The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-30
AMUSEMENTS.
"Her Own Way" at the Jefferson.

f'Ci OWu way al tnC JcHCTSCTs
 Every seat at the Jefferson was filled last night when Maxine Elliott made her first appearance before a Birmingham au- dience as a star instead of leading lady and stage beauty. She is as radiantly
 handsome this season as she was last season, but still, you know, beauty on the stage is not magnetism unless it be re- inforced with artistic power.
 The play is by Clyde Fitch, who writes good plays, poor plays and indifferent plays with equal facility. Her Own
 Way" is certainly dramatic enough to suit the most exacting. It is medley
 of the smart set and Wall street, the one furnishing the humor and the other the
 pathos of the play, and there is plenty
 of both. It is moreover essentially play of women, by women, for women. Mir.
 Fitch claims to know women. and in Her
 Own Way he explains many of their pecularities and foibles.
 The plot is full of movement Georgiana
 Carley, a rich and fatherless girl pro- poses to have her own Way when the selection of her own husband is to be
 made. She loves Lieut.. Coleman who is of course poor but brave. soldier in the Philippines. All the rest of the family have Way which leads to the marriage of Georgiana to Sam Coast who is of course both rich and interruptions. All vllians in society plays have those com | plaints. Maxine Elliott Is "Georgiana,
 and she remains true to her soldier lover | throughout many temptations. She is even
 true to him after she appears in black,
 which especially becomes her.
 When you thing of it all plays are but a
 conflict of mimic Ways. These ways are
 supposed to represent the conflicts of real
 life in society and elsewhere and it must
 be admitted that the conflict in Clyde Fitch's play last night was wholly natural
 and possible-in New York.
 What shall we say of Maxine Elliott as | "Georgiana Carley''? Everybody in the
 theatre admired her She was natural, | too. But still she was not intense. There
 seemed to be, at least in the first act a
 lack of reserve power, of the repose that | goes with deep natures. In her impas- | stoned passages she was vehement rather | than strong; stormy rather than mag netic The play does not gain a good | start in the first act Three small chill
 dren dominate 1t. and their light voices | seem unnatural because they are forced | to talk beyond their powers of express | sion. They are tiresome and Georgiana | does not relieve the situation. But in
 the second act, where she parts with her | lover as he departs for the Philippines, and when she rejects once again Sam | Coasts love, she surprises the audience with unmistakable artistic strength. In
 the third act she is delightful when she reads a letter from Lieutenant Coleman. Her joy, coming in the thick of her trou- l bles. Is so spontaneous, so natural is
 such joyous joy. that all love her, and
 She Is recalled again and again. The | curtain comes down in this act just as | Lieutenant Coleman's death in the Phil | ippines Is reported. When the curtain | falls in the last act Georgiana is not ex- actly In the arms of her lover, for he
 has no arms, but he is in her lovely and true and devoted arms We have not the heart to write dsparagingly of her act | ing-she is so beautiful in her numerous | frocks, which she changes with the rap | idity of lightning change artist in var- deville. The audience accepted her rendi-
 ton of the faithful, sincere society girl,
 and that is the best test after all.
 | A word should be said of William | Courtleigh as Sam Coast" who is almost
 a member of the Carley family, being
 Louise Carleys own cousin. He is an
 admirable actor, and some of his strong l est work is done in an undertone. He | presented the part finely and effectively | He was indeed at times very vilainous, | but it was villainy of the polished sort | Georgia Lawrence as Miss Bella Shinde ! the lady hair-dresser. was perhaps the best piece of character acting in the play. | MT. Fitch gave her lines that keep ths audience in the best of humor. Eva | Vincent as Mrs. Carey, the stepmother, | added not a little to the enjoyment furn-
 ished by the play. The entire company is | equal to the tasks assigned to it; the
 scenery well illustrates New York in-
 teriors. and every lady present will say | the costumes left nothing to be desired.