Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-11-05

IA dramatic critic is frequently unjust,
either to a play or to the public, by
reason of unconscious prejudice for or
against the management of, or some
thing connected with, performance.
In such case specific injury Is done to
the business enterprise. When, how
ever, the critics admiration for the exc
sploiters of a play or the performers
who appear therein leads him uncon-
sciouslv into erring on the side Of lem
fency, he is guilty of unfairness toward
the public, and yet in either case he
may have been imbued with a desire to
be absolutely just On the other hand,
when he admires the management,
most of the actors, the author and
everything connected with the presen-
tation and is then unable to find much
to commend in it, you may rest assur-
ed that the play involved Is not hit.
That is precisely my situation with
reference to the Zangwill play, Chill
dren of the Ghetto" which is the cur
rent attraction at the Herald Square
Theater in this city.
Mr.. Zangwill, the author Of the play,
is one of the best living writers of Eng
fish, and the book which he dramatized
is a magnificent piece of character
sketching Mr.. James A. Herne, who
staged the production and who is said
to have made many minor alterations
tending to the enhancement of the
value of the work, is an artist to his
finger tips, and in his especial line has
no superior .Messrs. Liebler & Co., the
proprietors of children of the Ghetto"
are among the pluckiest and most wor-
thy Of the theatrical managers Of the
United States, while Mr.. Wilton Lack
eye, Miss Blanche Bates, and nearly al
of the others composing the cast OF
"Chi1dren of the Ghetto" are excellent
performers who have evidently done
their best to make the production a
success. That it is not SO is due solely
to the shortcomings of the play, which,
st seems to me, stands no possible
chance of becoming a permanently
profitable attraction.
Mr.. Zangwill in his dramatization has
made, perhaps, a not unnatural mis-
take. The enormous success Of the
novel doubtless impressed him unduly
with the value of detail in character
dzation, which in the play he has car
yied to such an extreme that, no mat
ter how friendly the auditor. its tedi-
BUSINESS after short time becomes |
manifest Tt is easy to say Of play
that it is episode: most plays are faulty |
in this respect: but I have never seen
a more g1aring illustration of this short
coming than in the children of the !
Ghetto" Three characters only are abb |
solute1v necessary to the plav; they |
are Reb Shemuel, David Brandon and |
Hannah the daughter of Reb Shemuel. |
: The others are merely necessary to sup
pN the atmosphere. and of this atmos-
Dhere there is entirely too much. 1t |
Is oppressive toward the last, so thick |
iy is it laid on. Comparisons are odious |
but nevertheless Inevitable in this case,
where two PLAYS Of a peculiar type and
with remarkably similar titles are rival !
attractions
"The Ghetto" which has just closed |!
its career at the Broadway Theater, |
was not by any means an ideal play. |
1t, too, was episode to an unpleasant |
degree, but, viewed from the stand
point OF dramatic production, Children |
of the Ghetto" is not play at all: it is |
merely a series of character sketches |
with a thin thread of story which ap
pears and reappears at intervals.
One point in favor of Children of |
the Ghetto" over "The Ghetto is that
the latter makes the character of near
1y all the Jews involved (and all are
Jews but one) absolutely despicable, |
whereas in the former the worst that |
ran be said is that many alleged traits |
of the race which are regarded as I'M
worthy are made to do service in the I
direction Of producing comedy effects; |
In fact, there is great deal of distor- |
ton in that many of the semihumorous |
characters might just as we'll be Mo
hammedans or Christians as Jews
Children of the Ghetto" with its |
Dverelaboration of the peculiar Gus
toms OF a very small section of the Jews |
OF London is probably expected by the |
management to appeal on that account I
to the Jews at large, but, as one of |
them, can say that it absolutely fails /
of its purpose, and Icannot for the life
of me see in what respect the play will |
interest a Christian.
The inadequacy of the motive pro-
ducing the complication out Of which
grows the story is unnecessary to dis
cuss. Tie same inadequacy occurs in |
the novel, but on the printed page there
was the opportunity to compensate for
chat lack Of character drawing and the
employment of the thousand and one
devices with which the story writer is
bamiliar and which seldom fail. when |
handled skillfully, as they are by Mr..
Eangwill, to interest the reader. But |
on the stage these things are impossi-
BILE, and the consequence is that the
play which he has given us is vague, in
determinate, unsatisfactory and abso-
1utely impossible of classification
With regard to the claim that it is
unconventional, it is only necessary to |
say that such an epithet is a mistake
unless we admit that series of cpl
sodes, not even well strung together,
|