Putnam patriot., 1928-03-01

v not like the costumes or the sets. Alas. { for our candourl Naturally the mo- , ment came when we encountered Mir.
 freedley and despite all of the kind and pleasant things that we had said 1, about the show. about the dancing. about the music and about the de- lightful Astaires, Mir. Freediey did 1 not like what we said about his cos , tunes and his sets. As matter of fact, he didn't like it at all. So the other night we took the Lady Who Goes to The Theatre with us to see Funny Face" again and this time we sat back in Row K and looked at it all over again. Mir. Astaire again danced with that extraordinary skill which makes him the decidely eligible successor of Fred Stone, Miss Astaire, recently engaged to a gilt edged Englishman and destined to be definitely lost to the theatre,--wa funnier than ever. A male chorus such as few producers are ever able to gather together, danced and sang l Mir. Gershwin's High Hat" to the delight of capacity audience. Fun ny Face" remained what it started out to be,--one of the most delight ful of musical fooleries. And then, of course, we were face to face again with the sets and the costuming. But what matterl Costumes and sets could not possibly spoil Funny Face" and, as a matter of fact, on second sight, they weren't as bad as we thought they were. After all, even in the froth of musical comedy, 'the plays the thing" and Mir. Freedley and MT. Aarons have collected enough talent to make their piece what it is and what it quite deserves to be; one of the real hits of season of l hits.
 Incidentally, Mir Freedley and Mir. Aarons, not satisfied with the tre- mendous success of Funny Face" are about to launch another musical comedy. This time they will produce an affair entitled Here's Howp' which will probably open at the Broadhurst I Theatre in Easter Week. "Here's Howl" wifi introduce Roger Wolfe Kahn as a musical producer. Mir. Kahn is the extremely active son of the more than active banker, patron of the arts and generally prominent, Mr. Otto H. Kahn. Young Mir. Rog- CT Kahn will collaborate on the score of Here's Howp' with one Joe Meyer. Fred Thompson and Paul Gerard Smith, who have beer previously responsible for some of the | Aarons-F -Freedley productions will do the book of the play. Irving Caesar win write the lyrics and Sammy Lee will direct the activities of the chorus.
 The Great Conductor
 I Anyone who keeps diary finds every once in while an incident that must be marked down in bright scar let letters. Such incidents come but rarely but in our well-thumbed book we shall mark down the evening of St. Valentines Day, 1928. with as large red star as the page will permit. Now it all happened this way: We were asked to dine and go to a con- cert, a benefit affair arranged for some charity, Toscanini conducting the Philharmonic at the Metropolitan. We accepted, somewhat grudgingly. "To dine and go-" usually means that one is late We were late. MT. Toscanini's beautiful interpretation of the fourth Beethoven Symphony was half over when we took our places in one of the little red plush boxes at the Metropolitan made famous by the tyranny of the late Mrs. Astor. Then came the intermission and once more we were back in our uncomfortable little chairs. But on the stage was the worlds greatest conductor, lead ing some of the worlds most precious music There was, for instance a lovely weaving of the Tristan" tones that make up the 'Lohengrin" over ture. Then there was an exposition of the Good Friday Spell" from "Parsifal" that made it seem what it is not, truly sublime religious ecstasy. But the most breathless pe- riod of poignant beauty that we can remember was the prelude and Lie bestode" from Tristan and lsolde' which followed. We doubt that any one who heard this selection of the worlds most splendid orchestra cor ducted by the planets greatest of all conductors will ever forget it. A magnificent and splendid "Meister- singer" overture which followed paled under the spell of that Tristan" num- Der. It is a privilege to live in a generation that possesses so compie tely great conductor as Mir. Tosca- mini.
 Where To Go And What To See
 A Putnam man who came to New York the other day looked us up and asked us what to sec in the theatre He had only short period of time to spend. We were puzzled but we rounded up program for him. First of all we told him to go and see MT. Ziegfeld's "Show Boat" as fine bit of Americana as one will find in a generation. Then we told him to contrast "Show Boat" with MT.
 MiIne's delightful fantasy, "The Ivory Door" Then again, no one must visit New York this winter without seeing Miss Helen Hayes in "Coquet te." as lovely thing as the theatre has produced in many a season. Then, because he came from Windham County and because 1t is delightful performance we sent our fellow citi- zen to Mir. Freedley's Funny Face v And that was not all. New York has such wealth of delights this winter. If one wants music there is more and better music than any other capital of the world affords. The theatre is at it's very high best And even .L. v.ov;ea arenst so had. If one