If loose construction and the stamp of the amateur were the desiderata in light opera, "Her Soldier Boy," now playing at the Shubert Theatre, would take first rank among such productions. Perhaps no play of recent years has so openly defied all dramatic fundamentals, for there is an incoherence which runs through the piece that even a prejudiced audience is not able to overlook. Had the work been done by novices, we might be more charitable in passing judgment, but such veterans as Victor Leon and Rida Johnson Young will certainly not enhance their reputation by such workmanship as this.

"Her Soldier Boy" is really a series of sentimental pictures of a most unattractive pre-Raphaelite type, joined together by several strokes of the leader of the orchestra's baton; and a few real bits of music. We are so used to recognizing the unreal as reality on the stage, that this attempt at picturing life as it is, is simply burlesque. A Shakespeare could harmonize a drunken porters' scene with the rest of "Macbeth," but it is doubtful if even he could bring together with any measure of success a grief-stricken mother, whose son fails to return from battle, and a typical Broadway monologist.

The theatre-going public has been used to seeing Margaret Romaine and Clifton Crawford in trivial but well-done vehicles and it was most disappointing to have the former sing unintelligible tunes well, which were wholly out of place, and have the latter revivify all his old business, which was once pleasing, but might well have been buried long ago. One continually looked for a deus-ex-machina to appear, but he evidently was not so disposed. The settings were attractive and the chorus also, but even these essentials were not sufficient to make one leave the play-house in any frame of mind, but that he had been gulled. Who was to blame was a natural query.