The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-01-10
Il
New Plays on Broadway
81 FRANkLIN FYLEs.


L
always black and necktis always white,
get him into unpleasant publicity. Con-
currently, Kid Mefsarvey develops a
desire to become a gentleman. and his
highest aspiration ia that direction is
70 elope with a young lady whom his
TuseulaTity has fascinated.
The model after whom Mr.. Thomas
has moulded his Kid MeGarveS is XII
Mccoy. the real champion middleweight
slugger. whose charm for women is 50
potent that ore Of them has married
him three times. with divorce intervals
between the weddings The author ana
Lierel Barry more. the actor Of the
character, seem 10 have studied Mccoy
closely, as his slang of the ring and
his manner % the bar room are repro
diced With the utmost precision. Bar
rymore's imitation in speech and move
ment is faithful, very cleverly so, but
Thomas wit and humor are of course,
far and away above anything that Nc
Coy is capable Of There is no reason
i doubt that the Rev. DR.. Bradford in
the play had a progenitor in the Rev.
D.. Rainford. rector OF St. George
church, and wen known-sometines
criticised. too-for his promotion OF
gymnastic culture for himself srd the
young men OF his parish with boxing
gloves and wrestling mattresses not
barred.
Thus invited by the author of "The
Other Girl" TO look beyond the Iuimicry
and see actual personality. it is ex-
cusable 10 write something about the
players who represent the two girls o.
the comedy. one OF then-and you are
left to decide which-is meant 10 De
designated az the other" The ac-
tresses are Elsie De Wolfe, who was
born into the proud old New York
family of De Wolfe. and Drina De
Wolfe. who married into it. They are
slsters-in-Iaw. or were before divorce
sun6ered the relationship, but it was
matter of publiea ten, at the time Of
Drina's exploitation at Mrs. Osborne 3
peculiarly interesting playhouse. that
Elsie would not recognize Drina social
". But in the present play they are
brought together professionally as the
most affectiOnate of chums. Drina IS
the impulsive maiden who consents TO
run away with the pugilist, and Elsie
is the cOnsiderate one who aEerts the
misfortune. Caresses, embraces ana
kisses are prescribed by the author,
and the two De Woifes give them with
no show of dislike. Those in the audi
epce who know of the family affair,
which has been a towD topic. see moth
ing unreasonable in Drina kiting OF TO
marry whimsically, or in Elsie cleVeriy
locking IN the other girl" who would
elope and making of herself the other
girl'' who wells herself to surprise and
confound the pugilist when they get to
the clergyman who is expected 10 per-
form the ceremony. But there Is Won
Ger and there is guessing when the De
wolfe former sisters-in-law assume the
manner Of fond crOnies. Have they
made up? Or do they hate each other
while Stimulating mutual love- VI
course, it is none OF the audiences busl-
ness. Yet the amused curiosity IS man.
ifaSt. Another. actress eXtraneousiy IN
teresting is Ida Greeley Smith, caugn-
Ter of Nicholas Smith, and grand
daughter of Horace Greeley. She ap-
pears neatly in the small part OF maid
servant.
Two women are antagonistic in sgd
uey Grundy's Gypsy and that OF ltse1
is not on oddity. Again. as usual, they
are one who is orderly in her love and
one who is not But Grundy does
what 10 writer of less vogue could do
and still find & manager to produce the
play in which il was done. He eN-
ploints these heroines. contrasting sin
less and sinful as equally deserving or
sympathy in their trouble over the
man with whom both mate. II is true
that. in the single afternoon perform
ance the innately sweet and gentle Fay
Davis fmpeFsenated the mans para
rno1lr. while a sour and harsh actress
was assigned to the role of the circum-
spect wife, which was an unfair handi-
cap for virtue III the race with vice TO
win an audiences favor. In the COM
piication devised By Grundy, q Lon
don lawyer takes a girl to theatrical
chorus, and would marry her, as she IS
worthy of his love. but such an act Of
honor is not consonant with his social
station For ten years she is a wife to
him in all loyalty. At the end of that
decade of disgraceful happiness she
finds out that he had shifted his heart
from her to a woman eligible for matri-
rnony, and a highly helpful bride for
him in his political career. She makes
no difficulty for him in his selfish in
constancy, but fondly tricks him TO be-
lieve that she. too, is tired of their re-
lationship. After she has made il easy
for him TO discard her. she puts her
self still further out of his way with
a swallow of Iaudanum. That is pa
thetic, and most Of US who saw it had
10 use handkerchiefs. There was no
moisture to wipe up for the bride, q
blameless creature, though she amia-
bly, forgaVe the other woman and re
NAMED faithful TO the faithless man.
This drama of Gypsy has a curious
history Grundy wrote II first in two
acts, and in that brevity it was per-
formed by Rosina. Nokes and her COM
pany in the yeaPs-ago time when they
made tours of this country with re-
pertory Of short plays, mainly merry
ones. tt was called I'm Honor Bound.
and was a comedy that did not come
anywhere near to being q tragedy. Last
year the present version was brought
in London. and Cirundy was accused Of
having borrowed from the French.
without acknowledgment the material
with which TO lengthen his original
composition. Another contention arose
from the exclusion by agreement be-
tween the author and the actor-man-
aser, George Alexander, of the London
Times dramatic critic from the open
Ing performance. on the plea that he
had prejudged the work There was
far more ado over that than would
have resulted in such q case in New
York. Just possibly Fay Davis may
take Gypsy" along on her tour with
withdrawing Julia" and f YOU do
see Ii you should not faiI-if such tech
meal points in play making interest
you-to observe the strange defiance of
usage IN the construction. The char
2cter assumed by the star actress does
NOT appear until the second act, IS alb
sent from the third and lies dead dur
ing the final scene of the fourth. The
second Is the only one which she dom
mates. Nevertheless. BY the skill OF
an author and the charm of an actress.
she IS, mace more tear-starting in her
misconduct than the equally vvronged