The record-union., 1894-04-21

says:
Jean Mounet-Sully is great! The
critics tell me so, and I am forced to be-
lieve it in tace of the fact that to my mind
he is the loudest ranter have ever heard.
Ii he is the best tragedian France can
produce, then France has no tragedians.
Life is altogether too short to give de-
tailed account of his Hamlet which was
presented at Abbey's Theater on Monday,
and which lasted from S:15 P. M. until
1910 A. NJ, but the version he used IS
nothing like anything we have ever seen
here. Mounet-Sully's Hamlet, from the
time he sees the Ghost to the last scene, IS
a maniac, and at times so violent that 1t is
8 wonder he was not put in straight
jacket. The actor had, however. an en-
thuslastic reception. and in the scenes
during which he was the maddest re-
ceived the most boisterous applause. SO
the public seemed to like him-and there
you are
1.-The Rival Candidates. new play by
Charles 7. Dazey, author of In Old Ken
tucky,' and /. s. Morris, was produced at
the Madison Square Theater on Monday
night, and was sufficiently successful to
warrant the belief that it Will make the
acquaintance of other cities. Rival Can
didates' is melodrama en- miniature,
and departure in one respect that IS OF
considerable local interest. The authors
forth's withdrawal of State funds from
the Madison Square Bank as their chief
motive. The villain of the play, who is
State Treasurer. attempts to crush his
rival in politics and love by Withdrawing
State deposits in a panic. The play IS IN
teresting in spite of structural defects,
talky dialogue and incongruous charac-
ters. Joseph Wheelock, as the hero, made
the hit of the night and seemed to be him
self again.
Margaret Fleming, Jas. A. Herne's
realistic play. which was first seen in
New York about three years ago, was put
on at the Fifth Avenue Theater on Mon
day evening, with Mrs. Katherine Herne
in the title part, supported by fairly
good company. To play-goers not OF the
most advanced type, the piece appears
rather dull, since, except in the third act,
there is little action, and the dialogue is
discursive and often not above common
place. The third act. however, with Its
extraordinary situation. carries the piece.
Here Margaret Fleming visits young
woman who has been her husbands mis-
tress, finds her dead in childbirth, and
notwithstanding she knows her husband
is the father OF the infant, when she finds
the poor little thing is perishing for lack
OF nutriment, gives it her own breast
Long threatened with loss OF sight, the
shock of the scene she has witnessed rem
affliction works so powerfully on her
husbands sympathies that his love Tor
her is reawakened and he returns to the
path of duty. Mrs. Herne's performance
is admirable in every respect. The best
work IN the company is done by Maud
Banks and +. f. Mackey.
1.-The Sleep Walker three-act farce
comedy by Z. II. Abbott, originally pro-
duced in London, and presented in sew
eral other cities this season, was given on
Monday evening In the Bijou Iheater by
Robert Hill and Paul Arthur, with the
assistance of a capable company. The
piece, which is dramatiZation OF W. 5.
Gilbert's well-known story, Wide
Awake is somewhat above the average
of English tarce-comedies, and some of
the situations are genuinely funny. 1t is
well acted and altogether furnishes cap
ital evenings entertainments"
Another correspondent, writing from
the same city, says: 1.-The presence in
this city of four very big successes, all
under single management and all run
ming harmOniously almost abreast of
each other and far ahead of all other at
fractions, is good fortune that no theat-
rical man has ever before experienced in
the metropolis or perhaps elsewhere.
They are big, important attractions, too.
The lucky man, who is reaping harvest
of money an0 prestige from the quartet
of successes, is Charles Frohman. His
fortunate possession Of so many profit
able properties is not an accident. Mr..
Erohman applies an excellent judgment
to the selection Of his plays and he very
seldom makes mistake. His career at
the Empire Theater has been a succession
OF triumphs, eliminating in the present
great success Sowing the Wind This,
with Liberty Hail. 'Gudgeons' and The
Councillors Wife will be in the roper
toire of the Charles Frohman Stock Com
pany when it visits the Pacific Slope. 1t
was in the latter comedy that Odette Ty-
Ter, now playing in The Girl | Left Be-
hind Me- at the Academy OF Music here,
and who is the fortune-favored young
lady whom Howard Gould. the young
millionaire wished to make his bride,
did some of her finest work.
Sowing the Wind has now been run
ming for nearly twenty weeks at the EN-
pire Theater, and from the beginning
even through the last weeks Of Lent 1t
drew audiences that filled the house
which it is now crowding to the doors
nightly. Apart from its beauty as play,
the powerful dramatic situations that it
offers, and the charming pictorial treat
ment which is given to it, there is just
now much new public interest in the
sex against SEX question which the dra-
matist has made his theme. The Pollard
Breckenridge scandal at Washington mas
shown how woman can be made to suffer
by an INSCRIPTIONS man, and it brings
forcibly to the front the double question
which Rosamund, sydney Grundy's
heroine, asks at one point in the play,
why should woman be virtuous? Is
vice mans monopoly?
"Mr Grundy's clean and admirable
handling of this theme has made it possi-
BILE for all fashionable New York to visit
the Empire and listen to the discussion,
and much sympathy has been manifest
at every performance for the pure and
innocent girl who is the heroine and
whose heart is made to bleed for the sin
of parent. There are hundreds of wet
eyes in the house during the sex against
SEX duel between RoSemund and DR..
Brabazon, who afterward turns out to be
her father Even men in the audience
have been seen to cry. The attendance
now at the Empire is larger than it ever
was. and if Mr. ErOhman withdrawS
sowing the Wind in the middle of May,
as he says he must to produce 'Gudgeons,'
ne will be taking it off in the very hight
of its success. But then he viii reopen
the Empire next season with IL.
John Drew and his new play, The
Butterflies is Manager Frohman's sec
ond current success. Both have received
the warmest fashionable Endorsement at
Palmer's Theater, where they have
drawn crowded houses for four months.
The persistent continued demand for
sThe Butterflies has made it impossible
for John Drew to repeat The Masked
Ball. which will be in his repertoire
when be visits California, or to do a new
play which Mr.. Frohman has ready for
him. Assisting Mr.. Drew is pretty Maud
Adams, whose dainty and exquisite act
ING adds a charm To the performance.
An excellent company supports the
comedian, who is very proud of the tri-
nmph which the American comedy in
which he is appearing has made.