The Theatre: New Plays: Mar. 23, 1925

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Ziegfeld Follies. The outstanding feature of the average revue is a lack of crackling comedy. But Florenz Ziegfeld's new manufacture of merriment and maidenly display has more than a dash of this paprika ordinarily so repugnant to musical producers.

It is the best Follies in years, and W. C. Fields as the long-suffering drug store owner, and again as the harassed flat dweller, trying to sleep on his back porch, adds his goofy guff to the gaiety. Ray Dooley, in her typical characterization of a squawking brat, Will Rogers with his apt sallies at the expense of everyone from the President down, and Tom Lewis, Vivienne Segal and the diabolically enchanting Ann Pennington are others in the festive alliance. And to be reckoned with them in provocative quality are the settings and curtains by Norman-Bel Geddes for The Comic Supplement, immortalizing perkily the outrageously derisive spirit of the comic strip.

The New York World— "A lovely, stirring and extremely funny show."

The Handy Man. Originally titled The Carpenter, this play about an odd job character of the ilk of Lightnin' seeks for a mystic quality that is largely supplied by the stage carpenter. When this benign elderly workman seeks to stop a feminine thief of the city from luring an unspoiled country boy into her underworld haunts, he handily summons a bolt of lightning from the electrician's switchboard. One crack over the head, and the girl is saved. Her morality is lifted in voltage to the current level. It is not a crushingly bad play.

The New York Times — "A simple homily on the evils of wrong-doing."