The record-union., 1891-11-14
music And THE DRAMA.
New York Now Enjoying Several
Better Plays.
The Interesting and Piquant Story of
''Miss Helyett''-The Unexpected
Success of ''Alabama''-Sarah Bern
hardt Coming Money-Stage Notes.

''Miss Helyett''-The Unexpected
hardt Coming Money-stage Notes.
a. P. Dunlop. writing from New York
under date of November 7th, says:
The new plays produced during the
week are ''Ihe Man With Hundred
Heads" which brought out Henry L.
Dixey in a new role at Hermann's Thea
! ter, and Miss Helyett' at the Star. Both
are produced under the management of
| Charles Frohman, and both are good for
| long runs. THE Man With Hundred
! Heads" is very funny play. and was an
unInistakable success the tils: night, but
When Mr.. DiXey will have elaborated his
part, it will be the best thing he has ever
done. Mr.. Frohman's company, as usual,
! did excellent work, Mrs. Sidney Drew, a
| daughter of Mr.. Mckee Rankin, making
the strongest kind Of hit. Miss Hell
| yeti" three-act operatta by Edmond Au-
| dram, words by Maxine Boucheron, was
! first produced at the Boufies-P Parisiens at
| Paris, November 2, 1890, and was so sue
| ceSsful that it is still running there. The
| first English version, adapted by +. G.
| Burnand, was done in London, July %,
! 1871, and IS running yet at the Criterion.
| On Tuesday David Belasco's American
quite as big success as 1t did either In
| Paris or London. The story of the play,
| as told by Mr.. Belasco, is very droll and
at the same time pretty. The place is a
! tourists resort in the Pyrenees. Helyett
| SmlthsOn, an American tluakereSS, with
demure manners but roguish tendencies,
! Is there with her auStere father. Other
visitors are French dancing master and
a bevy OF girls, who are preparing to take
! part IN a charity entertainment. y pro-
| fessional danseuse has been engaged, too,
| and the affair shocks the two QuakerS.
| But they soon have on hand a different
mission of their own. That is. the quest
of the man who, although they don't
| know him, is the only man on earth who
! Heiyett ought TO marry. This conceit
| is what gives oddity TO the comedy.
! The girl goes out for mountain walk
alone. and soon returns to tell that she
| tumbled headlong over cliff and was
caught in branch of tree, where she
hung suspended, gracefully but indeco-
rously, until man rescued her from the
undignitied predicament. Boucheron did
not hesitate to make the girl and the res
| cuer, an artist, describe the sight in
manner which, although it amuses and
| delights Paris, would offend Americans
! unpardonably. The more polite Belasco
has left the particulars to the Imagination
| of the audience, for it is only told that the
! QuakeresS was SO ashamed of her miSad-
venture that she hid her face from the
stranger. AS for him, he pictures the ac-
cldent in his sketch book, besides keep
/ ing it vivid in his mind. He is an Amer
lean and former playmate Of Helyett.
| but for while-long enough to serve the
| merry and sentimental purposes of the
| play-neither suspects the other as par
! tlclpant IN the mountain encounter. The
! old Quaker rigidly lives up TO a book OF
moral and social preceptS of his own COM
! hoS nni hi 70
guide herself by them too. According
! 10 one Of his dOgmas, a girl must endeavOr
| to become the wife OF the eligible man
who first holds her in his arms, even
! though 1t be chance love. AS fOrmu-
| lated by Boucheron, the tenet is made ap-
| plicable TO a case Of such exposure as he
| especially imputes to the uniucky little
tumbler. Belasco makes the father
| equally strenuous, but on grounds that
need not be blushed at by the listeners,
| and the subsequent happenings are asso-
ciated with the Quakers' hunt for the hero,
who is with them all the time, and in
| love with the girl already. Miss Hell
yett' would do very well without any
| music, but it is essentially light opera
| after ALL The cast supplied by Manager
| Frohman was excellent, and although
| Mrs. Leslie Carter was put forward as
one OF the company she was conspicuous
! as the star.
On Monday, Augustus Thomas "Ala-
| bama" began run at Palmer'S Theater,
and demonstrated it's right to occupy a
| place in the front rank of native plays. It
IS capital play in every respect. AS a
| study of life In great Southern State it
| is faithful, amusing and picturesque The
quaint characters are genuine types, and
are free from that grotesqueness which oft
en- spoils the endeavors of a writer to depict
q certain class ofpeople. In his character
drawing Mr.. Thomas has been particu-
larly happy, and from Colonel Preston,
the old, aristocratic planter, down to the
antiquated colored servant, the characters
are firmly but most delicately sketched.
The plot, too, is interesting and sustained,
and the construction is according to the
! most accepted methods of stage writing
"AIaDama' is q purely native work, and
! shows what wide and entertaining field
is open to the writer Of plays dealing with
! American subjects. No praise whatever
is due A. NJ. Palmer for bringing it out,
for, although now he makes great pre-
| tense about fostering the American
| drama, he was compelled to produce Al
ALBANIA" He never had any confidence
IN 1t, even after he had seen 1t several
| times, and probably would have taken it
OF but for the advice of Maurice Barry
/ more.
"Hoss and Uoss," which was seen
/ for the first time at Dunlevy's Park The
alter on Monday, is about as bad as Later
On' and ~ & !, !" two of the worst plays
! ever seen in this or any other country. 1t
has not one single thing original in it and
is made up of odds and ends of other
plays, bits of variety business, tricks and
| skirt dancing, and the ones that do the
best work are neither Collier nor Reed,
but Mr.. Moulton and Miss Remsden.
Sarah Bernhardt opened her engage
ment at the Standard on Wednesday with
Jeanne d'Arc'' to an overfiowing house.
All that can be said about Sarah has been
said. She is simply great, and that's all
about it.
Lillian Russell is, Of course, drawing
big crowds to La Cigale'' at the Garden
| Iheater, but the play reminds one of 81
chrome in 500, 900 frame
THE OLDEST ACTRESS,
The New York World recently claimed
that Mrs. w. G. Jones was the oldest
actress on the American stage, with the
exception OF Mrs. John Drew This Is
an error. The oldest actress on the Amer
can stage, without any exception, is Mrs.
5. a. Baker, who is and has been for sew
! eral seasons the ''old woman'' of trape-
| dian Thomas w. Keene's company. Mrs
| Baker Is now an octogenarian, and has
| been in the Thespian business for sixty
| years. She is remarkably well preserved
| lady, and she plays her roles with an in
! telligence and vigor that many woman
! thirty years her junior might well envy.
! MIR. heene treats her with as much re-
| spect and regard as though she were.his
mother. She is now apparently as hale
! and hearty as she was ten years ago, and
! this despite the fact that in pursuance of
| her professional duties she has travelled
! over twenty-five thousand miles in the
| past three years. No one but an actor