The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-09-04
DRAMATICAND LYRIC
"GIoriana" Opens the Season in
Handsome Style.
J. H. sToDDARD AND ALABAMA
4The Junior Partner "-Henley Keeley
Graduste-The Choral society-Latest
Amusement Notes

Business fell of little with "Gloriana'
last evening--but only little-and il the
engagement may be taken as an indication
of what the remainder of the season is tt
be, MIR. Burton will be thoroughly content
The matinee was mo go''-matinees never
are 60 any more except on holidays-and
the theater would do well to consider cut
ting them out of contracts altogether,
As before, Mr.. Henley, Mr.. Bond, Miss
Crossm2n and Miss Bond were the distinct
features OF "Gloriana," which, by the way,
is by no means as bright as it's people. Il
IS far and away behind s'Jane' as com.
edy, despite Mr.. Frohman's allegorical pic
lures depicting several race horses in
which one labeled "Glorianan is distanc-
ing another bearing the legend Of "Jane.''
That clever leuer de ridedu 'sThe MAJORS
appointment" is too gloomy to call for
much appreciation and it needs all the
brightness of ''Gloriana' to lift the
audience from the slough of despond into
which the curtain raiser plunges it. Mr..
Stevens clever acting and Miss Robin
sons sweet neturalness are the principal
charms Of the one act. But what singu-
larly bad actor the lesser one of those
treasury clerks is
E. ]. Henley. the prominent figure In
the ''Gloriana'' company, is an actor noted
as having created more roles and then left
them for imitators to copy than any other
actor IN New York. His wonderful versa
tility makes him greatly sought after by
managers and authors having a new play
TO produce, and If there is anything at all
In q character it Is certain that Henley
will bring it out. He ID one of the highest
sslaried men in the profession He was
Ned Royle's ideal for Jack, and was to
have played the part. but was mot avail
sbie'' ut the last moment. Mr.. Henley
only had one drawback in all his career,
and that he has overcome, as he frankly
says, by having graduated st the Kelley
institute at White Plains, N. Y. Almost
the first place he visited, on reaching Salt
Lake. was the Kelley institute here MIR.
Henley thinks highly of Mr.. Royle's play,
and says II is an undoubted good piece Of
financial property.
Augustus Thomas idyilic play of the
southland which SO charmed the Salt Lake
people upon the OCCASION of its production
NJ bhc tlcalcI ldsb summer returns 1Or q
short season tomorrow night and 1t will be
something strange in the theatrical expert
ence Of this community il it does not play
successful engagement. A delightful,
restful yet inspiring. pure comedy, rich in
poetic coloring, strongly human in charac-
ter. the more fascinating for being
markedly unconventional, Alabama - is
play quite in itself. new departure, one
altogether welcome and one in which MIR.
Thomas has pointed to sgeptic critics that
American life has its romance and Areri-
can scenes their picturesque beauty for
stage use. That we nave all the
necessary elements to the making of drama,
and that, too, without the sensation of in
trigue. without the bane of unholy passion,
without the startling devices of realism,
and without even the ordinary aid of situa-
tlon and climax. MIR. Thomas went among
the bayous, to an obscure, forgotten spot
OF earth, and peopled it with art, with
beauty, with humanity, with love. and il
CLOVIS warm and soulful to our sense of I'M
Outstanding, perfect and vivifying scene.
Mr.. Thomas writes like an optimist but his
optimism Is as brave and hearty and invig-
Grating as the cool. refreshing breeze blown
in from southern seas. "Alabaman is not
one Of the plays one is done with once seen:
II is more enjoyable the second or third.
than the first time OF seeing. 1t is like
some Of the poems we read and re-read.
though we know the lines by heart.