Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1891-03-29
ABOUT THEATERS.
ATTENDANCE IN NEW YORK THEATERS BUR-
ING HOLY WEEK
Better Than For Years Past-The Attractions Oi-
fsrsd-Ths Late Comedian Mackay-Thrss
New Plays Tried on Dogs. "-General
Gossip About Actors and the Stage.

New YORK, March 2s.-From out
and-out variety to gaudy spectacle
with an interval of melodrama, is the
range OF the fresh bills at the combina-
tion theatres this week. 1t Is common
" the dullest business OF the year, Tor
il is HOLY Week, with Good Friday and
the attractions of Easter shopping TO
fear: nevertheless the attendance AT
most of the city play-houses has been
trihe better than in past years at this
time. Robert Mantell has been very
warmly welcomed back to town at the
Fourteenth Street, where has revived
.Monbars" to the eminent satisfaction
of his audiences. The play is of poor
material, and it has not been skillfully
adapted from the original French form,
which was not conspiciously strong to
start with. But Mantell has Kept 1t
before the public by the vigor and the
earnestness of his work, and perhaps 1t
has been as much practical value to him
as any other piece in his repertory.
The farcia or lighter entertainments
current at the weekly change theaterS
have their best representation in Lit
tie Puck" which is at the Grand Opera
House. with Frank Daniels as chief in
it's drollery. 1t took half a dozen men
to write this abSurdity, but no TWO OF
them have ever quarreled over their
share in the work, so there is obviously
not much distinction arising from lts
authorship. Daniels is the front and
the finish of the farce. His humor Is
exceedingly quaint, and his dlmlnutlVe
! figure and his grotesque countenance
help him wonderfully TO provoke mirth.
Bessie Samson is pot so young nor so
! frisky as in the days when she made an
acceptable substitute for ROsina Nokes,
with the Vokes family; but she has by
no means forgotten how to charm her
auditors. and in Little Puck" she Is a
good foil for Daniels. A bit Of eXtraya-
CANT foolery is supplied by Edward
Morris, who is recalled as the poSSessor
of the thickeSt Irish brogue known to
the American stage.
Spectacle Of the BLACK Crook" model
is not so often witnessed nowadays that
it becomes tiresome. A gaudy show
that has most of the features of thirty
wears agois 1.-THE Twelve Temptations,
which has this week been placed on the
Third Avenue stage, and, TO the amaze
ment of those who watch East Side the
atricals, has made something very like
hit. At the Windsor a few months
ago it was equally well mounted, but 1t
seemed less agreeable to the Bowery
taste than realistic melodrama or variety
farce: yet at the Third Avenue it has
aroused much applause. Its scenes are
well painted. though they are somewhat
dulled by travel; its mechanical effects
are very good, and its vaudeville inter
polations are of high class. Mai Estelle,
shapely woman and fair actress, Is
the dashing Hubert in the story, and
the chief come dian is E. j. Connolly.
The Burglar" Gus ThomaS's best
work. has been revived at the Peoples,
and since Monday it has attracted APP
probation if not crowded houses. Ger
tie Homan, a bright child Of the Elsie
Leslie school, is the precOciouS Editha,
who discovers her papa in the midnight
marauder, and Al. ;. Lipman, young
actor very well liked here, is the bur
glar. Hattie Schell, who left the stage
to marry and has come back to it salts
fed that matrimony is failure, is in
the east as leading lady.