“Not Yet, Marie”

Singing

"Oh, Those Pictures of 50 Years Ago," "Broadway Blues" and "Red Riding Hood On Broadway."

C.B. Maddock turned his attention again to the producing of big acts this season, "Not Yet, Marie" being the second effort of the kind. The first was "The Sirens." Both acts are on the same plane, which means that "Marie" is a high class offering - of a kind that vaudeville hasn't been getting enough of lately. "Not Yet, Marie" is a little musical comedy that cost its sponsor $9000. The words and music came from Ballard McDonald, Nat Osborne and Henry L. Marshall, while Frank Stammers wrote and staged it. There is a cast of five, a chorus of eight and an orchestra leader. The cast is worthy of mention though it isn't specified on the programs (because of the limited space allotted this season). Present are William Edmunds (formerly Edmunds and Leedom), Eddie Buzzell and Peggy Parker and Mary Donahue. The latter is a sweet singing girl who has been doing a single and who never spoke lines before. She made a pleasant impression, though not given quite enough to do. The action takes place in the art photographic studio of one Bambino, with a "Wop" dialect (played by Edmunds), who has made a hit by pictures of lingerie and such, posed by models. This gives the choristers a chance to show some fetching effects in "nighties" and bathing suits. .. The girls are arrayed in several other changes, all the clothes being in excellent taste, and it was those costumes which consumed the major portion of the production expenditure. There is a plot, in fact, a bit too much and if cutting can be effected there, it ought to help in the general result. Buzzell and Parker have several numbers together. They are "Oh, Those Pictures of 50 Years Ago" and "Broadway Blues." Buzzell duetted with Miss Donahue's "Red Riding Hood On Broadway" sounding the best. Edmunds takes care of most of the comedy, Buzzell not being quite so successful in the portions allotted to him. The title is oddly arrived at and furnished a laugh when explained near the finish. An old man entrances early, goes to a picture that looks like Marie Antoinette and mutters, "Not Yet, Marie," He returns, does the same thing, and when the girls ask the reason he explains that 50 years ago he loved Marie. But she refused to marry him, saying he should call around when he got tired of wine and women. So he is still telling his old sweetheart, though she is gone, that he isn't tired yet. The setting is in fine taste with the rest of the production. Mr. Maddock is going very thoroughly into his vaudeville efforts for he is "training" for an entrance into the legitimate field next season. If his three-act pieces are as carefully done, he should find also success with the bigger work.

Variety, 53:6 (01/03/1919)