Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-21
New Plays on Broadway
By Percy Hammond.

TINE combination of Or. Anspacher
as author and George Cohan as
producer tempted many play
u goers to suspect that their new
play THE Rhapsody" would be
a successful enterprise. DR.. Anspacher
has knowledge of the drama proves
as lecturer on subjects theatrical, and
long experience in and about the stage.
He has an alert eye for interesting char
acters in snowy situations and 1low-
ing pen eager to describe them. MIR.
Conan is not only the first actor but
the first Snowman as well. But on
Monday night their partnership turned
our hopes into disappointments; for
THE Rhapsody proved to be an ire
sponsible essay on the eccentricities of
psychology, interrupted frequently by
florid incidents, illustrated floridly and
ranging from murder to lovers leaps
1t is too bad that material so excit-
ing should be wasted in the awkward
ness of its disposal and when such a
three-star representation as that of
Louis Calhern as the Rhapsodist is
lost in weller of words and hysterical
construction, one realizes how precaTi-
Gus in the career of an actor. Mr..
Calhern, by the way, plays a young
composer of Broadway music, rich in
money and friends, but caught in the
snarls Of a troublesome past. AS a
Hungarian nobleman and soldier in the
World War he had suffered incredible
prosecutions from an Austrian top SER
geant, a slant-headed gorilla named
Krieger His soul, therefore, is scared
by scars which during the play his adj
mirers endeavor to eradicate. He is,
however, not too much lost in his hal
lucinations to make an amorouS Park
avenue blonde woman, as the saying
goes. in a scene reeking with weak
appeal to the box Office. A Stodgy
psychologist eventually cures him by
permitting him to shoot Sergt. Kreiger
with a pistol loaded with blank cart
ridges.
Mr.. Calhern is brilliantly now George
Gershwin, then Irving Berlin, here and
there a Hungarian count, sometimes
DR.. Anspacher and infrequently Louis
Calhern. He is almost as good as Mrs
Calhern miss Julia Hoyt), who plays
a nondescr1pt though important role
with dignity, charm, faithfulness and a
beauty enhanced, if possible, by her
dressmaker. The scene of THE Rhaps-
ody" is a lofty New York penthouse
overfioWing with pianos, rugs, chande-
liers, decorations, ornaments and sing
ing buffers. 1t is an appropriate setting
for a play that is earnest in idea, but
jiIncrack in manner. I regret that I
must thus disparage 1.-The Rhapsody"
since Mr.. Cohen and I, after 10 years
period of semi-hostility, became friends
again not long ago. He will telephone
me ere the week is over and say, You
are probably right old timer. There is
too much gravy in The Rhapsody
X
E'RANK CRAVEN'S That's Graft
tude' is a conscientious and expert
showman's idea of drama and life
among the simpler suburban classes.
The seasons most effective entertain
ment, it is also a tiny masterpiece in
its particular field. Mr. Craven himself
appears in it as one of those gallant
and comic down-and-outers in which
he Specializes. In That's Gratitude"
he is a gypsy theater man operating in
the one-night stands of Iowa and Kan
sas He befriends a sick Rotarian in
a Middle West hotel, and is invited by
that grateful Kansan to make visit to
his home in Hutchinson. After three
weeks stay his host turns inhospitable
and tries to get rid of him. So he kid
maps the Rotarians ugly daughter, who
has good voice and a wart on her left
cheek, and makes her the beautiful
prima donna Of a travelling show, called
Mo Mia"
Lest you expect too much from
That's Gratitude" errors in it should
be called to your attention. Mr.. Craven
is master of emphasis, both over and