New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-17
Mr.. Hobart Composes
Sentimental Vaudeville.
Entitled S'Sonnv,''
Which Is Not So
Good and Not
So Bad


MIR. Hobart's new drama at the Cort
Is a dewy nondescript composed from
variety OF formulas ranging from
song and dance comedy to sad stuff
about the old blind mother. There is
bit Of war in it, some sentimental in
trloue. several close harmonies from a
meloidious maennerchor and much no.
ble conduct on the part of Mr.. Ernest
niehuelNlng, WHO Is the lngratiating
subject Of the exercises. You could,
probably, manage to exist without it.
it does not cheer, neither does it in
ebriate. In further words, it is one of
those $3.50 things, a yes-andno show,
pleasing you here and there, and sug
gesting languors and ennui in other
places. What more cnn you ask? For
instance, you may be diverted by the
charm and pretty singing of Miss Mabel
Withee and by her male quartet; by the
mastery dancing of Mr.. Carl Randall
and the fortnight heroics Of Mr..
Glendenning as a sacrihcial doughboy.
You may like the bizarre Improvisation
of Miss Estelle Howard as a suburban
cabaret queen and the modest piano
playing of Miss Dorothy Clark. But
you may also yearn for the open air
during some Of the long, long incidents
of the libretto, and you may page the
amiable Mr.. Hobart for purposes of
assassination.
Of course any frivolous drama is
handicapped for the hard of heart by
the presence among its characters Of
a blind lady who is an optimist. Miss
Emma Dunn is employed in this diff
ficult assignment in Sonny and she
succeeds in divesting it of many Of its
irritations. Though she is the sort of
stage mother who puts light in the
window and sits waiting there, Bible
in hand for some one to come, she Is
yet bearable figure Even when she
had to lift her sightless eyes toward
heaven last night and cxciam God is
good" you pardoned her and blamed
The lbrettist In the play Miss Dupn's
patriotic son enlists among the dreamy
wound in the Argonne, asks his home
less buddy (Mr. Glindenning), who
resembles him, to return I'd Pelham
Manor and pretend that he is Miss
Dunn's Sonny. This favor MIR. Glen
Dining grants reluctantly, and his ad-
ventures as Sonny's counterfeit form
thereafter the episodes of the play.
You may or you may not sit IN aglta-
ton upon the edge of your chair while
MIR. Glendinnng, striving to take up
Sonny's life in Pelham Manor, almost
betrays himself by not knowing whc
the pet, Waggles. is an Airedale or a
canary.
x y. "
1t develops through the kindly min
istrations Of rem embered lullaby and
the blind ladys ability to see with her
soul, il not with her eyes, that Mr. Glen
Dining is Sonny's twin, severed in
babyhood from his family and sent by
fate to Cranky, Mich, where he be-
comes the popular owner of the village
garage. Mr.. Glendinningss immaculate
technique overcomes the disadvantages
Of his maturity fer the part and he is
most likable. The songs. composed by
Raymond Hubbell, are in the tolu mood
OF the play, and two of them, "Dream,
perhaps, and "Peaches," will become,
ere long, an important part of our
musical life. The Selwyns, who direct
the enterprise, have done the best they
could with it, which is very good.