The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-11
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..The Wizard of ox.e

'"The Wlzard Of Oz, on US second visit to Montgomery was no less musi- cal. no less funny, no less agreeable at the Montgomery Theatre last night than it was when its first performance met the hearty approval of a local au- dience last season.
 The audience which witnessed the performance last night went away sat- isfied and gratified. A wholesome and finished musical comedy is rare enough and the Wizard is one of the very best of the troup, that for six years or moro has held the center of the stage. The company might not have been alto- gether nawless, and one or two of the principals may have been a little weak in singing, but last nights audience. had 1t been hypercritical. would have paid tribute to the splendid scenic ef- fects, the handsome costumes, the clever comedians and the comedy chorus. And all these being good it naturally followed that a pleasant, en- joyable and restful evening was spent by those who saw and applauded the Wizard and his cohorts.
 Musical comedies have risen In swarms and flown over the face of the earth. even as the human ills were said to have done when they were careless ly released from Pandoras box. But the swarm was not wholly bad and g. shining light of the best element of them is found in '"The Wizard of Oz." The piece is a cross between a witch ing fairy story of elhn grace and g. vaudeville turn. with buck and wing dancing and jokes about eggs and Car rie Nation. Its very uniqueness is one of the chief graces of the piece. It was fanciful. well stored mind that turned the thing out, a mind that was daring enough to turn a Hans Ander- son fairy tale wrong side out and give 1t a Twentieth Century twist. Who would have ever thought of dram8tiz- ing a Kansas cyclone and making it a common carrier to transport the char acters of the piece into faiPyland? And the idea of idealizing . searecrow and making a comic hero out of him or 1t. which is 1t? Just fancy e tin man. who is all right except for the lack of heart and who wanders over the coun- try in search of one? What sort Of fancy must the author have had to mix these characters up with a ridiculous and cowardly lion and a tanSe Kansas COW with a turn for the humorous?
 And the thing Is so neatly blended that Is one of its charms. It is grO- tesque of course, but 1t Is never ridic ulous. Impossible as 1t fs, it is al- ways amusing. Then the music har- monizes with the book so well and clothes the story so attractively. The music Is of the catchy, haunting vari- ety, that sort an audience unconscious ly and lnstinctively whistles when 1t leaves the theatre at the final fall of the curtain.
 But The Wizard of oz" has made previous visit to Montgomery and the- atre-goers are familiar with it's mer- its, which need no recounting now. In simple justice, however, several words of praise are due the splendid scenery. One thought in looking at the beauties spread before him last night, that the art of both the scene-painter and the electrician had reached it's height. Stage effects seen last night were strangely beautiful. Especially so was the famous poppy field scene, with the chorus garbed in crimson and verdure. the lights playing upon the field like the sun shining through Q summer rain. But the scenery was all good and no less so were the costumes of the chorus and the principals
 There were no stars in the company and all members started out before the audience with the same sort of start and the same sort of showing. But the race for the audiences favor end ed with Bert Swor doing the Scare crow. an easy winner. It was a very fine piece of eccentric acting that Mir. Swor did. He fitted into the part well and his straight comedy as well as his grotesque comedy was decidedly good. And dance-the audience could hardly get enough of the dancing and sing ing of him and the Tin Man, played by John Swar. Of the two brothers with the odd names, John was the bet ter singer. In all the other clements for the stage. however. Bert excelled. John made a very satisfactory Tin M m but he did not shine as his brother did.
 John Monyon did sufficiently well as the funny Wizard, who was more or less responsible for much of the fun as he was for much of the trouble
 An engaging little person. Miss Blanche Powell Todd played Dorothy Gale. SSe was so taking, and so cute that she had cold and couldn't sing well lest night.
 A decided hit was scored by Miss May Taylor playing the Lunatic Lady. Miss Taylor has an intelligent way of singing a song, a method that does credit to her understanding as well as to her execution. The audience was very appreciatiye and demonstrativ0 when she sang "'Twas Enough to Make a Perfect Lady Mad"
 The chorus was made up of some very fine figures elegantly upholstered and fairly well trained.
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