New Plays

Elsie. Just another musical comedy, picked, it would seem, at random from the patent filing case of girl and musical entertainment. The plot, formula 7-B, concerns itself with the wastrel son of a rich and rather bourgeois family, who marries an actress in defiance of his parents' social ambitions for him, and then, calling to his aid the spirit of love, sweetness and light, makes them approve of her and repent their boorish behavior toward her. The music written by Sissle and Blake, authors of the Negro jazz revue Shuffle Along, and Carlo and Sanders, composers of the musical hit Tangerine, shows what Broadway composers of established ability can do when they don't try very hard, and the book, by Charles Bell, explains why Harry B. Smith, the veteran librettist, could write seven or eight musical shows a year without seriously taxing his talents or intelligence. In a word, a very mediocre show, without even the redeeming feature of a first rate comedian.

The Dice of the Gods. Mrs. Fiske is the latest actress to lend her talents to the dramatic literature of dope, which has filled nearly a dozen theatres this season. At least she is a cheerful dope fiend. Hers no life of nervous shivering, furtive sniffs of coke, and dull-eyed fits of depression, but rather a bright and sunny addict, having a good time with her drugs. In fact the very Pollyanna of snow birds, now singing, now clowning, now whimsical, but always looking on the bright side of morphia. It is, perhaps, the most interesting and innocuous, if the least harrowing of the dope plays, which will take some of the sting out of the current Hearst expose of the narcotic evil. A good antidote and counterblast for the meretricious pity and terror inspired by such dope plays as Morphia and Seventh Heaven.

Percy Hammond: " There were times when we thought Mrs. Fiske was great. . . . there were times when we feared she was awful.

John Corbin: "Mrs. Fiske never looked younger or acted with greater aplomb and verve."

Alexander Woollcott: "It is a sleazy, disorderly and generally negligible piece, but its central role is a vivid and unusual one.

Uptown, West. The Japanese husband of an American woman discovers an incipient love affair between his wife and an old suitor, loves his wife sincerely and deeply, and since their baby has just died in an accident, he decides to go secretly back to Japan. Just as he is on the point of leaving, however, he feels an inner urge to see his wife once more. He steals into her bedroom, strangles its occupant, and, rhetorically celebrating the meeting of mother-- and child in heaven, commits hara-kari. The acting is uncommonly good.

If Winter Comes. A fairly skillfull adaptation of A. S. M. Hutchinson's famous novel, distinguished by the acting of Cyril Maude. The marital tragedy of a kindly, humorous and thoroughly ineffectual man, whose motives are constantly misunderstood by a shrewish wife. The best part of" the book is left out because of the alleged superior dramatic effectiveness of melodramatic incident, and the episodes featuring the comic servants High Jinks and Low Jinks are underplayed, but a sustained interest and suspense is maintained nevertheless. A competent caste helps to revive enthusiasm for the dramatic version of last year's literary sensation.

Heywood Broun: "It isn't a plausible play, but all concerned do their best to keep up appearances, and the courage and skill ol this may appeal to your interest if the play doesn't."

Percy Hammond: " The play has a fair chance in comparison with tt novel. The result may be humiliating to the drama lovers, but it is a proud moment for the bookworms.