The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-11

Three nights and a matinee seemed
TO be quite enough for ''Charley's Aunt
the way it was presented here. We
have been assured by Frohman's
agents that the cast as here given is
one of the best Of the half dozen COM
panies playing the piece, that the Bah
was the original London Bah, imported
specially for this tour, and that the
ladies are among the leading light
condolences of the American stage. All
of this may be true but the perform
ance was no great shakes They had
apparently become stereotyped in their
roles through frequent playing with
out change, and there was no magnet
ism in any Of it. People laugh over
''Charley's Aunt just as some people
do at being tickled on the ribs. They
rather dislike it, it annoys them, but
they laugh uproariously. That is no
sign that they are having a. good time,
and if you ask them afterwards wheth-
er they enjoyed themselves. they will
say mo; but I thought L would just
die a-laUghing.''
Ezra KendalTa new play, "The Sub
stitute," is a comedy-drama with a plot
that should satisfy the most exacting,
but with enough of comedy to keep the
interest from tagging. AS its name in
dicateS 1t is a story growing out of an
incident of the civil war, a friend and
neighbor becoming the substitute
for the young husband and father who
is drafted, and whose death before the
substitutes return home results in
making him not only a substitute for
the war but also thereafter for life by
his marrying the young widow and
thereby becoming a substitute father
TO the child. The facts upon which the
story is founded invest it with an add
ed interest, some of the incidents of
which furnish the comedian an oppor-
tunity for the display of a higher char
acter of work than he has heretofore
done, but also suggest situations and
production at the theater, next Friday
and Saturday evenings worthy of at
ton.
The Seattle Post-Times, of October %
says: He caught on in great shape
last night at the Seattle theater with
The Substitute His catchy songs and
laughable parodies were encored again
and again. He actually gave us a new
one on Marguerite and on La Polo
ma He is an oddity, in that he en-
joys what he himself creates as much
as does the audience, and his good hu-
NOR and fun are infectious. The play
was evidently built for him to enable
him to display his talents and the au-
thor succeeded admirably It is a
farce comedy, full of fun that is clean
and wholesome and enjoyable. The sit
uations are, many Of them, very hu-
morous, and the whole play goes with
q vim and rush truly refreshing.
Mr.. and Mrs. kendall, who will play
In Salt Lake for three nights, begin
ming Thursday. Nov. %. have a con-
spicuous rank in the dramatic profes-
sion in London For more than ten
: years they have played almost contin-
uouslv Cuntil their American tours) in
the st. James and Court theatres, two
Of the ultra fashionable places of
amusement in that city, but long before
that Mrs. Kendall, then Madge Robert
son, delighted theatre-goers. She is es-
sentially a child of the stage, for her
father, her grandfather and her grest
grandfather were actors, and her bro
Their, 20 years older than she, was a
famous dramatist, the author Of
ours caste" and other we'll known
plays.
Early in life Madge Robertson start
ed in the race for fame in the Bristol
theatre. and subsequently she gained
that experience in the English provin-
ces. There. in the lighter roles at the
Haymarket and Gaiety theatres, he1