The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-20
Brief Festival Of Grand Opera
Is Theatrical Event of the Week
"Otl" I'll Tatore" and "Lohegin Be Sung English High
class Vaudev a d-.Fa a
Burssaus ths Empire Theatrical Matters Gsnerallx

The charm and power of Miss Crosman's
art becomes more evident with each per
Torrance. The sparkling wit, the pointed
epigram. the dramatic force of Mr..
Belasco's drama have earned the
unanimous opinion that Sweet Kitty
Bellairs" displays perhaps the finest work
of his brilliant and versatile pen. Pic
torially. the Belasco play is another eX-
ample Of that exquisite art. that subtle
beauty. that impressive reality OF which he
is the acknowledged master. But all these
have long been accepted facts at the Be-
lascO, the only theater in New York which
seems TO bear the stamp of personality
The only wonder is that Forbes Robert
did not venture as Hamlet a decade
earlier. writes John Corbin in the New
York Times. Even sitting in a modern
drawing room in a frock coat, and smok-
ing the usual cigarette, he suggested more
of the royal Dane than many an actor
man good old London term of abuse gets
into entire performance. His eyes are
deep and divining; his large, aquiline fea-
lures have in repose a pale cast of melan-
choly that gives way when he talks to an
animation restrained only by the inherent
dignity of the man OF the world and the
scholar. Several times, as he talked, he
got up and strobe about the room as he had
done the night before in delivering the
with meaning. his bearing erect and prince
ly, and through it all he seems the soul of
diffidence. One might even fancy that his
delay in the great undertakings, like the
delay of his princely hero, the re-
suit of irresolution. From his youth up
he must have been. TO invert the old phrase,
Hamlet without the play. Since he has
come into his own he has been advertised as
the greatest Hamlet since Edwin Booth
but this is one of the cases in which the
precipitate press agent has been fOrestalled
That. or something quite as laudatory. has
been the instant verdict wherever he has
appeared.
Here is a complaint from the dramatic
editor of the Chicago Evening Post: 1.-The
writer has suffered many annoyances in
theaters and opera houses: There has been
the man behind who has insisted in talking
about commissions he has made on bust
ness deals during Pinero play; there has
been the matinee girl who has told in loud
tones why she admired L. II. Sothern
when she should have been following the
plot Of Macbeth" there has been the
smart woman who has gone ahead of the
story and explained why she likes the
performance in New York. as happened re-
Gently at 1.-THE Darling of the Gods" and
there has been the pilfiicated chap who
has snOred, but yesterday in one section
of the Auditorium there was condition
that surpassed all conceivable annoyances.
IL was a garden OF doors tnat would Stlf1e
any but women who love perfume. Musk.
new mown hay, patchouli, jockey club.
killikinick, and every other possible and
impossible smell that ever escaped the
stockyards permeated Section l. of the
Auditorium
May Irwin is thinking of returning TO
the stage. 1t was never believed in New
York that the buxom Coincidence would re-
main faithful to her determination to live
a life of retirement. Miss Irwin made this
confession TO a New York writer on theat-