The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-15
D'raInDati(aIDdIILyIr /


/ Grand for matinee and evening per-
Torrance on Saturday next. The coun-
/ try press has had considerable to say
/ by way of praise regarding this pro-
duction, and it will be given here I'M
| der the direction of the author. who
will assume one of the leading parts.
The principal lady will be Miss Nellie
Bowring. and Mr.. Cosgrove and James
Ellis viii also be in the cast
1t is a very pleasant thing to notice
nowadays how the American attrac-
tons playing in London are storming
the capital of the world. Following
close upon THE Heart of Maryland"
and the Belle of New York." both of
which are immense successes, William
Gilbert took over his own company and
rendered Too Much Johnson" This is
the way one of the leading critics of
London, Carados, in.the Referee, speaks
of the performance:
1T is not only in details of stage
management of this sort that Mr..
Charles Frohman is supreme. The
company he has brought over from
New York to play Too Much Johnson
may be taken as another illustration
of the American go-ahead style of act
ing, which is so much more effective
than the slow-coach style which now
obtains at our theatres. There is
briskness about the performance of this
American company which we do not
get when every actors concern is to
make his own points instead of to con-
tribute to the general effect. Result:
a company of our best actors cannot
make as much out of a good play as
this American company of no extra
ordinary talents gets out of an ordi-
nary farce like Too Much Johnson OF
the company, for the most part, it is
enough to say that if they do not fall
below the standard of good acting in
farce, they do not rise above it. They
have no chance of doing so.t Although
l should not like to say that there is
too much Johnson-for you cannot
have too much of a good thing-yet
there is not much of anybody else. The
real Johnson. is played with great spirit
and abundant hUmor by Mr.. Joseph
Brennan, whose rolling eyes and fierce
black moustaches give the ferocious
planter in jack boots the appearance of
an ogre. See him leering at the lady
he mistakes for his intended bride. Mr..
Gillett plays Billings, the ready liar,
and he acts in farce with exactly the
same assurance, Sauvity and perfect
calm as he acted in Secret Service Its
may be that Mr.. Gillett is capable of
something more emotional. 1t is pos
sible to grow tired of his natural. man
ner. Natural it is; so natural that it
udIQlS dCllIS d. dill Dis NIL NlllSll
let US see, for there was no difference
whatever between the appearance, de-
pertinent and delivery of the actor, and
the appearance, department and deliv-
cry of the author when he appeared at
the end of the performance to make a
harmless, unnecessary speech Why, he
might have still been playing Billings,
for the imperturbable Gillett was not in
the least disconnected when the scene
GbiffpsT. his remarks short nv LETTING
Gown the curtain, dropping a hint, as it
were. Certainly Mr.. Gillett has cult
waited to perfection the art of using a
cigar as a medium of expression, and
when he is putting at it or chewing the
end or-in moments of great excite
ment-throwing it away, he is excellent
and excellent, too, his cigar. He con-
trived on Monday night to bring the
smell of very fine tobacco over the
footHghts, not merely in the figurative
sense in which Mr.. Pinero once brought
the scent of the hay into the theatre"
@ g g
We say fervent amen to the fol-
lowing, from-G st. Louis paper:
Isn't it about time the Hoppers
hoped OF the perch of public noto-
riety? Surely the lanky comedian and
his little lady have. held the center of
the stage" long enough. We had their
quarrels between themselves and their
queer antics over salaries and hotel
bills and some other strange things
while they were playing in the same
company. Then she began to quit this
company, and continued this quitting
at every place they played half across
the continent. Then he took his inning,
and did things that no well regulated
theatrical husband ought to do, rang
ing all the way from stopping her sal
airy to interfering with little after-the-
play suppers to which he wasn't in
vited. Then she began to get divorces
or to apply for them. He followed
closely by getting tangled up in print
with some other-various other-stage
ladies. She began to marry Tod Sloan.
He quarreled with his manager. Thus
they seesawed. and the press agent
piled his calling with vigor. If they
do not quit and quiet down, decent pa
pers ought to bar their names, except
in the police column.