Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-10-03

English woman Is said 10 receive salary Of
$500 week from Mr.. Charles Frohman,
while the common herd, who DO the same
act very nearly rs well. consider them
selves in luck when they can count on re
ceiving hebdomHdal stipend ot forty or
hfty dollars
l am not like the juror who called his
eleven companions fools because they
failed to agree with him, and although l
am free to confess that Loitie Collins was
distinct disappointment 10 me when |
saw her et the Standard theater. New
York, few nights since, realized that
there must have been something more
than the commonplace about her dance,
or il would never have created such
furorc IN London. watched closely for an
explanation or the extraordinary popular
b. OF this extraordinary artists" extracr-
binary dance.
And have discovered it.
Miss Collins has made hit for no other
reason than that she strives by contrast
and by every other means possible TO ere
ate the impression that she is simply bub-
bling over with animal spirits. She swag
gers, she wriggles. she sways back and
forth, she shrugs her shoulders, she whips
her hair on the floor, she whoops, she
shakes her head, her shoulders, her arms,
her hands, her body and her feet. While
she sings the chorus she is the personiica-
ton OF resistless Motions creature who
is unable to longer control the pentup an
imal spirits which she has contrivcd 10
keep in check while she spoke the sense
less words of the various stanzas.
Were Miss Collins "Ta-ra-r a Boom de-
ay" introduced into play as the doings
Of young woman who had just returned
from a late dinner, where she had imbibed
too freely Of champagne. should unhesi-
tatingly pronounce 1t an artistic piece Of
acting. But rs for singing or dancing,
or even kicking, Miss Collins act is be-
meath criticism.
II any one takes pleasure in seeing the
antics Of harebrained schoolgirl, two
thirds intoxicated, depicted on the stage,
he will enjoy Miss Collins attempt to de-
lineate such q character, for she does it TO
the life. That Is all she does, and the COM
ments Of the New York papers on her
work are therefore absolutely incompre-
hensible TO me.
Pauline Hall and her opera company
opened at the Fifth Avenue theater recent
ly in new comic opera-''Puritania. The
hbretto was written by G. NJ. s. McLel-
Ian, a bright newspaper man, and the
music was composed by Edgar Stillman
Kelley. Both these gentleman have done
well in "Puritania.
1t seems nowadays to be the fad among
the critics to say Of libretto, If 1t be
bright and sparkling. that it attempts TO
be Gilbertian." II the score includes some
swinging numbers which give promise Of
general popularity, the music is declared
TO be reminiscent" If the two words,
reminiscent" and "Gilbertian," were to
be eliminated from the vocabulary of the
average newspaper critic of modern comic
opera, the notices of new productions in
that line would occupy very much less
space than at present.
Mr.. Mcclellan has made Salem witch
craft the moving theme Of his book. This
would not ordinarily be considered par
ticularly promising subject for a fin de
steele comic opera, and / was genuinely
surprised to find that "Puritania" CO.
tains as many queer conceits and bright.
original speeches as any opera that Cir
bert ever wrote. Another point in ''Puri-