THE CRIMSON PLAYGOER

By eleven-thirty everybody's happy. In the first place, the professional cynic rejoices that "The Student Prince," after floating around in the tepid air of optimism, comes down to earth at the end in amiable but genuine tragedy. He can go to bed reflecting that "After all..." Then, there is much for the other kind of sentimentalist is to be grateful for. He can forget that the King can no longer be a prince or student and that the charming Kathie must be another's Frau. He can remember only that the days of youth are the wisest after all, that (another stein) they are Golden Days, and that even a King can say, "GOOD old Toni!" Finally, the waitress who stands at the extreme right in the finales is pretty enough to please anybody.

In its more serious hours the operetta is heavily sentimental and full of bad melodrama. By the end of the first act, the shy, unworldly prince is gazing moonily at Kathie--whereupon they both exhale noisly. By the end of the second act, the heir of Karlsberg is screaming in a tenor voice, "O God! I won't--I can't go home!" But he does. Forty minutes later he screams even louder, "O God! I'm trapped--I'm caught--ALONE!" It is not clear whether his preference for the little lady back in Heidleberg is based on the fact that she's blond. At the very end, the King smiles resignedly at the debutante princess after failing to kiss Kathie. There's the real tragedy. . . Fortunately, very amusing comedy is alternated with those strenuous and unnerving bursts of passion and the whole is carried along by music of exceptional charm. If American colleges could have beer-rallies and bellow tunes like the rousing Drinking Song, it would be worth it to give up the pose of indifference.

Der Printz is an Arrow Collar boy with an Arrow Collar boy's personality. He sings fairly-well, however, and makes an honest stab at being Kathie's equal. She, the waitress, is a cute baby-face with a pleasant voice and more acting poise than her royal lover. The master-comedian, Dewolf Hopper, gives a professional air to the show and makes even the slightest wise-crack seem funny by the aid of a contorted face and voice. The rest of the cast is enthusiastic and homely enough to make the play as wholesome and hearty as a German Christians dinner. To show how much the actors have got into the spirit of the thing, one of the chorus is named Clara De Beers.

It is to be hoped that there will be more productions of this sort in the future to promote tolerance, among those who have lacked educational advantages, for our modern academies of higher learning