Evening Star Newspaper, April 13, 1924, Page 57

he Sunday Staf WASHI®ZTO D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 1 3, 1924. WALTER REGAN and SYDNEY REYNOLDS Its Bit of Acting By Philander Johnson. LAYS were uot selection was wide. performances could be far- rapart intopic or method of por- trayal than “The Kre 1d “The Cat and the Cat Kalich always spells ART capitals. Kilbourne Gordc contents himself with' a piec poetry the program, and that lets art go hang. The " appears so irequently the name of the producing firn it has assumed the proportions of a personality. Mr. Inc. is running the | show business. All Mr. Inc. needs to make his importance as great i art as in commerce is a few more pens. numerous. theatrical Bertha on aite and Canary” Cat ke this play fri 5 But pray don't tell them how it ends. F It is good advice. to tell yo friends everything happened, you probabl won't get anywhere. The plot bears something of the relationship to the theater that a puzzle department does to a magazine. The fun de- pends on the guessing. and you should study it out for yourself. | The best part of “The Cat and Canary” entertainment is given b the audience. It enables the play goer to reveal temperament on his own account. Harriet can grab Harry b the arm and say )-0-0-h!" during a dark scene, thereby convincing him that she is a sensitive, impressiosable creature who needs protection. And Harry can grunt “Uh!” now and then to prove that, though highly sympa- thetic, he is not scared. The mys- tery y is the great American rill. It supplies the place of the French Grand Guignol, and attains its purpose without going nearly so far in humoring the tastes of a de- graded fancy. The Audience at the Shubelasco theater acts superbly. [t takes every cue instanter: sighs and shudders in precise proportion to the suggestions of the scene, and at the close of the evening’s entertain- ment reaches for its wraps with an air of 'smiling salutation as if half expecting the stage company to ap- pland it for doing so beautifully. [here must be a theater, even if the public has to take hold and run it on its own terms. w * ¥ * % The assertions of the non-profes- ional theater become more confi- dent and more proficient as the sys- tem of professional production be- comes more standardized. Says friend Public. “If you cannot give us what we want. we will make it for ourselves.” “It will only be home- made,” sneers the professional pro- ducer. “So have been great poems and great pictures” answers the Amateur who has the courage ro “pell himself with a capital A and ot limit himself purely to imitative | pirations. “The economic sciences | oi distribution are essential to the artist’s adequate reward, vet they cannot be relied on to create an original supply.” * ven if you try o The St. Patrick Players, who occu- pied the stage oi The President| Theater, approached a responsible task in a spirit of genuine sincerity, and made an impression” which com- bined thorough dignity with in- tensity of interest. * % % % “The Kreutzer Sonata” is the de- velopment of the acting audience; the audience that lets its emotions be instantly and unmistakably known. The audience to whom Bertha Kalich now addresses herself is not the audience with whom she tiad her training. It restrains itself to the earnest tribute of silent ad- miration during scenes too tense to be interrupted by applause, and be- stows on her reverentially the title of “Great Artist.” It is useless for an audience to attempt to hold the acting pace when Kalich holds the prompt book of human suggestion. All we can do is to attempt a dem- onstration, . as creditable as may he, of “repressed emotion.” * ¥ x % “The Kreutzer Sonata,” like all of akob Gordin's creations, combined nto his own flow of thought cur- rents from many sources of inspira- tion, sources that he took pains neither to identify nor to conceal !