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Show By GEOEGE JEAN NATHAN. T T besins to look as If the compar:Uive-I compar:Uive-I ly rfrf.-n producing firm of Smith & I UoIiJen were soins to rim the experl-X experl-X encd firm of Cohan & Harris a stiff race in tiie canny exploitation of the .s f ri'i-ff 11 1 liol-auns of t!ie popular t?how-1 t?how-1 -shop. 'Turn to the RlEht," "Liujiitnin'," a iul r.fjv, ;i t tiit? t.'rii ci ion. "Three Wise Koo'.-..1' would .setrm to Indicate that tlii iw duo possesses to no small decree i'.ii: ( v,lia;i MairiH knack of tickling ; the emotions of the mob and minting the tii'kV into lorn,' box ol'l'ice lines. "Turn to ihe Iliyiif." a v-iitable Ver-1 Ver-1 dun of .nie-l'ii.- devices, is already mmil-: mmil-: Uir to the reader. " 1 .ih t. nin'," currently i observable in (lie Oaiety t ilea r re, tfoes 1 "Turn to the Iiiulu" 011 better. And "T!ii''0 Wise i''i'ils," the moft recent im-veiiin, im-veiiin, t;is alomr at " I.lali intn's" heels. , I'iacii jf tiiese exiilbits is alike in its cap- itaifz.ttion of mush and reeiodrama; a capitalization, however, that reveals a real shrewdness and unless one is very much mistaken a lanhln up the sleeve on ! he part of the Rapacious impresarios. The nsuite memher nf the firm of Hmitii & f loiden is undouldedly Vinche!l Smith, j ! a thealriciaii who proved Ion: before the j advent of the ('olden his aptitude In the imiss.iviini? of the yokel tastes. And It is unquestionably thin Smith of "Fortune llniiter" and "Boomerang" fame who is the. hokum engineer of the company. Hand Always Visible. As fleorye Cohan's hand in plainly discernible dis-cernible in almost every play that the firm of Cohan & Harris produces whoever who-ever may happen to be the original au-liuM- so Smith's hand Is visible in the layout of the goods of his firm. And this , Smith inml, if by no means so original as thn Cohan hand (Smith is largely a playwrilintf srrandson of Cohan), is yet of sufficient span to sound tho chords that duly enchant the vast ralvacado of peasants peas-ants which patronizes the theatres of the and little Broadways of the United Stales. Take, for example, the play "Tjigrht-nin'," "Tjigrht-nin'," credited in part to Frank liacon. What we ei:i;i;pe hero is intrinsically the old mortgage shark eonte reared around tlit- character of a sort of marked-down sti'n'e Joseph .7 jfferf-on. 15 ut what has hapo. ,ie.( to thn thim? in the process of rveiiminary boiling? The answer: Smith. This latter, who figures on the playbills as the elaborator and collaborator of Tia-con, Tia-con, has so maneuv'eied tlio old stuffs of the manuscript that, to the lay audience which is the average audience the ancient an-cient gestuies take on a new eloquence. Naive in the Extreme. True enouph, to the critical observer the tralTc of the Smith stage is naive in (he extreme; I ait Smith knows it, and shows he knows it and, knowing it, drives the Intellectual villagers half mad 1 with- delight. "Iiigrhtnin' " is an Edward F. Kidder play of the yesterdays embroidered em-broidered five-fold Willi sure-fire. The leading: vole is Intrusted to the part-author, part-author, tecon. And (he combined enterprise enter-prise is one of the big popular successes of tho year. What is true of "Liphtnin " is true also of "Three "Wise Fools." credited to Austin Aus-tin Site Jig'. .Here we Ret the fable of three old men who in their youth loved the same girl. This rare puella, upon her deathbed, bequeathes the triumvirate her daughter; and tiie play begins with the advent of 1he latter Into the apartment of the lovelorn trio. The old boys, recalling re-calling the past with much melancholy head-shaking, proceed to launch joy, rladness, sunshine, etc.. into the life of the flapper and to this end load her down with pearls, pink dresses, birthday cakes and loses. Presently, however, it develops that the flapper is 'peculiarly chummy with a gentleman Vdrht Benny the Cutthroat Kid, or something equally fetching, and her guardians are heartbroken. What can it mean? they ask one another, wiping away a tear. In due time, they discover that their sweet one is properly innocent and as pure r.s the driven snow, for her friendship with Benjamin was brought