The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-06
The Theaters Of New York
"Ivan Terrible" ed..A
Congressman's Variety show

lence, yet every word and every gesture
means something. He may have brought
some one from St Petersburg TO tell him
what had been done with the play there
since the present Car removed the pro-
hibitory ban from it, but I am sure that
the production in general. well as in de-
tails, is Mansfields own work. That he
prepared himself and the large company
TO do what they did on the first night here
without public practice elsewhere, without
extraordinary ability in any OF his COM
panions, and yet without a break in the
average of excellence, is not less than mar
velouS.
Mansfield is as autocratic on his own
stage as Ivan the Terrible His word is law
without appeal with all who live on his
wages. If he cannot kill the offenders,
he can at least drive them out to live else
where. How much of his eccentricity is
natural and how much assumed who can
tell? Not even he, perhaps-for persistent
posers ultimately come to believe i'm their
most strained attitudes. He is accustomed
to fool with his audiences at will-to scold
them, slap them and spank them, and still
retain following which for intelligence is
hardly equaled by any other mans on the
American stage However, he got a sharp
lesson here the initial occasion of the
Tolstoi play. / assume that he had pre-
pared himself with a speech to deliver be-
fore the curtain. 1t isn't likely that he
meant to let the night pass without saying
something in his own person. But il seemed
that, with fine artistic feeling. he had de-
termined that he would not break the i'll
fusion of his acting till all was over. There
were calls for him after each of his first
three scenes. but he did not respond. At
the end OF the panultimate act the applause
was enthusiastic and it lasted five minutes
by the watch-which seemed like ten, OF
course. The orchestra played, but its music
could not be heard. The people kept up
their noise. 1t was of no avail. Mansfield
had made UP his mind not to speak till the
curtain had fallen finally.
Well, the concluding act was dramatically
powerful with VANS death. There Mans
fields performance reached a triumphant
climax. We had our last view of him as
he Slumped down in his splendid chair a
shrunken heap of skin and bones. But in
my minds eye / saw him rise in vigor from
that HfelesSncsS, hold up his head. swell
out his chest and bethink him of the speech
which, L am willing TO bet he expected to
make. But there was where the audience
asserted itself. It's adulation of half an
hour before had exhausted itself. 1t felt
instead a resentment of the actors slight.
1t quit the theater without the clap OF a
hand.
A congressman's variety show! think it
may interest you. The congressman is Tim
othy ID. Sullivan. The theater is the big
one which he has opened in the Harlem Sec
ton of the town. The show is given by
he"Jolly Grass Widows" one of the many
companies formerly called female min
strels. 1 think 1 have heard them men,
toned also as chair-warmers, because dur
ing the first portion of the evening they sat
in a semi-circle TO sing between jokes. They
don't DO that now. Their performances fol-
low at long way behind the current
style OF extravaganzas. / give these facts,
which may be familiar TO you, in order TO
Identify the kind of show that is changed
ms
house, as well as at his old one down town.
He is not ashamed of il. He is proud on
the opening night in Harlem he had city
officers as high up as commissioners of po-
lice, fre and finance, as guests although
former congressman and present Mayor
Mcclellan wasn't there. The whole range
Of drinks, from tame beer TO savage whis-
Ky Is sold in the auditorium and tobacco
is smoked till the view of the stage is
hazy. But Big Tim, as his loyal legions OF
voters call him fondly, is a stickler for
decency-not for delcacy, mind YOU but he
won't let the comedians of the visiting
companies say anthing foul nor the SOU
brettes do anything shameful. His censor
sits in expurgation every Monday morning.
And il is as hard for outsider TO get in
at his stage door as at any in New York.
Have / convinced you that the Hon. Tim
othy d. Sulivan's theaters are no joints?
2 =
AS to the jolly Grass Widows. They wers
twenty. Each had a separate two-line de-
scription in the play bill. worded as to
indicate utter abandonment to reckless
gayety They may have kept those prom
Uses in other cities, but here they shocked
nobody and so were barely satisfactory.
though their costumes were at times as
scant as those we are accustomed TO in
Broadway's potter exhibitions. As an as
sembIage they were the near-good actresses
| Q haven't written ne er-good) common to
companies of this grade. The leading So
prano sang well and had the heighth of a
Juno, but she couldn't talk or act and had
no beauty. The principal soubrette spoke