{e accepted an old structure as a imodel, duplicated such parts as he needed for his auditor's modern use, »ut never reached out a vandal hand to deface or to destroy. * ¥ * % Mme. Kalich talks of her plans ‘or the future with the same com- velling earnestness that she puts nto her plays. The horizon of her that | ments of buoyant | project has become diffused. | season. {ing with the April flowers, it has {programs on the | There may be, a- lvish. an assemblage of outlines in the greatest No two |artists of the theater to present the | of the library, each | greatest 3 role to which he is accepting play e utzer Sonata” |hest fitted, regardiess of its length | or immediate prominence. As she spoke, twith impressive uncompro- mising conviction, I could almost hear a new Lady Macbeth exclaim- ight !” future contem- a Taming of the Shrew.” It will need a player, in- deed, for her opposite, to prevent npression that Petruchio may as ell for once give up the enterprise and take to the woods. * ok % % Seldom has a season progressed without bringing announce- intentions with reference to a summer stock com- pany. In fact, the stock company It dis- itseli during an _entire This year instead of arriv- of revival so tributes vanished with the snowflakes. It will reassert itself, and soon. It hap- pens that it was compelled to take its breathing spell just at the time when its prospectus is usually in full Stock companies for summer have always arranged their idea that play- goers had become sufiiciently fa- miliar with substantial entertainment during the regular season and re- quired something fluffy. Musical entertainment is almost out of the question, for the costuming pace set by the big revues is too difficult to follow. The plays available on royaity have been pretty well combed over, and about the only thing in spoken drama that has not been tried in local Stock is what wear pensive of all, a season of standard comedies ; those that are still talked about, though never seen =z Such a season would be easier now than a while ago, for the great exponents of roles still pre-eminent in literary prestige have passed from observation. The fear of direct com- if new Shakespearean stars can shine out so lustrously—and royalty free—it is hard to see why new ex- ponents of the later English drama- tists shonld not be encouraged to present their claims. So far as the difficulty of such an enterprise is concerned, it ought not to be as great as that involved in offering plays which rely so little on lines and character drawing that the actor seeking to compel by personal emphasis is almost sure to leave the impression of overwork. As for the feelings of an andience, it should be no more disquieting to observe the indifferent moments of a flapperish Lady Teazle or a loungelizardly Bob Acres than to face the ineffectual struggles so often made to wring heroics from colloguial common- places. Those old dramatists took care of their actors as Donizetti did of his singers, arranging their climaxes with deft consideration for human capacities, and enabling even those not endowed with very su- perior gifts to make a flourish. In the Shakespeare plays the actor was irequently provided -with rhyming couplets, in concluding his scenes, in order to make sure that his exit would be nmarked by some special demonstration. * % % % Should it be decided that the public cannot be jarred into response without a salacious slam, the old plays have material that wounld make ‘Gertrude’s Stocking Supporter” or ‘Ten Nights in a Turkish Bath,” or whatever their titles were, seem tame by comparison with a course in Wycherly, Otway and Congreve, who compelled ladies going to the play to wear masks to conceal their identity. What they .should have worn were earmuffs. It might all be done under the guise of educa- tional enthusiasm and classical re- search. The audacity would be no greater than that which imitates the Parisian comic journals in designing New York revues. * ¥ ¥ ¥ There must inevitably be an effort at change from the routine which, as it now seeks to vary costuming with an occasional idea, merely turns from the bare to the thread- bare. The ideas might seem fresher, even in salacity, if traced further back along the stream of time ‘to- ward their original sources. * % % % The theater finds it impossible to preserve the modesty of the aundi- tory nerve and that of the optic nerve both at once. Those oldtimers, who listened to_ blunt” Anglo-Saxon monosyllables without a quiver, had they beheld a dancing lady undraped magination is far sweeping; that of her practical expectations is perhaps ot s6 hroad; and vet, who knows? | even only to the knees would have squeaked a single “Oh, Lud!” and fainted. At.present it is the < would seem the easiest and least ex- | parison no longer asserts itself, and | Belasco | Harvard and the Drama. | ASSOCIATES of the Selwyns in the presentation of Fugene O'Neill's | 1atest play, “Welded.” at the Thirty- i th Street Theater in New York |are Kenneth Macgowan, Eugene O'Netll and Robert Edmond Jones, | directors of the