The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-04-30

Stoddart were not sUperhUous lag
gers on the stage The public was
| glad to have them STAY there as long
as they could and UNTIL they were older.
I think, than any other American actor
than John w. Jennings. who is now in
Annie RusselPs company. 1 once asked
| ! Jefferson If he wasn't tired Of '"The
! Rivals" and RIP Van Wrinkle" and
why he didn't resort to a new play?
I shan't be tired of Bob Acres or Rip
TIL my audiences are he replied, and
they viii be my last roles. for I am too
old to risk Il failure in a new one"
When Stoddart was preparing for
| The Bonnie Briar Bush he said: i
am too OLD to study new parts, This
one must last me out"
Neither of those rare old gentlemen Of
the stage, survivors of old-fashioned
days. and eXcusable If they had been
old-fashiOned in their views, was a
condemner of the modern changes in
| their profession. Good old Mrs. G. H.
( Gilbert, the only equal of jefferson in
the affections Of people who so TO the
aires, spoke admiringly, within a few
weeks Of her death. of the new ways
! that had come into stagecraft- But
Fanny JaHauschek never missed a
chance in her later years to berate the
innovatory methods, and Helena Mod
jeska has denounced reDeatedly what
she declares is dramatic degeneraCy- So
there stand three old optInists against
two old pessimists, and You don't have
to bother TO make up your mind as TO
which are right. You may prefer TO
seek theatrical diversion without pref
ucices. being glad when YOU get it to
your liking, sorry when you don't. and
never much agitated in either case.
Minnie Maddern Fiske does the best
stage work that is done in the modern
method by any American player ex-
ceptlnS Richard Mansfield. aud I as
sumo that, before quitting her theatre
for a tour she had a hand in the prep
aratiOn of THE Proud Laird - which is
introduced there this week. The char
acters look and talk exactly aS they
ought to, their surroundings are right
in every detail and the illusion of real
ity raised at the beginning is main
tanned TO the end. The InvermOrachs
OF Skye are proud to live in their own
castle Of InvermOrach on their own
island of InvermOrach, and so poor that
they can't keep leaks out of the castles
roof nor rags from islands clan The
thousand and eleventh anniversary Of
the family's history is celebrated. with
oagpipes playing. peasants cheering
the laird making a grandfloquent adj
dress and his mother posing queenly in
a throne chair; and next day comes a
furious rainfall. which drips through
the ceiling of that same hail, forming
pools on the floor, and the ladies Of yes
terday'S function now hold uD their
skirts as they tiptoe to dinner. From
the broad brOgue Of the Scotchman to
their bare knees, and from the bagpipes
that are actually played by the actor
who carries them to the rainstorm that
IS wet as Wen as noisy, the production
IS as careful as that which Mrs. Fiske
made of Leah Kleschna."
But The Proud Laird" is no such
play as the other. It's satire Of the
Scotch trait Of canny thrift is well set
forth i'm the impoverished famiIy's
scheme to marry the young laird to an
heireSS. but the authors have
been less effective in every other re-
spect. The title might well be ''AIooch
Ado ABBOTT Nawthin',' as the mothers
method Of bringing her son and the girl
to the altar, by privately telling each
that the other is pining with unreguit-
ed love, is the same that matched
Benedick and Beatrice
That makes the newer composition
Likewise. the Hamilton and Cartwright
formulation Of the play looks all the
along with the Fiske fine pres
entati0n.
That freak Of fun. Frank Daniels.
has new play from London, Sergeant
Brue,' and a new curtain speech, of
ms own native make. 10 90 with it, The
speech WandeTS with wild metaphors
from high mountains to deep seas, from
fields of lilies TO gilded halls, until
finally it gets, somehow or other. to the
little 2cOrnS from which great oaks
Daniels gives a cry
of delight at seeing his way out. He
has not only been worried as to where
his SMILES viii carry him to, but has
cast appFehensfVe glances. as usual. at
an imaginary director who from the
wing, warns him to stop. He has told
us of this mans behavior under the ell
oquence, from the time of putting ice
on his head to a hnaI famtinE ft
An of that is very silly. and so would
seem the plot of Sergeant Brue'' if
told in words of sanity, but in action
1t makes as funny a libretto as any of
these irresponsible musical farces has
mad 1t comes from d London rOUuder
known as Jimmy" Davis when he
gives suppers. and as Owen Hall when
he writes pieces, such as ''F'lorodora''
and The Girl from Kay's.'' especially
to give suitable comic parts to Willie
That formerly American COM
edlan, one of the early HOyt' actors in
A Bunch of Keys came here to show
how he had made London laugh at his
in 'iFIOrodora," but we
didn't like him well enough to get him
instead Of Sam Bernard for the bound
er in The Girl from Kay's." nor to
Il lJullElS
for the Cociney policeman in Sergeant
Brue-" This bobby is a worthy, but
somewhat mild and timid officer on the
London police force, whose most sue
cessful service has been to lift his hand
IN a signal to stop traffic on the Strand
at congested times. It is thus that he
betokens his hidden love of a pedestrian
no le1s alIuring than Blanche Ring in
the guise OF mercenary yet merry
nobiewoman. BY a comic opera kind
OF Will, Brue inherits a fortune if he
indicates his Worthiness by earning the
place of an inspector. After falling in
many attempts TO distinguish himself.
he hires two crooks to let him arrest
them in his titled inamOrita's bedroom
with her connivanCe. He hides under
her couch to be ready. But she gives
the alarm too soon and Brue himself is
hauled out by other policemen. He re-
tr1eveS himself, however, by holding a
baccarat party in his own house and
then rafding ii as a gambling hell.
That seems a strange story for Liza
Lehman Of I'm a Persian Garden
and Daisy Chain fame to set to mu-
sic, doesn'tit2 Well, she has expressed
in tunes her contempt for IT. Mrs Her
bert Bedford, as that talented musician
is when among her friends in the fash
ionabIe society of London and Rome.
hasn't let herself down TO the requisite
light melody of musical farce For the
Of