The times., 1898-10-16
THE PASSING SHOW.


without damage either to cast or au
dience last Monday night at the Column
bia. when Burr Mcintosh made his stel- |
lar debut in Lottie Blair Parkers War |
Correspondent" The result was all that |
one might have expected, and perhaps
little more, though the presentation could
hardly be said to have been an over
-whelnIing success. Even though there
seems to be of late disposition among
audiences of this city to take as a mon
ster hff any first-time production that
goes with a sembIance of smoothness,
one cannot gainsay the fact that, while
to real success some degree of greatness
Is necessary. Mr.. Mcintosh is not a great
actor nor his present vehicle great play.
Hence the most charitable could hardly
have found all they desired in the much
vaunted offering of the late yellow whis
kered hero of .'Triiby."
In the first place. excepting thatNe is
a royal good fellow and performed gal
LIANT service in Cuba. there was never
any reason why Mr.. Mcintosh should
have taken to himself stellar honors. To
be sure. this Is an age when worthy peo-
pie are so few and far between that they
deserve laudation when discovered, and
equally certain is IL that nearly everyone
takes out his own organization nova
days as soon as he becomes able to lend
efficient aid in support of better players.
No great harm is ever done by this lat
ter method of procedure, for the simple
reason that when the adventurer has suf-
fered sufficiently from stasnant finances
and discOuraging recepti--s he returns
TO the fold of the ''in-the-cast-are's
and assists the management to advertise
an ''all-star company" But Mr.. McIn-
tosh Is really too clever and scholarly
a man for this sort of meteor fate. and
therefore. IL is TO be sincerely regretted
that the bee Of ambition should have
stung him at 90 inopportune q moment
of course. the late correspondent of
Leslie's has done some excellent work in
his lifetime and bids fair TO continue IT,
He has the inestimable advantage of
peryading personality. careful training
and dominating intellect. but despite
these things. he is still comparatively
stranger to the public. Beyond the pro-
fession itself and the clans that surround
it there will be found very few who
know OF anything the actor has ever es-
sayed outside of Taffy and possibly Jack
Rose in AT Piney Ridge" And while
both these Characterization were wholly
pleasing. they could hardly have been
enough for a class of theatergoers that
demands every particular of mans life
and works before admitting him into
their hearts. A matter of fraternal popu-
iarity often misleads an artist whose
world has always been within his craft
and 1t is not at all unlikely that -.r. Nc
lntosh has fallen victim 10 a pardonable
egotlsm that seems also to have captured
Jefferson de Angels. James X. Hackett
and Alice Nielsen, who. despite her posi-
tive genius. is so little known outside of
New York that her success appears to be
| almost an impossibility
The new headliner is brilliant fellow.
and, to some extent. a good actor, but he
mas not yet the tranScendent ability that
alone should give a performer the right
to Dick the type in which his name is
| to be printed on the bills Even in the
cast with which he was seen here there
were many who, with equal opportunity
| would show to equal advantage with
him. and the result will be that either
I a mediocre support must be selected or
! the star must cease to be ANYTHING
| more than an indistinct part of his own
| organization. Had the player chosen as
| the period for his venture the season
| directly following that in which his sue
cess in Trilby' was made. he might
| have found behind him a wall of friends
| sufficiently strong to hold until he had
/ constructed a firmer one through what
| he might have done in his new effort
| but at present he lacks every necessity
! for that which he must desire-distinc,
| i've capacity. recognized reputation and
| clientele sufficiently numerous to tide
him over until the attainment of future
| achievements.
Nor has Mr.. Mcintosh been altogether
fortunate in his selection of vehicle
Excepting for its remarkable second act
! there is little to claim interest or adni
! ration in "a War Correspondent L
comes at a time when the public /!
fairly surfeited with the late struggl,
and all pertaining to it-at a time whcI
everything from opera to variety anC
from farce to melodrama abounds il
reminders of the defeat of Spain anc
the triumph of Uncle Samuel. And
while Mrs. Parker claims to have writ
ten her piece before trouble began an,
to have constructed 1t so that the wa
might be amputated without injury O
any sort, the fact remains that the pre-
sentation abounds in cheap tricks 70
applause and cheaper references to tn
combat and its heroes. Without thi
and the second act aforementioned III
production would be not only an ordi
nary melodrama but one that coul
have. appealed to no single portion O
the houses in which 1t appeared.
AS 1t is, there is a story of sufficien
heart interest to make the piece toler
able and the manner in which it is don
prevents it being classified with "Th
Last Stroke and kindred offerings whic
it resembles Audiences do sympathiz
with the two couples involved an,
|, are even occasionally moved b,
the events which come in their way
But beyond the fact that the offerin
is smoothly and evenly written there i
! nothing further to commend 1t. TIL
only stirring scenes occur in the Secon
, act, while the others drag through thei
brief career without novely or inciden
of any kind. There is a woeful lack @
material throughout and none of tina
which the author possessed was unusua
in any way. "A War Correspondent
not bad play any more than it is
good one. 1t is simply neutrally med
ocre-a presentation with few possibil
ties-too quietly done for the popula
priced houses and too normal for til
high -classed ones-an effort that mus
} find its place somewhere in the hord
) of partial successes existing between tn
lines of Held by the Enemy an
: "Cuba's Vow"
And so Mr.. Mcintosh, a good acto
and a better fellow, will be the onl
real loser by an unfortunate ventur
which had better have been deterre
until the step could have been take
; with some guarantee of financial or al
tistic success.
/ But one did not realize how muc
more enjoyable was "A War Core:
2 pondent' than 1t might have been unit
5 he Joined the select few-very select an
very few-who went to the Lafayett
I last week to see 1.-The Cuckoo" In tn
l city of all others. where criticisms hav