“Girl” Act

Location:
Theater:
Date:
The opening of this twenty minute act, starring De Haven and Jack Sidney, marks the one novelty of the show. The boys are shown in a hotel lobby conversing in song using telephones as the girls sing their replies, telephones in hand, from theatre boxes. The act continues with several songs with dance including a section of double dancing for De Haven and Sidney, a winter scene and a grand finale that falls flat
“In all details the act is crude and unfinished. It lacks stage management, requires something more in the line of dressing for the girls than cheap clothes and should boast more than siple step dancing and ‘ragging,’ with a few songs thrown in.” The effects are lacking or are mismatched to the behaviour of the performers. “‘Girl acts’ require nice dressing, snappy action and a general element of of animation and brightness which De Haven and Sidney have not supplied. It will need a regular producer to instil the needed tonic, a new compliment of wardrobe for the girls and a goodly amount of stage management before this act will class in any sort of competition.”
Source:
Variety 21:6 (01/14/1911)