poignant construction
at the heart for all the ineffably sweet
things which might have been.
And as the plot progresses to act
four, we leave further and further
behind the atmosphere of Victorian
romance, its leisure and propriety,
and see the old Van Zandt home
transformed into the modiste shop of
Ottillie's granddaughter, with be-
witching negligees strolling about;
and many little chorus girls sent there
by Dick Van Zandt, who wishes to
help the trade of Mile. Brown, with
whom he is in love. But Mile Ottillie
thinks him rounder, and only when
the cutting down of the old apple
tree shows his sentiment does she
capitulate; the casket is found, and
there, marvelously, is the deed; so
the grandchildren of the lovers are
united round the tree.
And Matthew, the lover of the fair
sex, still dandified and actually aware
of feminine presence although he has
cheated the grave for a decade, and
can hardly totter. Is borne off in tri-
umph by girl from the Follies who
is looking for publicity, and hopes
'ha'1l la or ,,rt1 ,l,o rats htn, hnp,o -