Evening star., 1924-12-08
Poll Betty Lee.

The wealth of the Indies. apparent
". has been lavished upon Betty
Lee" the new Otto Harbach Louis A.
Hirsch musical comedy. which Rufus
lie Marie presents at Polls this week.
Beautiful and costly costumes of
every shade and hue, young and
beautiful girls in superabundance and
more or less as they should be.
prima donna who has one of those
melodious high c voices, with a
strong penchant to let you hear it;
a comedian whose face and fashion =
able cut clothes are worth going far
to see and an athletic cheer chorus
oh. boy. what a chorus,
And il is the girls who compose
this chorus. with many more like
them, not overlooking -sse sinuous
Arabian dancer. who is Nam unsur-
passed in the Orient of old, who put
Betty Lee over with snap and
rep and vigor unsurpassed in spite
of many defects. Never has musi-
cal show in Washington presented 4
feminine aggregation to compare
with this untirinR. splendidly drilled
and ever working group OF youthful
dancers, who have been taught all
sorts of novel evolutionS and whose
Nari-colored costumes enhance or re-
veal alternately throughout the eve
hlnS cndTnS. III dDuHudhCe lhdl al I
never offensive.
Betty Lee" is based upon the Rex
Beach story and Paul Armstrong
play of years ago, in which cowboys
and collegians alternately max e
monkeys each of the other. \ young
colleGian comes into the wild and
wool'y West ACQUIRING, but preceded
with a reputation as champion
runner. just at the time when the
cowboys are wrought up to a pitch
of jealous frenzy because those of a
neighboring ranch have rubbed the
mire of defeat in their faces in a
foot race. OF course. the champion
runner just has to win back the
trophy and set things right and. re-
gardleSs of the fact that he can't
run, he is given to understand he
must at the point of numerous threat
ening guns.
Whatever Rex Beach and Paul
Armstrong did with this story. Otto
Harbach has not improved upon it,
for he has left his com edian-and in
= musical comedy-hopeleSsly adrift
without lines and dependent upon his
own resources. while the lyric
writer's have done little better in ma
terial for songs. There is divided
responsi bility for the music, but there
Is this saving grace to ii that IT
keeps things moving at a lively pace
for those pretty girls of the chorus.
Yet. over and above it ALL Betty
Lee is one of the greatest of dane
ing shows, from the serpentine to
the clog. with acrobatics and con-
tortion galore. The boys knew II in
advance. for they were present in
large numbers. and when that cheer
chorus under the lead of pretty
Gloria Fo- turned loose the HoEa and
George Washington college Eelis. the
big audience let 'oose its own braho
of applause in approval.
The printed program, like the show
itself. is incomplete, but it suItices to
show that Dorothy Barber is an
Oriental vamp par excellence that joe
f. Brown is the comedian who rock
you with laughter. even II the
librettist did forget him: that Gloria
Foy is Betty Lee" and a mighty
fine one at that, even if she does
make faces when she sings. and that
Charlotte Woodruff is the incompar-
able soprano whom the lyricist anc
the composer did not dream OF, al
though they did give her one very
pretty song in the second act. the
men did what they had to and did
it fairly well, but Betty Lee is a
girl show. Even the cowboy quartef
didn't rob the gir;s OF a bit of theil
glory.
One move ty worthy of special men
tion is the inti oIuc ion Of an Arabian
scene panel and feminine curtain
fringe in the second act. 1t was
beautiful in its entirety. An Ali Baba
episode oted in the program failed
to show Up.