New Play in Manhattan

Through the Years, Thirteen years ago Miss Jane Cowl wrote herself a play about an old gentleman whose beauteous bride had been murdered by a thwarted suitor on her wedding night. The old gentleman, growing testier with the years, finds that his niece is in love with the long-dead murderer's son. He almost breaks up this romance, but the War and his advanced age finally thaw his hatred. Thereupon, by a sort of reverse Peter Ibbetson arrangement, his deceased sweetheart comes down a moonbeam, to" take him away with her.

Miss Cowl called her play Smilin' Through, and there are those who still feel a sympathetic tear in their eye when they reflect on how dulcet was Miss Cowl in her dual role of both heroines, how pleasant was the treacly little theme song of that piece.

Smilin' Through has now been set to music, rechristened Through the Years.

Brian Hooker, who deserves kudos for a fine translation of Cyrano, has compiled the libretto. Lyrics are by Edward Heyman, who put words to the music of Three's a Crowd and There Goes the Bride. Incorrigible, bandy-legged Charles Winninger is the comedian. The music is the most ambitious attempt of Vincent Youmans, than whom Richard Rogers, George Gershwin, Cole Porter or Jerome Kern are no better. And yet, for all this talent, Through the Years remains a dreary, lifeless affair of lavender and old lace. You will sit through the better part of three acts before you hear a tune anything like the kind Composer Youmans wrote for Rainbow, Great Day, Hit the Deck cr Florenz Ziegfeld's Smiles. Best number in Through the Years is "Drums In My Heart," which should be drumming long after the show is packed off to the warehouse.

In behalf of Mr. Youmans, it may be argued that no composer could have breathed the breath of life into Miss Cowl's weepy drama.

Vincent Youmans was born, not many more than 30 years ago, within wailing distance of Broadway's Tin Pan Alley. His father made hats. A hat he made for oldtime Impresario Oscar Hammerstein now reposes in the cornerstone of the Manhattan Theatre, where Through the Years is playing.

Composer Youmans was slated for the hat business himself when the War lifted him out of Yale and put him in the Navy. From the Navy he went to the music publishing house of Remick, then to Harms. His first complete score was done for Two Little Girls in Blue (1921). Followed Wild flower ("Bambalina"), No, No Nanette ("Tea for Two"), Lollipop, Smiles, Oh Please, Rainbow ("The One Girl"), Great Day ("Without a Song"). Laurence Stallings and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the libretto and lyrics for Rainbow, which ran into hard luck until Hollywood got hold of it. Through the Years is Mr. Youmans' third venture as an independent producer.

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