Evening star., 1937-09-14


faster and louder than any recorded
on this departments laughometer since
Three Men on a Horse" introduced
George Abbott as a very smart fellow
about comedy
John Monks, jr, and Fred F. Finkle-
hoffe, v. M. I. grads who are two of
the brightest of the country's fresh
man playwrights, have done an ex-
tremely skillful job with Brother
Rat" Humor and sympathy in equal
degree are in the glance they have
turned upon life in military school.
If all there were to that school expe-
rience was that set down by Monks
and Finklehoffe, the mothers who did
not raise their boys to be soldiers
would be treating their offspring pref
ty shabbily. 1t may not all be fun.
It isn't, indeed. But it is very funny
Just the same.
Having gone to another kind of
school (darn it), this department is
accepting the playwrights' characters,
action and dialogue as completely au-
thentic. 1t seems quite plausible that
the mixture of f1edgling fighters, girls,
griefs, triumphs, tragedies, regula-
tions and rebellions against them are
the order of the day and night at such
q place AS arranged for dramatic
display by Monks and Finklehof1e,
they definitely are items to be seem
and enjoyed in the merriest sense Of
enjoyed
THERE is a pleasant quality Of
freshness, in more ways than one,
about Brother Rat" 1t rings very
true to what must have been the ex-
perience of Messrs. Monks and Fin
klehoffe when they were lads at v.
M. I. and did not know how much
more mighty was the pen than the
sword. Their pens and their swords
at any rate.
The former they have turned to the
task OF telling from virtually every
angle the tale Of gentle lad with
marvellous muscles and no brains who
Is disasters fair-haired boy. 1t is not
the lads fault that trouble trips him
at every turn, sometimes in the guise
Of q chemistry exam, sometimes as the
girl he had date with early last
Fall. 1t is not his fault. either, that
his cronies, trying to help. invariably
turn out to be the agents Of ever
graver misfortune But it all rolls
along toward one of the most enter
tanning plays you will see this season,
or any other.
The quick, sure touch Of George
Abbott is evident in every corner OF
the road production Of Brother Rat"
The large cast, among whose men,
bers one could not fail to prefer Eddie
Bracken as Billy Randolph, Richard
Jones as Dan Crawford, Reese Alsop
As Bing Edwards and Clare Hazel
and Jean Mccoy, played really as If
the house were full of Abbotts.
The three sets, maneuvered into
seven scenes in the telling of the
story, could not be better devised to
show the Importance of Colonial
porches and barracks in the making
Of humans who are every inch soldiers
and men.
IAO0CsC1. CuON4A VI t4AAo OCoS1 "
ton! 1t perhaps would be much
better If you went to see and hear
(even the less subtle nnee) for YOUR
self. That way, you won't be sorry.
THE Rialto Theater will close to-
- night. It will be dark for only a
week or 50, however. an interval during
which new policy will be decided
upon and put into effect Just what
the new policy will be remains secret
II not mystery. Rumors have had
1t that the house was to be converted
into everything from burlesque en-
porium to an ice skating rink: virtually
everything indeed except a tourist
camp. The odds are that it will be
none of these. but rather something
quite more significant in the local
scheme Of things having to do with
entertaining the public. Mrs. Louise
Noonan Miller and A. M. Toxins say
they will let us know. Well tell you.
4& y
DADDY LONGLEGS," which the
junior theatergoers of the Cap
ital voted as their favorite opening
number, will inaugurate the new sea-
son OF the Children's Theater here on
October is. There will be six plays
In the series, all Of them to be pre-