Word: melodrama
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...Tavern", the author tells us that he is presenting an "American Melodramatic Satire". For a scant two hours or so, the Vagabond (Mr. Cohan, if you have not divined so already) directs in entertainingly unorthodox manner a very orthodox group of stage people through the intricate contortions of a melodrama to end all melodramas. Bank robbers, policemen, governors, midgets, and fascinatingly naive young ladies put themselves completely in the hands of the Tavern's unidentified guest, and he has them caper about in the fashion most likely to please his laughing audience--and with no other evident intent...
...Suritz Non Grata. Nonfiction, but in some spots very tantalizing melodrama, was the affaire Suritz, which did nothing to detract from Allied-Russian tension. Since 1919 bulging, bearded Jacob Suritz has been No. 1 Soviet diplomat, with a brilliant record in Afghanistan, Turkey, Germany and League of Nations wrangles. He was for years the only Jew in Germany permitted to keep Aryan housemaids -by personal dispensation of the Führer. Ambassador Suritz was not "purged" when his intimate friend Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinoff fell from Joseph Stalin's favor, but few Bolsheviks close to a fallen bigwig survive...
Ladies in Retirement (by Edward Percy & Reginald Denham; produced by Gilbert Miller) gave Broadway its first real shivers of the season. A good, broad-beamed, solid-walnut English melodrama, it mounts from scene to scene toward a fine, dimly lighted, clock-striking-midnight climax in Act III. Though not the most gory or grisly or ghostly of horror plays, it has what most of them lack: an excellent balance of atmosphere, characterization and plot...
...Hiss the Villain and Applaud the Hero" is the request of the management of the Forbes-Streett Theatre, which yesterday announced that it would celebrate a "Harvard Night" today by showing the melodrama "Ten Nights in a Bar-Room" at a reduced price...
...melodrama, the play has exciting moments. As symbolism, it makes its point well enough: Fascism and lawlessness cannot be destroyed through appeasement and law; they must be destroyed through force. But the play suffers badly from the prime weakness of symbolism and melodrama alike: a want of reality. There are a lot of people aboard the Roundabout, but not one of them talks, acts, or meets his Maker like a human being...