The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-25
BUSTER BROWN AND llGE
BRING AN OLD FASHIONED PLAY
TO THE MAJESTIC.
Not the Real hoy Buster. spontaneously
Gay and Had. but Pert. Calculating
and sIangy stage Buster-Master
Gabriel and Ttge Comic Artists Both.

Buster Brown and Tige romped on tho
stage of the Ma restio last night and Drought
with them one of the real o!d-fashloneo
successes of the first year Of the theatre
An audience in which there we're many
Juvenile first -nighters welcomed them with
all the demonstrations of spontaneous
ioy. No doubt the show will outlast the
present season.
That this should be the real boy Buster
of the long familiar and much loved draw
ings was perhaps not to be expected. To
transfer to the heightened medium OF the
theatre the spontaneous exuberance of
spirits that in the very whirlwind OF prank
and excrudating invention retained certain
measure of innocent and childhke sim
plicity. is a feat beyond the power oil any
but talent equal to that of Mr.. Outcault
Messrs. Charles Newman, George lotten
Smith and Melville B. Raymond quite
lack the fine artistic touch. In their hands
Buster becomes a monster Of pert and
impertinent infancy. De shows a most
Sophisticated sense of HIS father = aversion
to his mother-in. law. and undertakes for
the pltce Of s. to drive the lady from the
home. Even Ttge has wink and leer
that reveal a cynical a I'd mundane spirit
AS the plot thickens Busters worldllness
becomes more and more preposterouH
He reveals an intimate knowledge oil poker
and roulette, Of how long people should
have been married who have n child OF SIX,
and even conducts a political campaign
delivering a stump speech IN person. lie,
cidedly, this Buster has burst all limits OF
crediblity.
But ne is none the less amusing to the
audience Parents who we're won from
high moral standards by the freshness
| and lifelikeness of the boy in the drawings
may strain at his stage presentation ana
reflect in the irreverence OF youth; but
all ia grist that comes 10 the children
mill. And the Children in this land OF the
free. will decide.
Master Gabriel Americas Toy Come
dian, is a little genius in his way. He is
said to be in his twenty year, but
he is in stature a midget. being several
sizes smaller, even. than Tige, and he romps
through his part with unfailing com
spirit Childlike he is not, except in stature
and looks. but he is impishiy clever He
delivered a curtain speech a. neatly car
perter,-i as an effort by Augustus Thomas
at his best His limitations Of the walk OF
affected womanhood is masterpiece OF
acutely observed oariolture.
Almost equally clever is the canine
George Ali His muzzle is. in fact, far
more doggish than his original Of the draw
ing His eye rolls wickedly in the manner
of hrindle bull pup and his mouth is
| expressive in every tooth
Interspersed with the pranks Of boy and
dog are a succession OF songs and dances
| tumhlings and military drills that, on the
whole, are very ably executed. One of
! the songs is on the familiar topic of Re
/ solved II is here. perhaps that the
/ falling of from Mr.. Outcault is most patent
! Those resolutions. we take, II are literary
masterpieces, expressing the simple and
( the strenuous life of childhood in a way
/ that would have delighted Stevenson Il
! he had been an American. Nothing OF
! that Of course. remains. But the song
amusee. and that is the main point.
| On the whole. the present Offering il far
! more successful than the general nun Of
! dramatizations. and that is much in view
! of the fact that IL is the dramat1tion not
! n..n.. ~ nn,.nl hut of niciurt.s