Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-10

MUSIC

NV
Comedy held full sway at all the thea
| tiers this week. There was not an eX-
Ception. unless it was How Smith Met
JONES' and in that case the mirthful IN
! tention was manifestly honorable, even
| though the realizations We're scant.
The play in which John Drew appeared
was an attainment of the ideal. THE Ty-
ranny of Tears will be remembered. with
Lord and Lady Algy.' While it lacked
the color and dash of that piece, it had
! more genuine quality. The author divided
honors evenly with one of the smallest yet
one of the strongest companies that has
been brought together in long time. The
class of work that Mr. Drew has been do
ing well is calculated to make his ex-
istence one of ease. His agreeable person
ality has been all sufficient in providing en-
tertainment. He is without a peer in the
presentation of those literary tribes, which.
like gems, are to be discovered only after
much search and cannot be manufactured
to order.
Willie Collier, whose farce. Mr.. Smooth
proved a good, reliable fun-making affair, is
rapidly approaching a point where it will
be proper to announce that Mr.. Thus-and-so
presents" Mr.. William Collier, with the
accent on the William. If he keeps on at
seasons of Willie" for him. He is a re-
sourceful gentleman, who in the absence
OF other material. made his present play
for himself. He has ambitions of thor
oughly dignified sort, a play from the pen
of Augustus Thomas for next season being
one of them. But even if he finds himself
put to it to write another play it can he
depended upon to provide practical enter
tainment. Mr.. Smooth" has the album
dance of action characteristic of the actor
made play.
The Academy had a good cheer-raising
melodrama in THE Gunner's Mate" and
gave full quota of thrills in exchange for
the liberal attentions at the box office.
The New Grand, usual Jared hand
somely as a result of a monopoly of very
useful and interesting field of amusement
In this city and covered its usual wide
range of contrast.
The variety theaters were in high feather
with entertainments which We're chiefly re-
markable for their extreme unprudishnc So
There is great deal of curiosity as to what
the limit is and when 1t will be reached.
There will be an abrupt change of key
along the line on Monday. The National
goes from literary comedy to negro min
strelsy; the Lafayette from farce to STAN
dard melodrama: the Columbia from farce
TO the legitimate. and the Academy from
meiodrama to farce comedy with special
ties.
This week has been a notable one in the
New York theaters. An unusual number of
new plays were done. and it is probable
that some of them will prove sufficiently
meritorious to be sent on tour. On Mon
day night THE Ambassador" by Mrs.
Craige, was produced at Days Theater
with Mary Mannering, Hilda Spong. Jack
Mason, Bessie Tyree and Edward Morgan
IN the cast 1t is society comedy, which
assumes to deal with legation characters.
When We Were Twenty-one' was pro-
duced at Wallacks Theater on Monday
night. 1t is by Henry V. Esmond. the En-
glish actor and playwright, who. after three
successive failures in THE Courtship of
Leonie," "One Summers Day" and My
Lady's Lord" has landed what appears to
be a solid, artistic success in this latest
production. 1t was played by Nat Good
win and Maxine Elliot. 1t is told that
when Mr.. Esmond sailed away from Amer
lea, very much downcast by his disap-
pointments. the only cheering word that
reached him was note from Maxine Ell
liot, as follows: Never mind. Just wait
until Nat produces your When We Were
what sort of a playwright you are"
A third Monday night production was
"Coralie & Co." by all accounts a conven-
tional European adaptation. E. NJ. Hol-
land, Maggie Holloway Fisher and Fritz
Williams were in the company.
On Tuesday night The Countess Chit
fon.' which W. A. Brady presented in or
der to star his wife, Grace George, was
of modern play fame was in the cast. The
play was taken off before the end of the
week. Mile Fiji" will be brought from
Indiana to replace it at the Fifth Avenue
Theater. Grace George will resume her
original role Of Florence de Puissac.
The chief event of the week was the per-
formance of "Sapho," which opened its
season at Wallack's Theater on Monday
night. 1t appears to be the policy of the
70 I'D, .
immoral production. This procedure seems
little incongruous in view of Clyde Fitch's
prestige as a gentlemanly play writer and
Miss Nethersole's admitted artistic emf
nence. Some of the comments were more
coarse than anything in the performance
Itself. open as the play is to objections
on moral grounds, it is unfair to classify
1t even by inference with the cheap French
farce. 1t has solid, artistic basis in Dau-
diets celebrated novel, which, however
1imsy and corrupt the superstructure may
be, 1nsures 1t certain amount OF intel
lectual interest. That the play is hurt in
many ways by maladroit departures from
the authors intent is universally declared
But 1t is Pharisaic to denounce it because
OF the character depicted. 1t Is when the
playwright seeks to remodel the character
and endow 1t with noble and womanly at
tributes that it becomes tawdry and obnox-
ious. 1t is then seemingly defense of
vice instead of a disinterested picture 1t
would be close discrimination to aver that
Phryne shall not be the subject of the
dramatists pen as well as of the sculptor's
chisel and the painters brush But the
play does not sound as II 1t had been writ
ten with pen. The business-like clerical
click Of the typewriter jingles through it,
The acting of Miss Nethersoe and the in
spring genius Of Daudet are the dominant
elements Of the production clumsy as some
Of the literary workmanship may be- 1t
would have been better If the play had not
been written until the dramatic genius fit
to build successor to Camille" appeared
But, having been written. 1t is nothing for
theatergoing public, who has stood 1.-THE
Girl From Maxims" and 1.-THE Girl in the
Barracks" to shrek over. 1t seems piti-
able philosophy to accept immortality on the
stage as inevitable. But all efforts to sum-
press 1t are rendered Intellectual by theater
patrons themselves. And the immortality Of
the play "Sapho" is. with its ACCOMMODATING
genius surely less to be feared than the
snsckering vulgar1ty of the French farce
which is gagged to reach and contaminate
the lowest and therefore the most suscep-
tible intelligence.
David Belasco has changed the third act
Of Naughty Anthony" ard when Charles
| Evans gets into the title role. the acauaint-
| ances 1t made when first produced in this
| city would scarcely know it. Washington
| delights to welcome first productions de-