Provincetown Play- house, a remarkable little theater in McDougall street, and located in the | neart of Greenwich Village | _ Macgowan s a dramatic Jones is a designer of scenery. | were fellow | worked toge | Dramatic (] is critic_and They idents at Harvard and er in the Harvard O'Neill a stu- | dent there also some years later, | Harvard well represented in little theater that produces exotic plays for esoteric people. Jones came know O'Neill at Provincetown, where the playwright spend: summers, and -Jones and Mac Eowan spent an entire summer therc with him. When he ie little theater was about to lose its director O'Neill interested |his two friends in joining him to continue its operations. It was who was instrumen in forming the Provincetown Players, and they were the first to act in his “Emperor Jones” and “The Hairy Ape.” both plays later going to l('.r‘(-r theaters in the theatrical dis- rie al “Alexander Hamilton." (GFORGE NASH has been chosen to play George Washington, Mabe! Taliaferro will be Betty Schuyler and Allen Conner Hamilton in “Alexander Hamilton,” one of the “Chronicles of America” pictures now bheing pro- duced by Yale University Press, Ken- neth Webb is directing. The picture shows the inauguration of (George Washington as first Presi- dent of the United States, and traces the fearless manner in which the new nation handled the problems of taxa- tion under the financial direction of Hamilton. The tax on whisky. since it provoked resistence, provided the {real test for the government to show its courage and power. This incident, which became known as the “Whisk Rebellion” of 1754, is graphically de- picted In the new Yale Press film A second production unil, under the direction of Webster Campbell has just returned from Yorktown, Va., where 1,700 United States sol- diers and 16 officers assisted in re- enacting the important battle of Yorktown over the very ground on | which Washington and Cornwalli | fought in 1781. | wallis' surrender are said to be par- ;Uull:rly impressive. [“Robin Hoograt So;th Pole OUGLAS FAIRBANKS now holds the record for ‘‘business farthest south.” This became known when Doug re- ceived a letter from his representative in Australia notifying him that “Robin Hood” had broken all records at His Majesty's Theater in Hobart, Tasmania, which bears the distinction of being the city closest the south pole. Upon the completion of the engage- ment of the picture Doug =ent a con- gratulatory cablegram to the manager of His Majesty’s Theater, and also for- warded him a silver cigarette case upon which was engraved the significant line, “Hooray for the South Pole.” | Onward and Upward. JACK EARLE, youthful giant star of Century Comedies, today at the age of seventeen 1is considered the youngest giant in the world. He stands {seven feet four inches in his silk socks. Recently, when Earle applied for in- surance a stringent examination was resorted to on account of Harle's huge size. Several doctors stated that Farle was 100 per cent perfect and that he would continue to grow, at least until he has reached his twenty-first birth- 1 word only that is feared, while pantomime is permitted to chose its ;own pace. In the effort to compete | with the ocular appeal some of our |most prim legitimate actresses are i reviving a boldness of speech which {needs their choicest and most de- mure arts as well as a highly elab- orate veneer of current philoso- phies and pseudo-sciences. There is no use lecturing the stage. 1t simply won’t “be good. * * * % { A backward trudge through the corridors of time in quest of the original comedian who wore white spats, the solicitous parent dis- tinguished by his sidewhiskers, the tearful heroine who draped her head in a black lace shawl, the villain with a large diamond ring and de- tachable cuffs, the hero who rouged his cheeks and beaded his eyelashes, the soubrette with silk hose and high heel shoes and a feather duster, the slavey with a_smudge on het nose and one stocking over iher shoe-top, the juvenile with ‘turly hair and a soit impediment in his speech—such a research might induce a dangerous appetite for ex- ploration. For even now, as the shade of one or another of them flits across the scene, there is a pleasant awakening of latent mem- ories. To go t whole route would mean an arrival at the ancient days, when questions not merely of domestic morality but of public policies would be treated with demotic familiarity. And that would never do. Imagine a dramatization {in blank verse of the proceedings of Seuete investigating committee ! The scenes of Corn- | | “busix | terman, Current Attractions At the Theaters Tl’\is \Veck POLI'S—Sothern. and “Twelfth Night.” BELASCO-—“The Cat and the Can: opens tomorrow evenin KEITH'S with matinee tomorrow. TIVOLI—Music, ball COSMOS—“The Lawbreakers.”’ matinee tomorrow. STRAND—St. Clair Twins GAYETY—"Runnin’ Wild.” Marlowe Poli's—Sothern and Mar- lowe. and Julia Poli's T tomorrow will be “Hamlet K. H. Sothern will be seen at week beginning “Twelfth Night" tomorrow night night, “Rom night Taming of the Shrew and Saturday nights and Mer- of Venice” Frid ght Playgoers are urged to note that the plays will begin sharply at § o'clock at night and o'clock at the Satur- day matinee, the only matinec to be given. After the curtain rises no one will be seated until the intermis- sion The Marlowe ter this vening. presented noon rsday modern stage decorations which E. H. Sothern and Julia Mar- lowe have provided for their plays | this season are said to mark an im- portant advance in Shakespearean production in this country. This new —Ted Lewis Jazz Clowns, vaudeville. et and photoplay. vandev burlesque. scenery is thought to add illusion, poetry and unusual atmosphere to the classics and to offer a decided practical advantage in the elimina- tion of waits between the scenes, in this way giving swift moyement to the action of the drama. New stage S5 o has been introduced into the plays. Of special interest is the re. of the play scene in “Hamlet, brings the play actors down stag while the king. queen, Hamlet and Ophelia are brought to the center on a raised throne platform. The ghost scenes have been given new point by _the lighting The »porting Frederick Lewis. Lenore dale, France Bendtsen, Howson, V. L. Granville, T, Thomas Holding, Vincent Frank Peters, Florence g erick Kaufman, Milano Tilde Fisher White, Eugente Webb, Dawson. Milton Stiefel, J Abrams. Sarah Fishman, Christina Affeld, Verne Collins, Maurice Robin- son, '‘Constantine Zazzali, Loretta Healy, Lillian Gray, Leone Wood and Lilllan Walker. Belasco—"The Cat and the Canary. | The public demand for ‘seats for “The Cat and the Canary” has been S0 great that the Shubert-Belasco Theater management has been un- | able to accommodate many of its patrons, so that it has been arranged to extend the run of this most thrill- ing of all plays for this week, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday. Those who love the mysterious and enjoy having cold chills traverse their spinal columns back and forth in rapid succession will find all the | sensations_they desire in this melo- | drama. ‘The story starts in a shivery man- ner. Before the curtain has been raised many minutes a weird West Indian negress begins to predict evil for those present. Her friends in the shadowland whisper to her and ‘warn her of coming ills. This per- son has a voice of sepulchral depth that gives her listeners the creeps. Her warnings are not without ful- fillment, for shortly after that the queer doings of the night begin. And the whole mischief is caused by the provisions of a will made by an eccentric old codger who cordially hated all his relatives. Even in death he cannot refrain from making things uncomfortable for them. The unwarranted scares of the characters—and of the audience it- self for that matter—strange as it may seem, also bring many a roar of laughter. The company is an_excellent one, and includes Sidney Reynolds, Vir- ginia Howell, Clara Verders, Percy Moore, Walter Regan and Carl Eck- strom, Keith's—Ted Lewis Jazzers| The great Ted Lewis, with his jaz- zical clowns, tops the bill at B. F. Keith's this week. Manager Robbins has tried repeatédly to bring Ted Lewis and his band to Keith's, but this is the first time his efforts have been successful. The engagement is made possible through special ar- rangements with the booking offices, Washington taking preference over the Palace Theater, New York. The type of music brought out by Ted Lewls is well known. He has promised to go the limit in syncopation and those who know his music realize that De is a master of the art. Sybil Vane, hte little Welch prima donng, returns with ap extensive repertoire. She is assited by Leon Domque at the plano, Jack Osterman, son of Kathryn Os- former ‘well knowi comedy star, will come with his “Visit to Hollywood,” which he calls a reel revue. He is the newest and probably the youngest of all vaudeville singles. By special arrangement