The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-04-23
At THE THEATERS.
METROPOLITAN.

For one reason, at least, prince Otto"
is a satisfactory play. 1t gives Otis
Skinner plenty of opportunity TO make
love and he can dc 1t better, perhaps
than any other actor on the American
stage. A fair sized audience welcomed
his temperance at the Metropolitan last
night in the play he has himself drama
TIED from Steveason's story Apart
from the opportunities it offers in the
leve-n1aking way, Prince Otto" is ra-
ther a tantalizing play One is contin-
ually expecting something unusual to
happen, and his interest is kept alive
from act to act only to find when the
curtain falls finally, that what has hap
pened is not at all uhusual-on the stage.
A man simply falls in love with his wife
That is ALL To be. sure the man, is a
prince the wife a princess, and the fall
ing in love" is "a pretty process And
because the scene of the play is laid in
a papier mache kingdom, because the
principals are papier maehe royalties,
because there is a, contest for a papier
pache cromwell, no doubt, all this
has something to do with the charm of
Prince Otto,' fer there is certainly a
charm about it. 1t is an intangible
charm, however, and if one stops to
analyze it, he is sure to lose it.
Eut there can be no question about the
=
enough, and it lies not so much in a
handsome face and fine physique as in
the pc, sonality of the actor That per-
sonality is so wlolesomely winning so
frank and fine that much poorer part
than Prince Otto would be redeemed by
it. AS for the Llay itself, it is triae
slow in the first two acts, lNelier in The
third thrilling in the fourth and idyllic
in the.tifth Naturally since it is built
on TWO episodes of Stevensons story
it is rather pieeed together play and
naturally too. since Stevenson wrote
the story women are not given much of
an opportunity in it. The ruler of a
small kingdom prefers other amusements
to affairs of state. He leaves his wife
to rule III his stead and idles away his
time in the country. A plotting prime
minister finds the royal lady as putty in
his hands, and he stirs UP an interesting
rebellion 1t is only a tempest in
tea pet, but it is an uncomfortable tenn
pest for those dwelling inside. The tenn
pest is finally stilled by the manliness
of the ruler and in regaining his king
dom, he finds he has won his wife.
Miss Durbin was entirely satisfactory
last night as Seraphina, Princess of
Kronefeld Jane Peyton, as Countess
Won Rosen. was Also very good. OF the
men. Frank Sylvester, as DR.. Won Wal
eenhof. was easily gthe best George
Hash, as Baron Won Gondremarlz, was
hardly SO satisfactory. The rest of The
cast was fair. M
ssPrince Otto" zwilhsbe repeated might
and tomorrow might, with We'd esday
matinee. 20
Manager Scott was excee dfngly disap-
pointed at the non=appedrance Of Miss
Della Fox, who was featured as the
headliner of thesveudeviIle show at the
Metropolitan tbs week and decidedly
annoyed 81 .lcr neglect TO a1,s.se him OF
her me IS, until the last moment. Hiss
Fox was to have left New York Friday
for Minneapolis, and up to Sunday Mr..
Scott had no doubt of her arrival AS
soon as it became known that Miss Fox
was not to appear, the wires were set
working, an0 in a short time two except
iona1ly strong features were on their way
to the Twin Cities These are MISS Lucille
Saunders, the famous operate contrait0.
and Miss Beatrica Moreiand and Harry