The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-04
THE RIyALs RIFLED.

was that given at the Hyperion theater last evening. It was "The Rivals" pre- sented by company composed of well known farce comedy and burlesque act ors. It began a classic comedy and closed can-can. The majority of the audience came knowing what to ex- pect. It was not a large majority. There weren't probably fifty people out side os the dead heads in the house. The spectators were as much to blame as the players in destroying any sem blance of sincerity there might have been. Such riotous merriment both on and off the stage was little disturb ing to the peace-loving, self-respecting citizens. Most of such people gathered
 together their shocked sensihilities and made For home. The rest were Bo- hemian crowd and enjoyed the fun.
 The piece opened rather calmly and trife stupidly, and you had an un- fortable feeling that perhaps you had wronged the actors and they were not burlesquers, but sober, well intentioned people whose abilities were greater than you had given them credit for. Miss Marie Dressler, plump and acro- batic young woman with a decided tall ent for clowning, was reciting Mrs. Malaprop's lines with considerable vii vacity and appreciation. Lucy is sell dom made more than a soubrette part, and Mollie Fuller was buxom and CO.,
 quettish. The trouble began in the sec ond scene in Captain Absolute's apart
 ments MT. Fred Hallen of "Hallen
 and Hart fame, made his initial ap-
 pearance as the lugubrious Falkland.
 Mr. Hallen was in excellent spirits and
 surprised and pleased to see Digby
 Bell and other confrereS in front. Con-
 quently he reversed the situation and
 made Falkland the personification of
 jollity and the house began to laugh
 and Willie Collier began to "Hoss"
 worse than he did in the original part
 From this on there was no restraining
 anybody. Every one made allusions to
 matters most irrelevant to the occasion,
 to say the least, and the climax came with the appearance of Black Sheep"
 Harlan as David. He was irresistibly funny and kept everybody roaring on both sides of the footlights. It was a funny crowd, anyway. To begin with Willie Collier as Bob Acres looked like a cross between Ellen Terry and Joe
 Jefferson (Terry's eyebrows and Jeffer- sons wig); John c. Rice's osculating
 countenace is to be seen in most az gravating connection with May Irwin through the Vitascope at the Grand every night this week. George Monroe as Sir Anthony looked precisely like the venerable old idiot who serves to advertise Quaker Oats. Miss Ada Lewis will always be the tough girl from
 Harrigan's until she gets a new voice.
 After awhile she gave up trying to be
 dignified and tackled on her well known
 "See?" to Sheridan's sparkling lines. The epilogue as given last evening was a monument of imbecility. Dressler
 gave way to her natural propensities
 and spoke her lines in a reckless, in- toXicated old way, and batted her pie ture hat from one side to the other,
 after the manner of the Lady Slavey" Otis Harlan capped the climax by a
 verse Of Just Tell Them That You've Seen Us" To great applause the cur tain arose and the audience had a view of the entire company engaged in a hilarious can-can, all unwigged and generally dishevelled It is not im-
 probable that the performance would have been very different before a larger and representative house. The present l organization gave their first perform
 ance last Thursday afternon at the l Herald Square theater for benefit. It took so we'll that they proceeded to Boston and played to a big house. | Then they came here, and the result was as above chronicled. It was un- doubtedly unparalleled, and perhaps | ought to remain so.