with the Greenwich Village Follies, Fortunello and Cirillino, the famous Italian clowns, supreme in the world of silent humor, will gppear also. Others will include Ray Fern and Maree, In “A Vaudeville Diversion,” opening with a satire on a minstrel first part and winding up with a travesty on a Spanish romance; Percy Oakes and Pamela Delour, & popular duo, in ‘musical comedy and revue, in a sbap- Py damcing turn, in which they are inclndes Chippen- Albert & 3. Bailey roroyd, company | Merr, Open tomorrow evening ary,” mystery play. Second week New show opens Opens this afternoon udeville. New show opens with Opens this a Opens this afternoon by Jane Moore, 2 mnimble Gertrude Moody and Mary . in a mixture of opera and and one of the famous acrobatic acts of Kurope, the Four Adionas, in a novelty casting turn. Their work is done from an apparatus cnirely new to the vaudeville stage Aesop’s Fables, Topic and the Pathe News complete the bill Tivoli — Another Pragram. Crandall's new Tivoli Theater, at 14th street and Park road. this week will present eight distinctive entertain- ment units. The foremost will be S. Barret McCormick’s new Athenian ballet creation, supervised by Mlle. De- siree Lubovska: Waring's Pennsyl- vanians, retained for a second week, and Charles E. Galagher, American basso, who will be heard in an en- tirely costume and with appropriate settings. of the Day Weekly, will de Luxe | The photoplay attraction will be “Try and Get It an amusing comedy, fea- turing Bryant Washburn and = Billie Dove. While the audience is assembling Ar- thur Flagel will contribute an organ recital on the mammoth Wurlitzer or- chestra-unit pipe organ. which will be followed by a symphonic feature, ‘“The Wives of Windsor' overture, played by the Tivoli Orchestra, under the direction of Bailey F. Alart. The “Tivoli's Mirror of the Living World” will picture the important events of the week Mr. Songs o Galagher will be heard in “The Old Black Joe” a potpourri of favorite melodies of the southland. {mportant components of the bill will be “Tivoli Wanderings,” revealing nat- ural and man-made beauty, and “Tivoll Philosophies™—bits of wisdom in black and white. Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians will offer an entirely new program of sprightly syncopations, with new light- ing and scenic effects. The Athenian ballet will bear no resemblance to the “Festival of the Arts,” which Mr. McCormick created for the inaugural bill, but will reveal still further the possibilities of the Tivoli's stage equipment for the presen- tation of spectacies “Try and Get It,” the photoplay, is a screen adaptation of the magasine story originally called “The Ringtailed Galli- wampus’ and concerns the efforts of a young go-getter to collect a bill of long standing from a warm personal friend, but a bitter business rival of | his employer. Cosmos — Jack Mundy *“The Lawbreakers.” A rollicking travesty on the speed mania is promised in “The Law- breakers,” featuring Jack Mundy. which will headline the Cosmos Theater bill this weok. There will be music and girls in the company of eloven to help Jack hit the high spots. with a sextet that is sald to be worth going a long way to gaze upon. * Lawbreakers” it {s an- nounced, will be shown for the first time sinoe its production at popular vaudeville prices. Jack Kennedy and Helene Ward promise a gem of humor in "Wait William Mac latest vaudeville comedietta; Frank Reck- less and company will bring a sen- sational feature including head-bal- ancing on a swinging trapese; Har- rison Greene and Katherine Parker, a song comedy by “Just the Two of Us” and Frank Meehan and Grant ®rvin, nonsense &spiced with har- mony, by “Two Nuts on a Bolt.” Pola Negri will be the picture star in “The Shadows of Paris” a Her- bert Brenon production, with which comparison has been lald between Pola and Gloria Swanson in “The Humming Bird." Pola is assisted by m | Adolphe Menjou, Charles de Roche and Huntley Gordon. ‘“The Shadows of Paris” is one of those Apache sensational stories in which the Pol- ish star alternates between high so- ciety and the underworld of the French capital. One of the new Leathor-Pusher’ series, _entitled ‘Girls Will Be Girls,” will’ figure in the added attractions Today, starting at 3 p.m, one of the best bills of the season will be presented for the last times, includ- ing the gypsy dance fantasy, ‘Bo- hemian Life” and Betty Byron and Willlam Haig in “The Book of Vaudeville.” Strand—The St. Clair Twins The St. Clair Twins and company, late stars in George M. Cohan's “Mary,” will head the program of vaudeville ‘and picture at the Strand Theater next week, beginning Sun- day. The girls will present a series of their latest graceful dances under the title of “Stepping Some.” Other offerings will include Lew Krug and Walter Kaufman in Marriage Applesauce?’ and Bernard Wheeler and Adele Potter in a humor- ous skit entitied “Smithy.” ‘The photoplay will present Alice Lake supported by Herbert Rawlin- son, in “The Dancing Cheat” a Uni- versal production. Short films, com- edy and educational, will complete the bill. new cycic of character mongs in % i Westerns in “Vogue Again A BEMARKABLE run on “western” yarns is reported by fiction sell- | ers. 1 For no apparent reason except that a ringing yarn of red-blooded adventure with big action and ap- pealing romance never falls to stir | the pulses, the book dealers and: magazine editors have found west- | ern tales have come into remewed Popularity in recent months. This news comes from Thomas H. Ince Emerson Hough, whose sudden ! death cut short his'work, and Court- | ney Ryley Cooper, wielding vigorous pens dipped in first-hand knowledge of the west, are said to have given | a spectacular spurt to this vogue. As| a result the attention of the plelure[ makers has been turned back to thi field, and some novel ‘“‘westerns” are ! promised in the coming months. | Thomas H. Ince, when he first e tered the fleld of motion pictures, 1911, capitalized upon the American never fafling interest and response |to stories of the conquering of the ' | west He discovered that the city | child, sighing for the boon of open ! |spaces. ~ tingling _ ozome. _prairie | stretches and the romance of pioneer- | |ing, which the life of the metropolis | cannot give, turned eagerly to screen storfes of the outdoor world for re lazation. | ‘““The Last Frontier,” his latest pie- ture of this type, tells the story of the laying of the first transeonti- nental railroad through the great buffalo lands of the west A Man of Little Faith. | HOLLYWDOD has heard a sten'! concerning Jacqueline Logan that broke during the production of Mel- ford's latest, “The Dawn of a To- morrow.” Something like five years ago Miss Logan was taking a “fiyer” at jour- nalism on a smail paper in Nebraska. | One of the members of the paper's | staff haq just returned from Holly- | | wood, and. being familiar with condi- tions. he was timidly asked by Miss Logan if he thought she had a chance. He assured her that there wasn't a chance in the world, even for her. In the meantime Miss Logan made the big leap and found movie fame. contrary to his predictions, while the journalist in the same period had de- serted Nebraska and gone into maga- zine work. It happened that he was designated to interview Miss Logan for a movie magasine during her work in this new Melford production. While Jacque- line admitted she was strongly tempted. she carefully refrained from any reference to the writer's five- year-old prediction that she had no chance in film land. She didn't even giggle at him. - " oy owg | Gzyety— Runnin’ Wild. ! Pretty girls, melodious songs, and snappy dances are prominent this week at the Gayety in “Runnin’ Wild.” a show of speed and swiftness. “Runnin’ Wild" is in two acts with | fifteen scenes and ample complement of scenic and lighting effects, and a large cast. Frank Harcourt and Al Hillier are . featured comedians, Har- court being a favorite with Gayets patrons. Al Hillyer is- described as 2 Yiddish comedian of original meth- od. John O. Grant is the straight man and Hazard and Speliman a team of clever dancers. “Runnin’ Wild" promises a partic- ularly attractive and talented gal- axy of principal girls, all dancers and singers, including Rose Hemley, in- genue; Jessie Rece, prima donna, and Babe Healy, soubrette, with eighteen in the chorts. An added attraction is Valecita’s Indian lcopards safely housed in a steel cage, which do amazing stunts Speciaities will be offered by all of principals, with an extra portion of Saszy dance and snappy song by Hightower and Jones. Harvard Hasty Pudding Club “Who's Who,” this year's Harvard Hasty Pudding Club production, will be presented at the Shubert Garrick | Theater Wednesday night. The book | has been cut down to working shape' and the result is a play- that is said to be one of the best that the Hasty Pudding Club has had for years. The second act In particular offers an opportunity for an