Evening star., 1934-06-17

Too late to catch last weeks report
was Broadway's latest bid for hot
weather patronage, Caviar" an effort
at that rather hybrid sort Of enter
tainment known in program termino-
logy as musical romance" When this
Is good, as in the case Of last years
Music in the Air." for instance, 1t
can be very good, indeed. When 1t
isn't good, it can combine the weak
nesses both Of musical comedy and Of
operetta.
A musical romance" is supposed to
have a recognizable plot, a more or
less serious love story, moments Of
something like drama" and music
which rises at times above the level
of mere dance tunes. Caviar" with
music by Harden Church, book by Leo
Randole and lyrics by Edward Hay
man, was a possibly acceptable, but by
no means brilliant, example Of its kind.
Its six rather garish scenes were
supposed to take the spectators to
Venice and to Constantinople, but
with the exception of one set giving a
glimpse of the Grand Canal, they we're
fat and non-committal backgrounds
which might as well have been any
where else. The story was an absurd
arrangement Of the ancient theme In
which somebody marries somebody
else for reasons Of uere expediency,
and then awakes when the unmasking
takes place to find that it's true love,
after all In this case the lady was
prima donna looking for title, and
the gentleman was a Russian prince
knocking about as a penniless trouba-
dour in Venice.
Both Nanette Guilford, who played
the prima donna, and George Houston,
who played the Russian prince, have
sung in grand opero, so that their
vocal efforts had a breadth and au-
thority not usually found in musical
comedy. But this experience was not
an unmixed blessing, for Miss Gull
ford's style, In particular, had a
heavy artif1ciality, all very well ac-
cording to the somewhat antique ira
ditions of opera, but lacking in the
light grace essential to musical comedy
and operetta.
All their numbers, with high notes
taken surely and with vigor that re-
called the advertisements for puffed
wheat and rice-"the food shot from
guns"-were received with great favor
nevertheless, by first-night audience
which had to sit through as best they
could the long intervening stretches OF
the dull book. Several familiar figures
not otherwise engaged at the moment
among them Hugh Cameron and Dud-
ley Clements (the latter so amusing
as one of the politicians in "Of Thee
I Sing"), were found in the support
| ing cast, but they had little to work
with. Whether the singing Of the
principals would sufficiently counter
balance the high specific gravity oi
most of the rest of the entertainment
for any length of time remained II
be seen.
MISS CATHERINE CORNELL, bacl
A'A from her triumphant road pill
grimage of something like 1900 miles
opened in Newark in The Barretts o.
Wimpole Street" for a week, aftel
which she planned a brief engagement
in Brooklyn, to be followed by a tril
to Europe before starting in again IL
the Fall
Miss Cornell reported pretty mucf
everything as wonderful" on beinl
interviewed after her return at he
picturesque old house in Beekmal
place, overlooking the East River
Audiences had been wonderfully kind
she said. and had indulgently put W
with delayed trains and the various
inconvenience attendant on old
fashioned trouping. Once they waitec
until nearly / o'clock at night to SET
performance Of The Barrets" anc
cheerfully sat through it until nearly
o'clock in the morning. Miss Cor.
nell proved that the road" isn't dead
provided you bring it what it wants
and that the public will enthuse ovel
Shakespeare If the latter is well playec
! and in a sufficiently modern manner
One Of the reasons for her success
Miss Cornell thought, and for the il
success of many road experiments, Il
that she had a good all-around com
pany and didn't trust to star or tive
and a lot of more or less tiresom'
theatrical hacks.
She plans to try Antony and Cleo