Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-30

denly abandons the intimate study
of character and seeks demonstra
| ton in a dime museum scene where
by the wild man, grateful to the man.
ager who has given him a job, /:
called upon to contribute personally
larger outburst of sudden conven
tional drama than the attending cir
cumstances can fully support.
X y X
But the trip to the dime museum
obviously not yet prepared tor the
exact line of business that Mr.. Con
nelly had expected, could not eftace
the charm of the visit to Mrs. Mar
shalrs boarding house, where her
guests evidently found it often easy
to impose upon her as they recalled
with enthusiasm bygone trlumphs
as an artist in a repertory company
And Mr.. Dan Thompson, street fakir,
gasoline torch man, limited III his
artistic capacities to the boundaries
of the ballyhoo, scores sentimental
triumph when dear Mrs. Marshall
forgives him his morAy delinquen-
cies. forgets the grewsomeness of his
compliments told with flowers that
he picked up after an undertaken
had thrown them out, and tails in
love with him because she alone
recognized him amid his humillations
as a true fellow artist because OF the
way he, played The Wild Man OF
Borneo." "
One of the most remarkable evil
dences of quality in the play was the
manner in which it managed to pick
itself up and go on after SO abrupt
an interruption in the third act OF
so genial a flow of interest 1t was
like a placid stream suddenly dash
ing over a mill dam and then flow
ing on as if nothing had happened.
X X y X
Seldom has a play promised so
much audacity and preserved SO dis
Greet an attitude toward its proprie-
ties as "On Approval" whose title
it was we'll made known applies to
trial marriage" The company, so
far as attainments are concerned,
may be regarded as an "all-star
CASTE" four in number, and compe-
tent to tell very light story with
a hnesse that brings it up to the
level of satisfying comedy. Frederic
Lonsdale has succeeded in creating a
demand for his style of wit, and this
fact is a guarantee that playgoers
do not always demand emphatic Ell
fects in order to make them smile.
This author has shown consistency
of merit which makes the title OF
one of his plays less important than
the trade mark represented by his
name.
This comedy, instead of being a
lunge of social defiance, is rather a
prim and distant affair. A hotel is
within patient walking distance,
where the bachelors must maintain
quarters, being on hand at the home
of the forward minded ladies only
for breakfast, luncheon and dinner
and the evening conversation. Out
of so slender a theme has been
evolved the comedy that sparkles in
speech, with no attempt at violent
situations. The thorough compe-
tence of the four players, of whom
Wallace Eddinger is best known
makes every glance and every ges-
ture a means of diversion.
After musical plays such as "San
Toy and 'The Geisha" superseded
more substantial light opera forms
and when they, in turn, gave way
to the revue, there arose sad in
quiries as to why there was no more
comic opera" "No more comic
opera" became a slogan OF calamity
like failure of the peach crop"
After many years of waiting, the
theater finds comic opera back again
in forms not unworthy of Milloecker
and Audran, although not yet of the
witty aggressiveness of Offenbach.
X x II
No player has been more consis-
tently a comic opera comedian
than De Wolf Hopper. One of the
greatest attractions of THE Student
Prince" thoroughly legitimate in its
drama, highly artistic in music, in
dependent of corps of ballet, is the
manner in which Mr.. Hopper revives
the privileges of the traditional bassc
buffo and makes romantic story
during various happy moments a
background for his own hilarites
Mr.. Hopper is again mid scenes re-
sembling those of the beggar stu
dent or the Black Hussar, again play
ing the parsonage of exaggerated
self-importance, whether innkeeper
burgomaster or steward, and again
bringing with him diminutive stage
mate whom he loves to berate in
those mimic tempests of futile rage
which constitute such important spec.
linens in the Hopperian bag of tracks
he even gave one of those curtain
monologues which his comic opera
audiences had learned to expect as
Lagniappe, and with reasonabl.
provocation would probably have re.
cited Casey at the Bat"
X X x
With all this prominence, the vet.
cram comedian maintained a sense
of proportion worthy of his earliei
experiences as an actor. AS singer
he would have ranked high as basse
had he not preferred being a merr,
man rather than a Mephisto. He
emerges into the spotlight with fine
precision and then retires mos,
gracefully into obscurity while tn,
essential themes of narrative anc
music move undisturbed in the 70.
mantle course.
| X
The revival of comic opera has
however, been a heroic enterprise
enlisting an army of stage craftsmen
in preparation for a performance
which demands an army still greater
And in addition to this soldiery o.
art there is war chest of most lib
| eral nrnnnrtinnS denoted In 4ha ccnu