New-York tribune., 1904-09-14
THE DRAMA.
Niss LOTUS Proues Charming Star
an Curious Plan.

Israel zangwiIl after ALL does not take the stage
very seriously. His latest play, "a Serio Comic
Governess, which was exhibited at the New Ly-
ceum Theatre for the first time any stage last
night and in which Miss Cecilia Lotus made her
DOW as dramatic star, is a seriO-comic play that
bafties classification and vexes while II amuses.
It's not play; it's vehicle said beholder last
night and 1t did at times seem SO, when. for in
stance, It paused casually in the middle of an act
ard made way in few perfunctory sentences for
Miss Lotus to give few of her inimitabe imita-
tons And then, when the audience demanded an
encore behold the playwright had provided that
Zangwin knew Miss Lotus would be called
OF! for encore. Again. 1t seemed like a weirdly
metamorphOsed edition OF The AUtocrat OF the
Breakfast Table" when most of the characters.
bur especially Miss Lotus fell to pelting each
other with the most atrocoUs puns the brain of an
Englishman could deyise-for surely It was in
English brain those puns originated if some Of
them did suggest period that antidated Bede. But
stlil again 1t seemed like Zangwiu. and Zangwil
at his best. when grace and charm and epigram,
humor and sentiment, were blended with the liter
ary skill Of artist and a playwright as well.
and Miss LOTUS. winsome. sweet and archly merry,
dominated the scene. Such tricks Mv. Zangwin
plays III The Serio-Comic Cioverness' and so at
one moment you praise him, and the next you
sadly bid him be ashamed of himself.
The story of the play is the story he has already
puohshed between the covers OF The Gray Wig"
and hardly needs restating Miss Eileen O'Ekeefe is
Il
her girlhood days In the convent school finds one
life insufficient to interest her suffering some
thing as Sentimental Tommy suffered at the hands
OF his many minds to put it in Celtic Accord
ingly she fools the Mother the convent 10
the top of her bent with her play acting, caus-
ing that dear lady TO suppose she has seen a
yiSidn-"No. a temptation as she deIiciously ex-
claimed-when II is in reality Miss Eileens soldier
lover; coming clandestnely the study of young
Robert Maper, when she might really have come by
he fF0u nd IIy ItIng a
prim governess by day in a London home and b.
night reiguins rs the Queen OF the Serio-Comic in
a cheap music harl. Nelly ONeiII But she al
ways remained true To her soldier lover through 1t
all. her Don Juan OF Afganastan.' and when ne
returned captain and hero he nearly broke her
heart BY seeing her Nelly ONeill falling TO rec
ognize IN g!ittering Nelly his old sweetheart. and
making brutal love 10 her in her dressing room.
That ended both the double life and her love for
the soldier and made way for the successful WOO
ng OF young Robert Maper.
In the four acts that set forth this pretty story
Mr. Zangwill has behaved himself seriously in
Two, the rst and the last The first laid in the con-
vent schoOroom, is fuIl OF charm. humor and girl
sh freshness The last IS simple. unaffected and
true But the second and third creak wofulIy. the
ancient machinery OF farce crying out for oll-aud
farce has little place in ther1-brist1e with bad
puns and. the whole. fail to carry conviction.
For instance, why should Mr. Zangwtu waste half
u his third act trying 10 prove that Nelly ONeill
could not be recognized as Eileen OKeefe when
every body knew very well that she could. but was
quite willing 80 forget the fact II only Mr.. Zang-
will would stop trying TO remind them that it
wasn't 50?
Miss Lotus as the star however. through situa-
tons true or false, remained charming and mag
n@tiC- Her biithe gayNty, her keen wit when Mr..
ZargwilI did make her pun her lurking tender
ness made OF the little goveruess a most lovarble
person and Of the Queen OF the Serfo-Comc-weI.
the same Her other life dreadful.
after all II may be Miss Lotus overacted the
scene IN her dressing room, when she confronted
her really repreneusibie tvO-faced lover. But
the author had hardly prepared his audience for
such a ptlA from tie comic into the 'serio.'' and
Miss Lotus alone with situation.
Ii the lesser parts Herbert Standing. as the man
sgav cf the music hail and Miss Eva Vincent as the
" 20 of alderman IN a provincial Ctv were
crssfully caru4csl ami X. Reeves smith. the
superb 1s:ory lover. denoted the baseness Os the
character ~orVluriTlEly, wherein he assisted Mr..
Zaug~ii greatly "a task the latter had not suf-
ncH0tly performed, perhaps, for the benefit OF the
average spectator IN the earlier The audience
last night rnlcTec the play in spite Of its faults
81 tO cd all httr Na