The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-11-15

ibsen drama has at length struck into
popularity or that a play all from
clinic is now successful with other
folks than those whose hair grows long
inside their heads as well as outside;
but that disease in a pitiful form is here
made compelling element in a stage
fiction. The physical and mental ca
lamity of blindness, as you have read
about IL in Rudyard kipling's "The
Light That Failed" was dramatiZed
years go by "a morbid Ibsenite inehect-
ually. but now the English literary wo-
man. known as George Fleming, with
/ a wholesome idea of life even in its
most distressful phases. has made an
acting version which is introduced TO
New York this week The story of a
mans slow. sure and hopeless loss Of
| eyesight j. here blended with the story
Of a womans tardily progressive dis
cernmente OF her love for that same
man. The composite of Ibsen and
well, say. PinerO, for the work is i'm
some respects as expert as his-betters
kfplings book i'm the form of a play.
1 needn't more than recall the theme
that OF blinded war correspondent
yearning for the love and sympathy OF
a girl who has shut her heart to him.
kipiing first wrote his story TO a sad
end in the final refusal of Maisa to re-
spOnd to Dickts desire. and il was pub
lished so. Many readers deplOred the
doom of the hero to an utterly black
future. and so the author in the next
edition. sOftened her heart with love
and gave her to the blind man for his
wife. But Kipling repented him of his
/ concession. He is an Obdurate man.
In a third edition he res0rted substan-
TALLY the original climax with no glim-
mer Of comfort in the light that had
failed. How George Fleming ever in
| duCed him to let her bring Maisa to
i Dick in the last act Of the dramatiza-
| ton and iIume his soul i'm the per
petual darkness Of his life, 1 cannot
explain with certainty. But kipling is
q thrifty business man also. and may
/ be counted the cash chickens which
were sure to De Matched from his eggs
/ i'm Forbes Robertson's nest. Robertson
Z hasn't done anything in America till
/ row since he was here - an assistant
/ to Mary Anderson or Henry Irving.
I but in London he has earned q repu-
/ tatiOn as a particularly skillful de-
] lineatOr of characters embOdying pOlg-
nant mental phenomena. He enjoys a
/ vogue there along with the half dozen
/ ctOr-managers. Dick Helder was sure
/ to be a masterpiece in his portrayal
/ His exhibition OF On-coming blindness
and the mental anguish accompanying
/ it. is a narrowing display Of dramatic
art.
/ Maxine Elliott-Goodwin's sister Ger
/ trude plays Maisa I'm The Light That
( Failed" She was a fit-about soubrette
4 with Maxine and Nat Goodwin In Ma
lthan Hale" That was the last and not
very striking thing she did before go
ing TO London with the GOodwins. She
met Forbes Robertson there, and the
next we heard of her she was his bride.
/ He soon made her the Ophelia to his
Hamlet. Now she has returned to
share. rather sparingly, the hOnOrs with
/ her husband in the Kipling drama.
/ fessional abode her bFOther-in-laW is
( the star in q Shakespeare comedy. and
no further of in another direction her
I sister is Clyde Fitch heroine. Truly,
J the GoodWin-ElhOtts are afioat on the
Broadway theatrical stream
1t is the opinion Of many that Robin
Hood" has held for fifteen years the
distinction Of being the best musical
play made in America. Reginald de
Koven. composer OF it's tunes, has tried
again and again to equal them Some
times he has come close to doing It.
His new and resOlute effort, Red
Feather" IS as nearly the desired
thing as any he has offered. Indeed.
it doesn't fan below robin Hoods
standard musically, though few Of its
airs are melodies. Persons with eX-
pert ears in its first New York audience
felt that no native comic opera had
been QUILTED with a better quality Of
chosen for their trained voices, though
| some OF them enunciated 80 badly that
/ their notes had few ineligible words
If w. s. Gilbert, instead Of Charles
I Emerson Cook. had written the verses.
( we should have known whether all Of
them were as good as the few that
Z we were able to judge Of. How agree
ably I remember the company that Gil
bert sent here with "The MikadO." Not
a syllable Of his humOr failed to cross
the footlghts clearly right along with
the not which Sullivan had set il to-.
A French milliner in this De kOven
niece might as well speak Feejee as
broken English for all any listener
knows. But the prima donna, Grace
Van StuddifOrd. throws her voice above
high G and every word goes away up
there distinctly. This Miss Van stud
diford is the top thing in the produc-
ton. anyWay-perhaps the finest So
pranO We have had on the theatrical
/ stage out of grand opera She sang
publicly awhile some years ago, then
married into aHUent privacy. and now.
her husband having lost his wealth.
she is earning salary again. She ism (
( beautiful. but she is COmely, and she
can act "A little, though not much The
/ character she assumes is that Of Red
Feather. a bandit and revolutionist.
| Charles Kleins libretto shifts her sew
eral times between the raiment Of a
countess and that Of the prescribed and
pursued outlaw. She wears the shape
lest Of tapering black boots to the knee
and black gloves TO the elbow when in
disguise. She gives up her feminine
waist lines for the sake of a masculine
doubIet. and is the best Imitation of a
/ nice little man I have seen between
Ella Wesner and Vesta Tilley. And it
is not easy for any individual to hold
the eve in this extensive exhibition Of
a hundred men and women clothed
picturesquely and maneuvering pictOr-
tally in scenes of dazzling magnihcence.
} Money could hardly buy more that is
I crowded into this representation.
There are actors famOusly good after
the opening night. but VIGOROUSLY bad
on that important occasion. Thomas O.
Seabrooke is one Of them, and at the
Introduction of Red Feather" he
passed through an ordeal that was as
amusing 10 the callous FOUNDERS as il
must have been painful TO himself. AS
always when facing an assemblage OF
first-nighters. he forgot the words OF
his role, although he had been in the
cast a few days out Of town; and. OF
course, he was funny for his failure
only, as he was quite unable to utilize
any of his own or the authors ideas
for comic denaeanor as a political con-
( spiratOr who serves his cause by be-
coming the head waiter at an inn. He
was so aimless in his efforts that this
prOmpter could not guide him. and he
, led his companions astTay by emitting
cues. He had to read the verses of one
of his songs from a bin Of fare which
his part permitted him to carry Some