Evening star., 1900-04-17


play must depend for its interest and its
applause. Mr.. Young realized the charac-
ter handsomely as physical portrait and
impressively as a psychological study. In
the last act he did some especially good
acIIng.
To announce a play whose poetic diction
fully reflected the temperament of its sub
ject, together with an impersonation which
rejected all the subtleties Of the Byronic
temperament, would be to proclaim q double
miracle; and the age of miracles is past.
But the author and the star have in this
play the advantage of exploiting field that
is distinctly their own, and of claiming
without delay that scholarly consideration
which is customarily withheld from both
actor and playwright until after they have
served decades OF apprenticeship. The ap-
pause OF the audience last night showed
that it was not disposed to measure the pro-
ductton solely by such degrees as 1t might
fall below that standard which exists only
as a word perfection" There was much
commentator for the work of Miss John
son as the Countess Varjoli- and aSter the
third act, the most spirited in the play,
though not so good as the last in acting OPP
portunities for the star. a curtain speech
was demanded. 1t is earnest, sincere
artistic enterprise, dedantly uniaue-in
short, Byronic.
LAFAYETTE SQUARE OPERA HOUSE.
the many encores that greeted the Three
Little Lambs" at the Lafayette Square
opera House last night conclusively demon
stfated that meritorious presentation can
De given in Washington for two weeks
with credit to the company and box office
receipts that will satisfy all parties con-
cerned About six weeks ago the Three
Little Lambs gamboled at the LAFAYETTE
most successfully and last night the play
started on a return engagement of a weeks
duration before an audience that complete
ly filled the house. While there have been
put two changes in the company Miss
cara Palmer replacing Adele Richie, and
hni
man, the action has been frightened up
through the cleverness of the principals
and the two defections have not hurt the
piece at all. Raymond Hitchcock has en-
iarged his part to such an extent that he
now more than shares honors with clever
Marie Cahill, his burlesque of Henry Irving
being a treat. Hitchcock works along en-
ureiy original lines. his humor being of the
dry but penetrating kind Marie Cahill de-
serves short scolding for slurring her part
In the burleSque on Becky Sharp" but this
was her only lapse during the evening.
her entertaining capabilities are great
rms rms prisht girl has played this part so
long that 1t is only natural that she should
become careless at times. Nellie Braggins
I'D. Lawrence, William T. Carleton and
William Philip were as entertaining as
usual while the remainder of the company
was up TO the high standard set upon the
previous presentation. Miss Clara Palmer
VINO assumed the dignited role of soprano
or the company, lacks the vocal abilities Of
MISS Rttchte, but far outshines the latter
lady when acting capabilities are consid-
cred. Miss Palmer sang THE Man Behind
the Cum with much better effect than Miss
Ritchie, and in the added number. the
Dramatic Patrol was seen to splendid
advantage. Miss Palmer is a handsome bru-
nette. and her addition to the company is
to the benefit of play and patrons All the
catchy numbers were encored time after
time and when the final curtain went down
II was nearly midnight
ACADEMY OF MUSICIAN audience of
ample proportions witnessed a farce com
edy OF average worth at the Academy of
Music last night. 1t is known as "The
irish Alderman" P. J. Sullivan plays the
title role. The story deals with the loss of
handkerchief by jolly alderman, which
IL found by soubrette, who proceeds TO
cause az much mischief as she can with 1t.
josie Slsson was the soubrette. A mother
ln-laW adds TO the complications and fur
ntshes a good deal of the fun Charles +.
Mccarthy impersonated this character. The
other roles We're taken by Rose and Fred
LuclIer' who do musical turn: Fred.
WenZel, Evelyn Forbes, Charles Mitchell
and Maud Mccarthy. Numerous special
ties are interpolated.
THE NEW GRAND There is no striking
feature in the program at the New Grand
this week, but the performance is uni
forniy good. The house was filled last
night with gathering that came to be
amused and cntertaired, and that went
away satisfied. All tastes were catered to-
Melville and Conway presented the we'll
Worn types Of a BOBBY and his pert sister
They gave the same old jokes and the same
oid antics to gain applause that have been
seen on the vaudeville stage for twenty
years, but as the laughs came rather fire.
quently last night. why, the Jokes and
horse-play are good yet The BOBBY intro
Guces some novelties in the way of Jug
Cling that were received with apprecia ton
Stuart
with unusual clearness and expression
and his hearers were loath to let him retire
Mabel Sisson who accompanied him in the
act, danced few steps and tunefullv aided
him in "a duet. She also abetted him in con-
siderable nonsense of the style vulgarly
called ''joshing," which being novel to
Grand audiences, was, of course, piquant
and amusing
You can't get away from the trained ami
mails If you go to the Grand, and the ONLY
thing to do is to wait for them and hone
Tor the best Little Freds' dogs give one
of the best acts of the evening In fact
they caused as many laughs and as much
excitement as the human comedians Be
sides the usual tricks of turning soner-
sauits. walking on two legs, jumping and
rolling over, they took part in game of
what Little Fred called foot bali, but is
better known as pillow dex A red bal
icon like those carried by children but
someW what larger. was tossed on the heads
OF the dogs. They became almost frantic to
mt the balloon with their paws The at
tendants tried hard to keep the ball of gas
tIom going over the footlights, but fire.
Guently failed. The dogs raced after 1t, on
the piano top, almost into the orchestra
chairs Several times the ball went in
among the spectators, who made the most
ludtcrously unsuccessful attempts to drive
the sphere back to the stage.
Then George c. Davis gave some clever
limitations and made hit by extemporizng
verses, in which he described various per
sons in the audience. The Forrest brothers
recalled the old days of the sawdust ring
and the whitefaced clowns They intro
duced some tricks that were so old that the
present generation had never seen them be-
fcre, and accepted them rapturously as
novelties. Mr.. and Mrs. Arthur Sidham
presented quiet little curtain-raiser. in
winch MIR. Sidham personated the old vii
lage postmaster and squire and gave utter
ance to a great deal of droll humor which
Immensely pleased his hearers. 1t was a.
realistic little sketch, something on the
Jush WhitcOmb-Si Slocum order and was
heartily applauded. Josephine Gassman
sang vivaciously some coon songs and
brought in a couple of pickanlnnies, who
owned the house from their first appear-
ance. The Misses Cook and Clinton gave
an exhibition of fancy shooting that in
cluded genuine novelty. This consisted
In playing few bars of Yankee Doodle"
with rifle shots on xylcphone