unusual staging effect, and the management is spend- ing much time and money on it. Several promising vocalists are in the cast, among them A. Mackey- Smith, '24, president of the University Glee Club, and Clark Hodder, 25, uni- versity hockey and golf star.' The whole cast has been coached inten- sively by competent musical comedy producers. An’ entirely new_specialty role has béen created for J. H. S. Moynahan, whose dancing was one ‘of the fea- tures of last year'’s production. The mausical numbers so far promise to do more than'equal the standard set by previous plays. The cast will be entertained in Washington on the day of the per- formance by Mrs. Chafles MacVeagh and after the show at the home of . Larz Anderson, '8 Arcade. An_elaborate “spring. fete.’ with “all the trimmin's” will be the out- standing feature at the Arcade Tues- day n with dancing every othe: week night from $:30 to 12, on what is claimed to be ome of ihe finest floors in 'the.country, to real music. ; M u_stricrly censored environment. - i Twins s Strand JULIA MARLOWE and Polis Coming Attractions Cherry Blossom Time. “Cherry Blossom Time.' American comic opera, satirizing t National Capital and its foibles, will arrive at the National Theater for| its premiere Easter week, opening| Monday, April 21. i “Cherry Blossom Time," with book ! and lyrics by Genmevieve Farnell and musical score by Rollin Bond, is de- | scribed as a light opera on standard ) lines, with just a little more fun, al few more laughs and a little better| music than usual of the older type| of comic opera. Semators, congressional secretaries, feminine bootleggers, revenua of- | ficers, motor cvcle cops and jazzers| vie with the flapper for the honors | in_singing, dancing and laughmak- | ing. The company boasts a fine comie opera chorus. a double ballet— gypey and oriental—a jazz band and | the largest assemblage of feminine | pulchritude, youth, beauty and zest ever offered in one production Stellar roles are pl by Mrs. | Alexander G. Bently, a dramatic soprano.__(society chaperon), Helen Marie Koontz. dramatic _contralto (oriental bootlegger), Evelyn Grib- bin, coloratura soprano (juvenile| romantic lead): Juliette Francey.| French character soprano: J. Frank Du; . bass-baritone (senatorial | boss); J. Lawrence Downey, baritone | (the 'senator “with a comscience”):: Everett Sterns Hardell, romantic tenor | (senatorial secretary), and Joseph E. Cogan, character baritone (revenuc officer and motor cvele “cop”). A new captivating double sextet also| is a feature. D. W. Griffith's “America”| “America,” D. W. Griffith’s screen epic of the war of American inde- pendence, will have its Washington premiere at -Poli's ‘Theater Monday night, April 21. For years Griffith has been prepar- ing ‘to make a film dealing with the American revolution. He had amas- sed a wealth of data and had even| prepared a story. But the matter lay | dormant until the Daughters of ihe American Revolution, seeking a means of making a contribution to the ses- quicentenmial of the struggle for free- om, prevailed upon him to undertake the task of putting the ideals of our forefathers into motion picture form Griffith's first act was to establish | a special research bureau to complete ! his own efforts at obtaining the vers necessary meticulously accurate his- torical information. The work of this bureau consumed months and took members of the research bureau across the seas to there inquire into the modes -and etiquette of King George 111 Fortunately Griffith received the | voluntary assistance of practically | every historical and patriotic organ- | ization In the country, not only in the labor of digging out long forgotten facts, but in the loan of historical | homes and relics, and as volunters ; to act as extra people. This enabled | him to reproduce many scenes on the exact sites of the original ha ings, using appurtenances ac used, and engaging descendan! original heroes as actors. The Kouns Sisters. The Kouns sisters, Nellie and Sars, with beautiful Iyric soprano voices,| will headline the bill at B. F. Keith" next week, commencing April 21 Their voices are said to be so nearly alike that they have often been called “the mirror singers.” G. S. Melvin, an Englsih comedian featured in oddities, eccentric_and | realistic; Herbert Wiiliams and Hilda | Wolfus, in “From Soup to Nuts"; four Camerons, in “Like Father, Like Son,” by Jack Baley; “Miss Teria,” the’ most_bafling of all discoveries, and Les Klicks and Sargent