The New York herald., 1922-07-11
Sue Dear an Odd
Musical Play, Has
Entertaining Bits
Back to Methuselah' the Butt
of Humor in Latest Sum-
mer Show.

Sue. Dear" the latest summer show.
which cropped out at the Times Square
Theater last night. owed a great deal
to Back to Methuselah" per-
haps, than 1t ever can pay. Constant
references were being made to Shaw's
play, not for any particular purpose.
but Just to show that every one was
smart and had endurance enough to sit
out a play that was harder test than
any musical comedy.
But when the leading Juvenile picked
up a copy Of Shaw's work-musical
shows are growing very unorthodox-
it considerably bolstered UP that I'M
preston that had already been thrust
into the patrons that he was q woman
hater. Oh. very much-why. he even
quoted from the piece to show as much.
The chorus girls also proved themselves
we'll versed In the play, handling the
book with great familiarity.
Some Of the jokes sounded asif they
dated from the period of Shaw's early
scenes. Much humor-though this may
have been the comedians own side
splitting stuff-was evidently meant to
be derived from a tough bouncer's ad-
dressing a French tenor constantly as
"Froggy." On the other hand, the pro-
duction was quite up to date, getting
good laugh out Of the "Chauve Souris."
The most entertaining portion is In the
second of the two acts in the apartment
roof garden scene. when the boys and
girls Of the piece gave a parody of "A
Night at Yards" Elsewhere, however.
Bide Dudley's lyrics did not rise to the
sol me high level.
In fact Dudley and his collaborators
on the book. Joseph Herbert and c. S.
Montanye, had apparently been unable
to decide whether to make 1t sgsprightly
as the "Chauve Sours" or SO dull as
Back to Methuselah" 1t required an
hour and twenty minutes of the first act
In Riverside Drive home to fix the
simple proposition that jewelers. clerk
named Sue should be hired to imper-
senate a missing bridesmaid ana break
| the woman hating brother in laws heart
at fixed rates.
1t took on about good many things.
| Then again 1t took many off. There
| were couple of undressing scenes. in
one of which some young women sud-
denly ran on in lingerie, thereby break
| ing in with a revue touch on what
might have developed into a nice cozy
musical show. fit to take home to the
|
slumps. though characters kept strfding
on and off. You could see the end long
before the characters wanted to. The
/ music by Frank II. Grey hardly did
more than keep the orchestra busy.
Miss Olga Steck. with one of the clear
est voices In town, was the chief asset
! Of the plant. AS Sue she made her songs
sound like real music. Bobby O'Nel as
the bouncer had his genuinely amusing
moments. but it was in his dancing In
terludes with chic Miss Alice Cavanaugh
as maid that he rose to- his best
heights-or. rather. lifted her to them.
Maurice Holland showed himself one of
the most breezily natural and engaging
young men on the musical stage. rising
to the Wallace Reid level. John Hen
bricks played a French tenor we'll, and
might have fooled the audience into
thinking him another actor In his imita-
ton of Balieff IL one rolled up trouser
bottom of his evening suit hadn't iden-
tilted him in both parts