The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-09-24
'Zira" Proves a New York Success.
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

new 1OIkt sept 81 ne play lhdI Il
nearest to new in Broadway this week,
"Zira." is a version OF The New Mag
dalen," but in a way the source of It,
or at least the cause, is Mrs. Dana S
Defense" When Margaret Anglin had
convinced herself and some others that
she was a Clara Morris over again for
emotional acting. she came from Cana
da to New York by the way of Lon
don, where she bought the American
right TO use Sweet Nell of Old Drury."
But none of our managers would take
her with it; so very reluctantly she let
Ada Rehan have it. and unlucky Ada
wasted fortnight and SONS money on
the purchase. Margaret was sorry TO
go into Mrs. Danes Defense" instead
sorry until the morning after her
debut, when the newspapers told her
how surely she had triumphed. Her
character was an adventures who
stole dead woman's identity, substi-
tuted it for her own and passed over
from bad society to good. The drama
was remarkable for long dialogue be-
tween the false pretender and a law
yer, whose ss-questioning drove her
10 a confession of her crime. Yet Mrs
Dane got the sympathy Of the audience
as Miss Anglin pleaded In her d tense.
Those are the reasons why Henry
Miller and ]. Hartley Manners thought
il wise TO put together for Margaret
Anglin drama out Of The New Mag
dalen." with much res mblance TO
Mrs. Danes Defense" But Miss Ang-
lin doesn't like TO enact Magdalens,
and so the woman In "Zira" hasn't
been a social outcast like Collins
Mercy Merrick and Jones' Mrs. Dane.
but the victim OF mock marriage.
smirched yet clean. we first see zlra,
as we did Mercy, nurse on a battle
field-in Africa this time, not France
where she steals the name. clothes and
papers Of a supposedly dead English
girl There is no great deviation from
the Collins story, for the rightful claim
ant of the stolen personality is beaten
at every point by the thief-until the
emotional criminal makes a confession
10 a ksen and Obdurate questioner. as
Mrs. Dane did. But Zra, like Mercy
again. is loved and married by the man
who exposes her infamy.
This amalgamation has been rewrit-
ten since last seasons trial perform
ances in Buffalo, Salt Lake and San
Francisco; but it still is emphatically
( an actors play, more Electrically
clever than humanity strong; and the
] o.
crates black marks with with ones that
are indistinct. But Margaret Anglin
truly is a Clara Morris for emotional
/ acting, and her genius empowers
''Zira" to be more potent than the stage
version of THE New Magdalen' that
| is familiar although l-ss so than Mrs.
Danes Defense" And the play serves
90 send off, on what is likelier than not
10 be a fine career, stock company
located here by the Shubsrts and Hem
ry Miller.
Daniel Hart has an Irish name, and
maybe ~ has an Irish notion of d joke,
which would account for his calling his
new play Marching Through Georgia, -
! when no one in it is seen marching
through any state at all. Some of us
went off Broadway on Monday night 10
sec that war drama, and others of US
went away from the electro-lit thor
oughfaFe to see the Russell brothers in
The Great Jewel Mystery" for the
partly new "Zira" wasn't brought out
until Thursday, and in the meanwhile
the only theatrical occasion % the
week was the renewal of "Adrea" on
Wednesday with Louise Leslie Carter.
As this correspondence is restricted, by
order of The Herald. to novelties on the
IN "Adrea" is d forbidden subject
The theatre in which Marching
Through Georgia is presented has a
gallery that buIges and Dungeons with
very disrespectful boys. and they didn't
let US hear nearly all of the play. which
IS a meritorious melodTama of a con-
ventional sort. Its hero is a northern
soldier wounded almost to death i'm the
vii h.
who nurses him back TO life, and the
course of their true love is roughened
aWfuiiy by their adherence to the Union
and diSuniOn causes. But. although the
tune that has made a melody of Sher-
mans march is played several times.
and the invasion of Georgia is behind
the action, we got no sight of march
ing army. The third act is played in
room with windows from selling TO
floor, and we theatrical sharps said to
one another that a score Of soldiers
were going to pass by, over and over
again. IN the way that Wallack used
to make cOrpoTars guard look like
a regiment in ours"
Why, do you know" an old fellow
said, "Wallack sent twenty supers past
the windows two or three times: then
Just as we began TO identity them as
repeateTs, he'd have the whiskers
grabbed off some of 'em and clapped on
others; and finally, to confound our
eyes, he'd have the tall ones crouch and
the short ones walk tiptoe."
But there was no marching Of any
sort in Marching Through Georgia -
and ! think that the gallery, expecting
something as rOusingly martial as the
Shertdan's ride in Shenandoah" felt
rescntful because nobody kept step o
the familiar war tune. Anyway, the
gods above behaved like devils below.
They tortured Wiliette Kershaw fiend-
ishly. Miss kershaW, a stranger IN
New York, acted the heroine delight
fully. She must have come from some
where in the south, for she had that
delicious southern accent which the elo-
cutlOnists can't counterfeit, and in
every way she was the ideal girl rebel
of 81 to 60. Nevertheless. while the
parquette loved her, the gallery chez
Weeped and yum-yummed when she
killed the hero, laughed when she wept
before a portrait of her slain father
and drowned her emotional utterances
i'm her best scene With derisive outcries.
Other players were treated as badly,
but they were not delicate, sensitive
creatures. Probably Miss Kershaw was
forcwarued Of the tortures that of
Broadway impS, when the huInor seiZes
them. inf1ict on stage folks, for she en-
dured it without a CULVER of pain, and
here's hoping she VIII be rewarded some
time by Broadway distinction.
II Mark Swan had not written 1.-THE
Great Jewel Mystery" well, its first
time I'm New York would have been q
very bad ii ne His job had been TO
put the Russell brothers Irish cham
bcrmaids as funnily into a thTee-hour
melndrama as they had ever been in q
half-hOur farce. And he had given
especial care TO Jimmy Russell. who is
the Russell that shrieks that the ice
man has came" Ond that the cows in
the hammock" But fate had that day
given that highly essential Russell. OF
all the four Russells I'm the company, a