New Plays

The Melody Man. Lew Fields, after an absence, returned to Broadway, a bit more leisurely, a bit stouter, but still screamingly pathetic. His vehicle (by the hitherto unheard-of Herbert Richard Lorenz) is not brilliantly original, having most of the ancient elements of tear-winning hokum combined into a pathetic story which Lew turns into a highly satisfactory farce-comedy. The platform of the play is an assault on "Tin Pan Alley" and the jazz factories. Franz Henkel (Fields) is an old German composer who showed considerable promise in his youth by writing a Dresden Sonata. A university brawl, in which he inadvertently shoots another student, has forced him to flee his native land; impecuniosity compels him to do hack work in the popular music concern of Al Tyler (Donald Gallagher). Here he furnishes orchestrations and harmonies for the musically illiterate composers of song hits and barely succeeds in supporting an exceedingly beautiful daughter (Betty Weston). To his horror he finds his boss putting out Moonlight Mama, a hit founded on the treasured composition of his youth. Worse, his daughter marries Al Tyler to save her father from starvation. But all comes right in the end. Tyler, better than he looks, splits the royalties in the song success with old Henkel, and by his last minute display of hidden virtues wins the true love of the beautiful daughter.

The plot is not the point. It is Fields with his delightful German accent who carries the show. Even the saddest situations, handled by this popular pet of the last decade, become the subject of uncontrolled mirth. The scene in the office of Al Tyler with off-stage jazz bands, is a true picture of the slapdash production of vaudeville and musical belly-wash by the mighty morons of the "continuous." This scene allows the introduction of the vaudeville team of Hackett and La Marr (Sam White and Renee Noel) who bounce through a demonstration of their new and excellent dancing act, supplying much slang and local patter. The chief feeder to Fields is Jules Jordan, in the roll of Dave Loeb, attorney whom Henkel employs in his lawsuit against Tyler for the recovery of the rights to Moonlight Mama.

The Melody Man seems to be a jumble of The Music Master, The Show Shop and Potash and Perlmutter, cemented by the unshakeable popularity of Lew Fields.

All God's Chillun Got Wings. The opening performance of Eugene O'Neill's new play on the mating of blacks and whites (TIME, March 17) lived up to expectations by turning into a news event. It had been preceded by a storm of protest from various sections of the metropolis and the U. S. at large, though nothing like a race riot seemed likely. At the first performance, the Provincetown Theatre group announced that Mayor Hylan had refused to sanction the appearance of black and white children in the first scene of the play, designed to show that with children there is no color line.

Later the Mayor explained that he had not studied the play, but had refused a permit for the employment of the youngsters -- formally approved by the Gerry Society -- on the ground that children below 16 were required, for whom a special permit was necessary. The producers later sent him an invitation to attend.

The piece was generally regarded as audacious but dull; its treatment hardly living up to the provocative possibilities of its background. The play acted much better than it read when published recently in the American Mercury, but it maundered gloomily through scenes wherein a Negro of no great ability married a white girl, then discovered that he was so far above her in mental calibre that it hurt. His aspirations to ward a lawyer's career came between them, and in the end he renounced them to devote himself to caring for her -- whereupon she kissed his hands-Robeson, a Negro of exceptional scholastic and athletic prowess while at Rutgers, played the black man; Mary Blair, the white girl.

Percy Hammond: "A vehement exposition of a marriage between a stupid Negro and a stupid white woman. If it is possible for you to get an emotion out of that situation, here is your opportunity."

Heywood Broun: "... Before the play ends she is stark raving mad. So instead of the problem of white and black, we have the problem of sane and insane ... In the uneven career of Eugene O'Neill I think All God's Chillun will rank as one of the down strokes."

John Corbin: "If one thought of Uncle Tom, one thought also of Othello."

Plain Jane. This musical comedy is cut to the usual pattern, designed to relieve the onus of thought during the feverish weather. Its formula:

A poor girl--a rag doll she invents --fame--riches-- whoop-la!

A young scion--disinheritance for helping the poor girl--a prize fight for money and renown--a knockout --wham!

An irate father--purchase of a rag doll--forgiveness--wow!

The high spot is a prize fight in which Jay Gould as the scion and Allie Nack mix in as if their honor were at stake. Musical comedy producers now seem to realize that a boxing bout will put punch into their show. In this case the gladiators get down to real, hearty slugging. Several times Gould hits the floor with abandon.

Joe Laurie, Jr., is an inveterately amusing fight manager, Lorraine Manville a pleasing prima donna, and May Cory Kitchen dances fluffily. The dancing here is multitudinous, at all angles and for any provocation. It is entertaining, and with saleable tunes it makes something to rest as lightly on the mind as the new cork hats.

The Kreutzer Sonata. Little reason can be seen for the revival by Bertha Kalich of this 17-year-old play, except as a demonstration that she can utter sounds like a tortured flute. This story of a Russian girl, forced into marriage to give a name to her unborn child, who finds her husband philandering with her lecherous sister, is played on one note, and Madame Kalich sounds that till the echoes ache. Morbid, perverse, monotonous, it calls to mind the Russian players--except that the staging is as false as the beards.