about by dear fear for her father's safety, safe-ty, the said father having been accused of the fi.rL-f.ry wkb-li the knave Iv-ija- : mtn hims--1:' r.:d cfm:nitt-i l liad cut:- , irivcd to throw at father's dco: . j- i Tale for Connoisseurs. i Surely a tab' for eonnoih.sem s m tl:.' f I n 3 arts! Kut you should lay au eye to j the way the Smith-rinmeu vcred audien-tte pobblo it up an-l cry over its sweet mul-aueholicH mul-aueholicH and laugh uproariously at its jazuo. Tiie nijrht I saw tiie exh:bil-uu. the fat nivl behind me bawL-J louoly wlier. doubt of the little heroine's virtue stalked tiie stae, and the gentleman directly di-rectly ahead of ine almost fell out ot his seat with mirth .hen the three eld boys marched at uund the si age in lock-stci - . The presenting company includes .dessrs. Claude .;i!ling water, Harry I aveuport and Charles liite, and ibe Mis&es Helen Menken and l'hylli.- Uankin. Still another sur-li noble art work that appears to be strikingly popular is 1 he I'.ig Cliam e," by tiie Messrs. (ii-.int Morns and Willard Mack, lately uncovered in the Forty-el gin h Street iheat re. -. 1 i. Woods is cieerone to lids particular magnum mag-num opus, whicli essays to be an epic of the present war. When the curtain goes up. we behold a boarding" house wncrem a young woman and young man are hwng together in sin. Companions to the pair nre a remittance man, a dissolute millionaire million-aire and a race-1 rack tout. All are In love with tiie young woman, who. though her foot has slipped, still retains her pristine pris-tine puri'y of soul. In the midst of the blessed happiness of tills elect group, lightning strikes presently pres-ently in tiie. news that the young woman s young man has forged a check and must recuperate at Sing King. This brings the curtain down on the first slice. In the second slice tho young woman seems to have become an elocutionist nnd, though the procedure has no visible connection with what has gone on in Act I. insists that tiie remittance man, the dissolute millionaire and tiie race track tout redeem re-deem themselves by onllstin. Readily Acquiesce. The gentlemen say all right. Ibev will, because they love her so. And that ends the second slice. In the next slice, two of the men come back from the trencnes, great heroes. The third, tiie. dissolute millionaire, has been killed while single-handed single-handed driving the Huns out of northern France and Belgium. The recital of this great hero's death moves the young woman whose foot has slipped to shout: "War was made by God to give men who have never led decent lives a decent chance to die!' This done, and the applause subsiding, the Sing Sing sojourner conies on again. He has been pardoned. The young woman promptly insists that he, too, enlist and redeem himself. "What ! Right away? asks the young man. somewhat peevishly, for lie wants a little leisurely kissing after all these years spent In the cooler. "Yes, right away!" returns the voting woman. "Well, all right," says the voum; man. And off he goes to tiie recruiting station. Then the curtain comes down. In the next and last slice, laid In France, the young man is killed, nlso while engaged" in a most brave act. And t lie young woman whose foot has slipped smiles a la Joan of Arc. spiritually, tran-scendentally, tran-scendentally, for she knows that she, too, has redeemed both herself and her foot. All a Bit Cryptic. Quite true, this is all a bit cryptic to certain lesser portions of tho audience, but the great majority does not seem to mind in the least. The role of the young woman who goes astray and then permits the war to revirginize her is handled by Miss Marv Nash. Miss Nash gives an effective performance perform-ance in the first act and then goes completely com-pletely to pieces, vouchsafing periodic teeth -showing for intensity and bead-tossing bead-tossing for indignation, defiance and a half dozen other emotions. Mr. "W illard Mack plays the remittance man after the fashion of a vaudeville Wiilia m Faversham; William Meehan is excellent as the tout; Miss Katherlne Harris Bairymore is good as the landlady's land-lady's beau -htm ting daughter, and M iss Annie Mack Berlein comical, as always, as the Irish landlady. |