Evening star., 1936-11-29

tllcy DCdI, QO IlOU CAPdllu wlOAA deC.
There was none of Mr.. Coward's
he wrote Naughty Marietta" nor'
none Of Mr. Anderson's despairing
anger. Mr.. Herbert's central charac-
ter was written when caprice and
charm were the fashion in the ma
jority Of play ladies. So any one with
. wistful yearning to meet the type
after three weeks of Coward, plus An
derson, will find her as frolicsome as
ever on Steve Cochrane's great big
stage this week.
The story of Naughty Marietta"
of course, is older than the one about
the travelling salesman, but the cur
rent production brings new and re-
putedly beautiful voice to the part Of
the madcap girl who sings so sweetly
when romance goes sour.
The voice is that of IlSe Marvenga.
Miss Marvenga has won for herself a
considerable following among radio
and motion picture fans. She first
became enamoured of the Marietta
role when she sang it last Summer in
the Jones Beach Victor Herbert
festival.
Robert Shafer will play Capt. War
rington and sing, with alternate poig-
nance and rapture, the timeless
"Sweet Mystery of Life" the song
which stands as one of the tallest
monuments Herbert erected for him.
self.
MEANWHILE, Just around the cor
AA ner at the Earle Theater, Irene
Dunno, playing another kind Of
Marietta, is deliriously madcap in
quite a different kind of picture than
she ever made before. Miss Dunno
enrolls in comedy this time and she
could not possibly be funnier than
when she uses her lovely voice to hiss
BE Still My Heart" at the man she
loves. 1t is the expression on her
face, really. and not a bit of vocal
acrobatics that makes the ballad
snake-like in her Interpretation of it.
You never would have thought Of
Irene Dunno for the leading part in
"Theodora Goes Wild" but that's
where Hollywood is smarter than most
laymen in some Of its casting.
Another fine performance in the
Earle film is that of Thomas Mitchell,
rs the newspaper editor. Mitchell, an
actor of great talent, is perhaps better
known to legitimate theater goers
than motion picture fans. He won't
be for long. Time was when it was
rare season which did not see him on
the stage of Polls, the National or
the Belasco. Or somewhere about
town with friends, some of whom
nearly got him spanking from David
Belasco once by keeping him out too
long and perhaps too convivially.
CAs1LEMAN CHEsLEY, Washing
ton boy who is mastering the in
tricacies of finance at the Wharton
School, University Of Pennsylvania,
may never get a chance to practice
that important profession. The stage
wants him after seeing, and reading
about, his performance of the leading
role in this years Mask and Wig"
musical comedy.
Variety's critic-all Variety's critics
are men with detachment and large
stocks of merciless adjectives-speaks
superlatively of Chesley in the fol-
lowing terms:
Spotted for several song solos, he
(Chesley) gets them over handily by
canceling vocal deficiencies with ex-
pert showmanship."
Even the Philadelphia sports writers
who have dealt with Chesley as a
guard on the foot ball team have bor-
rowed critics passes to see him on
the stage and write about him in
their columns.
Chesley, the son of Mr.. and Mrs.
Willoughby S. Chesley, makes his home
here at 2513 Clifibourne place.
A NY man in town with laugh
meter, if there is such man or
such a thing, could probably use it
to advantage this week making a
comparison of the laugh-adducing
qualities of Love on the Run" at
the Palace, and the Theodore" pic
ture with Irene Dunno The Craw-
ford-Gable picture at the Loew house
is fairly choked with mirth and
played with such obvious enjoyment
by its large cast that it is even fun
nier than the hopeful script producers
probably thought.
The Army, Navy, Department of
Commerce and other agencies having
to do with flying ought to see the
take-off and landing negotiated dt's
. trick, mem by Clark Gable. The
audience doubles up, half with mirth
half to get out Of the way of the
snorting plane.