Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-04

BIJoU THEATER. The Little Tycooi
DUQUESNE THEATER. Primrose & Yves
GRAND OrERA HoUSE............ Frederick Ward
HARRY WILLIAMS. ..............k .kernell's Compan!
WORLDS MUsEUM-THEATER. ...... .Curiosities Ell
DAVIS MUSEUM-TnEATER.. .Curiosities et
The above are the theatrical attraction:
for this week.
When you roundup American comic
operas among the first, if popularity is tke
test, comes Willard Sponsors "The Little
Tycoon" Seasons come and seasons go, sc
do many comic operas, but "The Little Ty
coon" goes on forever. The critics are not
prone to admit the strength of Mr.. Spenser's
music, 1ibretto or plot, but there must be
motive power in them or the piece would
have died long ago. The public generally
have approved it, so long Us "The Little
Tycoon" has been presented by competent
principals and an adequate supporting com
pany. At the Bijou Theatre an elaborate
and thoroughly enjoyable revival is prom
ised, with 4 strong cast andnew scenery and
costumes, this week. r. f. Graham will be
seen in his original part of General Knicker.
booker. Among the other members of the
company are Joseph Mealey, Robert Dun.
bar, J. h. Adams, Alice Hosmer and Mamie
Cerbi.
In the repertoire of comic opera there are
three works that have achieved remarkable
success in America: One is "The Little Ty.
third is "Erminie."
Mr.. Willard Spencer's opera this sea-
son is running with as much vigor as
when it started on its gay career. 1t has
been sung over the country season after
season with great success. Some few aD-
parently knowing ones who would belittle
anything American have sneered at 1.-THE
Little Tycoon" but so far this season, as in
years gone by, the piece has played to
crowded houses everywhere.
"The Merchant" is q real and valuable ad-
dition to the limited number of good Ameri-
can plays. Its author, Miss Martha Morton,
bids fair to be the first woman in this coun-
try to achieve fame as playwright. 1.-THE
Merchant" belongs to the growing category
of American dramas in which contemporary
life on this continent is depicted. The
phase of American life chosen by Miss
Morton is the somewhat familiar one which
has its motives and ends in Wall street. The
moral of the play is that candle lit at both
ends is bound to burn quickly, or that the
merchant who speculsteS recklessly will
surely come to grief. M1. TdnderstyIe, dry
goods merchant, attempts to keep up
a grand establishment on the Hud-
SON. SON. by going beyond yoGT the safe
risky waters of Wall street. At the same
time he CANDLES at cards, and probably dis
sipates in other ways, too. This results in
financial ruin, pretty nearly breaks his
best male friend. The plot isnot particularly
strong in a technical sense: the life pictured
in the play is not extraordinary. 1t is SIM
ply q transcript of life as it is revealed to
most of us; and the pathos and humor in it
are mixed as in this vale of tears
and laughter, There is not an incident in
"The Merchant" that is impossible: and the
few improbabilities are only noticeable be-
ha ha hoS
trimmed the edges, as it were. "The Mer-
chant" therefore may be set down as q real
istic drama, in the best sense; but its merits
arel more to be found in the char
The merchant, somewhat weak
but representative New Yorker, the old pro-
fessor. a fine and superbly human creation,
and the gentle and good but high spirited
wife of the merchant, are the three chief
characters, but the smaller ones of the
young Texan girl and the old English butler
and the rich old maid who succumbs to the
professor, though familiar types in Ameri-
Ssn By MISS ia Morto1. 1 G Tne plaT, manags5 Wis5
very slight alterations, might be
the character of Professor Higgins as N:
VdnderStyle, and perhaps the audience would
follow the fortunes OF the benevolent old
scholar more sympathetically than it now
Wall street lamb. The principal charm Of
the play is certainly the quiet comedy
of the scenes in which Professor Higgins
figures Doubtless the excellent acting of Mr..
Frank B. Hatch is partially accountable for
this. Tile unctuous humor of his gIeeful an
t1cipation of his love-suit's happy ending in
the last act could hot be excelled. 1t is
his points Quietly, as ali the best best
comedians do: and that he plays the part
intensely, never letting his attention
flag all through. So many comedians
relax and drop out of character when they
are not in the center of the stage. For
quiet thoroughness and delicate, womanly
shading Miss Mazda Craigen's embodiment
Of the noble wife was another triumph of
lrt in repose.
If were asked to say what I liked best
about "The Merchant" should answer, its
luietness- 1t is not so much that there is a
iction in the play, as that the action is
managed as it occurs in real life without
riot of sound and gesture. Mr.. Howells,
who has some very queer ideas about the
lrama and histrionics, at least enunciated q |
ruth in Hd7per'S Magazine last month when |
he praised Mr.. Mansfield's performance of
Beau Brummel'-because sit teaches in |
terms that the strongest emo
lions may be expressed without the least |
loisc: and that tine lover of the drama NAV |
De made to understand the purport of play |
Without being hit on the head"
There are faults in the construction of |
The Merchant" The second act is peril |
,usly long, and the closing half of it would |
,e much stronger if it ended with Tu,,der- |
tyle'S REIMBURSEMENT of the idea of suicide |
lis wife. That is the natural and |
lramatic end of the act Vdnderstlle should |
i've his pistol to the Professor as the curtain |
lowly descends. The discovery of Vu,,der-
tyle'S abstraction OF the diamonds from his
yife's necklace is too powerful an episode |
o be omitted. but it might be moved back
o antedate Vdrderstyle's attempt Mt suicide,
which xould then have better cause any
a n1a6
he last act is superfuous, and only hinders
he course of the play. No satisfactory ex-
mination of bankrupt'S books could be
made in those few moments, and the attemnt |
O represent that it is made DESTROYS the il
usion OF the stage. There are other places
IL which the play could be condensed with
dvantage, and the strictly conventional
tag" of the play is not artistic, as much in
he play is. But the dialogue as n whole is
bright and natural; the wit bub-
ling up with all the appearance of spontanc-
crved all the attention it received in Pitts
it played to large audiences-and
aore.
trelsy have passed, the public still have
king for what Mr.. Lawrence Hutton i'm his
Curiosities of the American Stage" says lis
he only branch RAJ, i. OF the dramatic art, if
yhich has had its origin in this country
,hile the melody it has inspired is Certainly
ur only approach to national i
lusic." Among the remnants of
probably Primrose and
vest's company is the best.
his week they come to the Duquesne The
ter, and they make big promises of novel
les in comedy, song and dances. The strfy-
lg after novelty will be illustrated in the
Gene of the first part in which the stage
ill be boxed with vine-covered walls. in
he introduction of incandescent electric
ghts i'll the Hussars' march: in Drummond
nd Stanley production OF music from hols Sc
hoes, anV1ls and wagon wheels: in |
he quick change of scene from
blacksmith shop to a drawing room: IN the
larch OF the Red Hussars, supervised by
tiled Trouble in Blackvflle," by Messrs.