The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-13


IRE OF that piece" the late Mr.. Russell
once said 10 me, was severe on me. for |
had hired Days Theater outright; but i
declare to you that / felt Boucicaults Ill
fortune yet more keenly. The poor old man
had written the play so confidently. and
was 50 buoyantly hopeful during the re-
hearsais, that his despair when the public
ignored us was pitiful. 1t broke the vet
Grams heart"
Mr. Mack is playing the Irish rebel in
''Arrah-na-Pogue' at an aside before audi
ences drawn from what we call the multi
tude. The gallery emits the din Of a
rabbIe and hardly a token OF fashionable
ness is TO be seen in the lower parts of the
theater. Mr.. Mack tried in vain with Tom
Moore" to make Broadway bark back TO
the singing Irish comedian stage ia
vorite Now ne is going to break away
frora his trammels, and Frohman will soon
transfer ham TO comic opera, or musical
comedy. Yet Boucicault once had vogue
with modish wallack audiences. 1 re-
member, too, vociferous boys sold peanuts
in the gallery OF the Wallack's Theater of
that day. But the old-time gallery, with
its coat off and in noisy commotion, is
known no more in Broadway.
XXX
Perhaps there is no annual show that
clears up more money than that of Max
and Gus Rogers. Although it's expenses
are heavy. owing chiefly to the number of
its women in frequent changes of costly cos
tunes, the dividends among the brothers
Rogers and their managers last season are
said TO have been expressed in six figures.
That Is why we have them again at the
Broadway Theater. hardest for companies
TO get into. i make note of the business
done by the Rogerses because their enter
tainment has no artistic element to con-
slider. Nor am / in the least inclined to
berate IL as vaudeville obtruding itself on
the dramatic stage. Its tremendous popu-
larity is harmless, even beneficial. to those
who laugh at IT, The first audience for
The Rogers Brothers in London was as
big and fine as the most legitimate dramatic
performances draw in that same fashion
able house. One man near me suffered in
tenseiy from what he called the idiocy of
the jokes and antics, and denounced not
only the idiots who monkeyed on the stage
but still more vehement1y the idiots in the
auditorium who liked the foolery. But his
wife and daughter. dressed like fashion
plates and behaving in the newest manner
of society laughed right out loud at the
things he frowned on particularly. 1t was
on this same stage, only few years ago.
that these Rogers chaps were permitted TO
come out of vaudeville and interpolate their
German-English dialogue in an extrava-
ganza which, excepting their quarter of an
hour, was a complete failure. OF course,
they never went back to the variety shows
The elements in 1.-The Rogers Brothers in
London" are carefully the same as those of
previous Rogers extravaganzas; yet there
is no actual use of old matter in John ].
McNally's writing. Young women are
brought on the stage in relays till the spa
cious stage is crowded with them: and that
is done over and over again with change
Of fantastic costumes in each exhibition
Those slightly phalanxes sing. dance and
pose in fresh variations of the old ways. and
the living pictures they make are brighter
in shifting colors than the bits of glass in
any Kaleidoscope you ever looked into. The
method of making this entertainment is
business-like. Many Of those women have
been trained in Klaw Erlanger's own
chorus school, the costumes have been made
in Klaw & ErIanger's own dressmaking
& Erlanger's own staff But i'm all of the
making of the chow the fact is never belit-
tied that the Rogerses are what the people
pay their money for. The goose that lays
the golden eggs Is not killed, but carefully
nurtured. IT the new piece. as in each of
its predecessors. the two comedians do the
three things that they did when they were
In vaudeville-that IL. sing parodies of popu-
lar ballads. read doubie-meaning lines from
newspaper advertisements and hold COLO
ouies of repartee. And the seeming ease of
those three things must conceal deal of
clever. hard work. else a dozen German dia-
lect teams would speedily rise out of vaude-
vile as the Rogers brothers did.
Nobody would laugh during the first per-
formance of the new farce. Personal" ex-
cept when its chief comedian was speaking.
and 30 1t failed, because most of US prefer
TO seek monologue humorists in vaudeville.
where a tolerable amount of amusement is
obtained from the rest of the bill The
character principally exploited in this piece
was newspaper reporter of type encoun-
tered often on the stage. but hardly ever
in real journaiism-a fellow with his impu-
dence unconcealed and his assurance in
slSnt all the while. he was assigned by
his city editor to find out about a personal
advertisement for an heir to a fortune. and
his investigation led too quickly to the dis
covery that he was himself the wanted man.
/ say too quickly because in the first act
he came into his birthright. and there the
story ceased its interest. How the reporter
took charge of the household of the adver-
tiser, appropriated the famIy's youngest
daughter for wedlock. guyed his friends,
buliyrasged his enemies. and didn't once
get cuffed or kicked was illustrated during
two more acts. Whenever the reporter
spoke we laughed, because he had a funny
way with him. but further than that the
farce was smiieless.
The author OF Personal" Eugene W.
Presbrey declares himself blameless. He
put himself on record, ten days before the
first performance as the foreteller of a
fiasco and quit the -rehearsals. which, up to
that time, he had conducted. This he did
because William Collier, the chief comedian.
had from day to day substituted more and
more Of his own persifiage for the lines that
the author had provided. Now, Mr.. Collier
has for years been, at Weber & Fields S
Music Hall and elsewhere. a Jester on his
own account. He Is a very funny fellow in
his own way. but never in any other man S
way. That is his good enough reason why
he should be privileged to eliminate and