The New York herald., 1922-08-29
The Gingham Girl
Once in Vaudeville,
Pleasing a S Pla y
Daniel Kusell's Musical Com
edy Makes Decided Hit at
Carroll Theater.

In the field OF straight comedy
'Kempy" has been the negative answer
to The query, Can any good come out
OF vaudeville?" In musical comedy
THE Gingham Girl" at the Earl Car
roll Theater, last night secuted the idea
with blare Of trumpets.
This piece, by Daniel Kusell, new
conner to the legitimate stage, has served
Eddie Buzzell long and well in tabloid
form in the varieties, and when II was
stretched 10 go further around II did
not become so thin that the music hall
could be seen. sticking through IT, Ex-
panded vaudeville skits often develop
an alarming skittishness and Stiffness
when transplanted 10 the rarefied atmos-
phere of the regular stage. But THE
Gingham Girl" stayed close 10 earth and
only used puns once or twice.
There was an engaging naturalness
about IL, and more than whiff OF the
dainsiness that kept Irene" rooted to
the spot so long. Unobtrusively it crept
up on New York, tugged the public by
the coat tails and exclaimed. I'm a
hit" And il was. Anyone who came
to jecr last night remained TO cheer.
The only moments when 1t became
flabby last night was when too much
plot clogged the wheels of progress
presumably because there was so much
dough in II. The little country girl
mentioned In the title made a special
brand of cookies which were a failure
in the rural districts. but knocked
New York off its feet through being so
light. Anyone who accomplishes mira
cles OF fortune making on the stage
simply by developing new kind OF
aoughnut or jam or whipped cream al
ways seems TO be evoking success sim
ply by waving a spoon in the air. This
IS doubly incredible in the unreal at
mosphere OF musical comedy whcse al
most any kind of pie crust seems too
neavy for the plot to sustain
But Buzzell made the cookies more
easily digestible. This diminutive COM
edian established himself as fixture
on the legitimate stage in the role OF
the rustic youth who left New Hamp-
shire. confident of conquering Manhat-
tan, but was overcome by the bright
lights and finally had to seek a job
from the successful little sweetheart
whom he had once pitied to the extnt
OF 500 In loan. He has toned down
the staccato methods he used In vaude-
vile and his unforced manner and genial
smile won him new friends, while he
showed devastating gift of turning a
serious situation humorously just when
il was becoming suffocatingly sentimen-
tai
The playwright has generously en-
dowed other characters with comedy,
much OF II having the unexpected quail
ity of wit that Is so good it will prob
ably appear In other comedies again.
Some of It falls to Helen Ford, much
developed in charm and attractiveness,
who as the demure Blue Bird cooky
maid Is worthy of a Maeterlinckian es-
say. Louise Allen, the Mary Pickford
or musical comedy. and Russell Mack. a
pleasant young light comedian, have
some genuinely diverting moments to-
gether, especially in newlywed num-
her, and Alan Edwards. Eleanor Dawn,
Dolly Lewis and Amelia Summerville
are others deserving citation.
The pretty and agile chorus arc ex-
ceptional in that each girl is capable
of doing a bit.
Kuseli, who staged the piece with
Edgar MacGregor, in addition to pre-
senting II with Laurence Schwab. has
done his work well. The music by
Albert Won Tilzer is adequate.