The times., 1898-04-26

han. Messrs. Charles Mason. c. W Par
sons, P. d. RyIey. NJ. L. Heckert. Ritchie
Hawkins and Eugene Jelis are not up to
a general standard. The ladies are uni
formly inferior the prettiest and the
daintest of them Miss Katherine Null
kins doing the smallest part in a man
ner belittling her more fortunate rivals.
The others are the Misses Louise Allen,
Violet Rand, and Caroline Elberts A
very fair investure of unique and appro-
pirate scenery adds greatly to the attrac-
tiveness of the production.
Grnnd-"Cuba's VOW"
"Cubas Vow was seen at the Grand
Opera House last night by an audience
that filed the theater and was very en-
thusiastic over all it's good points Most
of these had to do with the Cuban or
American flags. The play has been brought
quite up to date. and one of its features
is a representation of the Maine disaster,
to which illusions are also made in the
dialogue. Some of the actors are good,
and some are not very good; most of the
scenery is very fine, and the supers are
about as bad as they can be. To use
the same set of men with hardly any
blue Jackets and Cuban guerrillas under
Maceo is rather trying to the creduhty
of the spectator The real Maceo was
also considerably darker than his prOto
type in the play, and probably talked
good deal less. for if he had stopped to
say half the things which Mr. Blondell
was obliged. by the eXigencies of his
part, to say last night, Cuba would not
have been anywhere near free now. The
6 Z, oh,
acters in the piece. Altogether it is too
"talky.'' ''Cuba's Vow is more like the
old-fashioned dramas of "Rolla." "Piz-
AFRO and 'Metamora" than anything
that has been seen here for some time.
Real young women do not, it is TO be
supposed, use the expressions Thrice
blessed sight,'' twice within five minutes
and other language to correspond, and
only the good though rather meiodra-
matte acting of Miss Terese Deagle saved
the part of Cuba from comicality. The
extended dialogue also makes the drama
too long, and If most of ii were stricken
out so as to reduce the whole thing to a
series of stirring situations, with just
enough conversation to explain the action,
the play would be much better affair
than it is. There are two or three good
rough and tumble fights, which excite the
audience to wild delight, and there are
several good situations spoiled, however.
by too great elongation. The tableau of
victory crowning the Cubans adds moth
ing to the effect except that it fills up the
time required for the construction of the
last scene and affords opportunity for the
waving of some fans. The music fur
nished by the orchestra during the last
intermission consisted of all the patriotic
airs in our history. During the playing
of THE Star Spangled Banner the audi
ence rose to its feet and cheered. 1t was
Fourth of July in the gallery, in fact, for
fully fifteen minutes.
Academy-"UncIe Toms Cabin
Even the best of things soon fade into
mediocrity when connected with the the
atrical profession. and, perhaps, It is
small wonder that so poor a drama as
Uncle Toms Cabin" after years of pop
ularity. should have ceased to be a legiti-
mate production. There are still many
organizations presenting ii on the road
and most of them are doing good busi-
ness, but the number of these capable of
giving a good performance is very small
indeed. The age of the play makes it
only natural that when a manager can
afford TO gather an efficient company he
should put it to work on more promising
material than that afforded by even the
| best dramatzations of Harriet Beecher
stowe 5 master work. Harry Webber
troupe, which appeared last night at the
Academy. does not, in any way, prove an
exception TO the general rule, and, if not
much worse than the average Uncle
| Toms Cabin combination, is certainly
no better. While Clay NJ. Greene's YER
sion of the play is superior in dramatic
merit to most it has adhered too closely
to characters and incidents to be really
enjoyable. The old, bombastic style of
melo-drama creeps out at intervals, the
worthless clap-trap given the piece nOw-a-
days is almost always before the audience,
and feeble attempt al spectacularity does
not increase the worth of the perform
ance. Horse play and roughness are lead
ing features at an entertainment that
even charity does not permit one to
praise. A fair cast presented the drama.
John Ryan appearing as Uncle Tom; r.
| Fulton Russell as Legree, Harry Webber
as Marks, Eva French as Aunt Ophelia,
Alexander Vincent as Phineas Fletcher.
J. w. McWatterS as George Harris, Jen-
ME Kaye as Topsy and Wally Webber as
| Eva. MARITIME, a contortionist, and a
/ troupe of violent colored singers and
| dancers contribute the vaudeville portion
| of the show.