Marvin | will complete the bill. | "A Cabaret Cocktail.” v The Cosmos Theater for next week which, by the way, is N. V. A. week, is oftering an exceptional bill headed ! by Will Stanton and company, which includes the Nat Martin Orchestra, Rosalind -May.. Frank Grace and Ethel Stanley, in “A Cabaret Cock- tail,” which in this instance means a: decoction of music, .song, dance and comedy lavishly loaded with pep a.ndl virility. The orchestra does not dab- | ble with the classics but expends its| efforts upon syncopation in_the jazsi-{ est way, while-the performers, each representing a_familiar figure in a metropolitan cabaret, supply the spe- clalties—and they promise good, lively entertainment. Niobe, America’s Aquatic Marvel—so reads the billing—is described as “a real mermaid with every likeness to new | the he | ialiy of the 1 k herself with the fishes in a huge glass aquartum. She is the added attraction. ; Others will include Sam Hyams and Clara_ in “The Quakeress, fea- | sical 2 i included in Murdock with uring Miss’ Eva bered as the ney's “Springtine Kennedy sisters. Brevities o nd ate “Brc and 3 copia nd James Cruze's ‘The Covered Wagon Fighting Coward,”" and featuring nest Torrence. Mary Asto Beery, Phyllis Haver and (¢ dis in the story of a Quaker-brec southern boy who was accused as coward as the easiest way to get r of his suit for a pretty girl, but w camo back and disputed the questios in a way that startied his acc *The Dance Shop,. Daner Shop,” d terpsiche ing Kasha Forova a with Olive Vi head the Easter week. begin Others will include Sammy n “Original otch Charac! : Medley and Dupree, th of the “Breakaway and _the “Peanut “Amusing Moments"; Dura, nd Renee, in a “Snappy V i gs,” with another feat announced. N The photoplay will present Wesl “Freckles” Barry. in “The Printer Devil,” a farce comeds 1 one of the best in which has ever appearad. Harry Myers ar a splendid Warner Brothers cast w be seen in support. “Let's Go.” TwenWv-five beautifu innumerable changes good singing and dancing, will be tive features of “Let's Go" at Gayety next week. In the fiftecn scenes there will be twenty musics numbers accompanied by very ur usual dancing. Particularly true this of the eighteen specially train girls who have been drilled alo: the line of work done by the famo Tiller girls of London Heading the cast is Manny King, a Yiddish comedian. also an_accor plished violinist, with Kitty Madiso Burton Carr, Nan Palon, I Kane. Mile.' Flamita, Jos “Red” Marshall and Sonny son's Syncopating Sever Funny “Little Jim, wrestiir Dbear, will meet all comers and defic the world to throw hin: “Laugh, Clown, Laugh.” David Belasco will prevent Lionel Barrymore in “Laugh, Clown, Laugh!* by David Belasco and Tom Cushing, at the National Theater, the week of April 28 Mr. Bolasco and Mr. ociated for the first n in “Laugh, Clown, Laugh Mr. Barrymore's characterization of & role has been acclaimed performance of his career h b Miss Ire lave wou her portrayal of the ding feminine role, together with al company that played t New York engagement. Mask and Wig Story. “Jimmy" Protherc last year's Mask and Wig Club (Un versity of Pennsylvania) productic and veteran of previc again take the leading dy role in the Wiggers' current pr. duction, “That's That," Monday eve ning, April 28, at the Shubert-Belasc An “old lady” last year, he will th season amuse the public as Harrier Martyn, an orphaned country girl Three other veteran Wiggers this year's ca ugenn Edwin R. ( us a pair of n up-to-da hinesc eading hotel, a nimble dancer in vear's chorus, who will take the par: of Tom. Dick, the third of tI trio, Tom, Dick and Harriet, will fall to thé lot of J. Lee Patton, jr. Charles Gilpin has this vear prc vided several musical numbers of the whistling type, among which “The Maybe Lady Luck Will Smile on M« and, “When the Old _Wheel Turns Around” are likely to he remembercd He has also provided two musicasl specialties for the second act. Raymond de S. Shryock., 2 new comer, will be seen as Peggy, leading lady, who, it may be said | passing, is distinctly of the flapp type. Her father wiil be in the hands entitled Th an artistic mu Mild Dotan, Strand_ The r Sunday nex natol graph" girls, w costume gracefu on the attra: much Barret Thom Barrymore time t the comediar Felt appear and last r |a beautiful girl, but who disports|of John H. Reiners, jr., who plar« along lines of Frank Lalor. Others in the cast include Henr Roberts, Theodora J. Phillips, r., an . D. Merrick