And That's the Good News of "Topsy and Eva."

"TOPSY AND EVA":

  A musical comedy in three acts, based on "Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Catherine Chisholm Cushing and the Misses Duncan; made known in Chicago Dec. 30, 1923, in the Selwyn Theater, by this cast:

BY FREDERICK DONAGHEY.

  Trade will be none the less good at the Selwyn if we start this memorandum with the assurance that you do not need to know anything about "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as a foundation for your study of "Topsy and Eva." Indeed, a fond intimacy with Mrs. Stowe's tale or the old play therefrom would be a cultural handicap. Mrs. Cushing may have been beset by high aims in designing her libretto; but what we take in is a matter of verses, tunes, and viatmines by the Duncan Sisters. They are much as they have been in other shows, save that one is in half-nudity and burnt-cork; and they are still delectable when they chant their sly ballads in close harmony.

  Also, they take credit for a neat and decorous score, including one tune, "Rememberin'," which you will hear many times in what remains of the current Winter.

  Uncle Tom is now a basso out of opera, and Eliza an old-time soubrette who dances when Legree cracks his whip. And, dancing on such provocation, Miss Gehrue brings pleasant memories of nights when her name was familiar in the playbills. Mrs. Cushing's play is without ice or blood hounds; neither Tom nor Eva dies and Marks is a minor nuisance. Miss Hoctor, too, dances to plaudits; there are pretty and prudent choristers in ruffled undies tight to the ankles; all is sanitary; and so to bed.