Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1905-04-03
At THE COLONIAL THEATRE.
DeWOLF HOPPER A BIG HIT
IN WANG"
Successful Revival of a Popular
Comic Opera Good
ttoodaor1
Attendance.

&AAA~AA@AAA@~e
There was nothing half hearted
about the reception of DeWolf Hopper
and his company at the Colonial thea
tire Saturday evening Except for the
long wait between acts. the entire per
Torrance. as far as the audience was
concerned, was continuous laughter
and applause. True, there was hardly
a soul in the benches under the gal
lery, but it was the evening of the
mid lent hop, and il must be remem-
bered that even the immortal Jeffries
played here to some vacant rows.
Saturdays performance proved that
il is a wise actor who revives an old
success. The Wang" OF today has
some new features, and more or less
modern gags; but the old material took
quite as readily as the new. The man
who had whistled is quite another
fellow, and 1.-The Elephant ate all
day, fifteen years ago, heard them
again with the same pleasure that the
devout Wagnerian feels when he rec
ogniZes motif that he has studied
up before hand. But despite its age
Wang is exactly like the comic
opera of today 1t is rather more
tnneful than the usual machine made
article. turned out annually, and
much funnier; but it has the same
disregard for consistency, plot, prob
ability or possibility, that character
ICES the whole class. AT the same
time it has none of the wit and satire
that belong TO the earlier class of
Gilbert & Sullivan operas.
Mr.. Hopper ability as comedian.
and his particular fitness for sWang"
have been proved before this. Still.
his comedy is OF Que type. amusing to
be sure. but always the same. always
his own personality. IL may be due
to this that his success has been less
pronounced in later attempts where
that type did not iit, and that now,
instead of yenturing fame aud fortune
.gain on something new, he has gone
back to wang" At any rate Mr.
Hopper succeeded in being very funny
without apparent effort. Indeed, the
audience vas in such good humor that
if he had made dig at our honorable
county commissioners, as we'll as the
street cleaning department. and the
long deferred trolley line, il would
have been tolerated. When it was
clear that he had not made up any
thing more about us. cries OF
- Speech" and Casey at the Bat
brought him back for both the speech
and the famous recitation which he
used TO give as an encore in the orig
inal Wang Perhaps the funniest
part OF the program was the burlesque
on 'Parsifal, > in which Mr.. Hopper
was ably seconded by Miss Deaves.
Of the ladies, Miss Marguerite
Clark. as the Grown Prince of Siam,
and Miss D'Orysell, as Marie. both
scored hits. The former. by her pretty
face and clever singing; the latter,
bv her high g, which the audience
required her to repeat twice with
gragling variations. The three chill
dren also were fayorites, though IL
mnst be admitted that the small boy
was a poor Thespian compared with
his sisters, who danced and winked
like veterans The Chorus was one
of the largest ever seen on the Colo
nial stage, and there were times when
it was cramped for room. The aver
age of personal pulchritude among the
ladies was about as high as usual. and
some we are confident had not reached
t chlorfoorimng age. There was
nothing remarkable about the voices,
except that in the minor solos they
we're much too thin TO beat the
orchestra.
Before concluding, mention should
be made of a strong feature of the en-
tertainment not advertised on the pro-
gram. This was the pungent odor of
irving fish that filtered in from the
adjoining cafe, stayed and thickened
every minute 1t surged across the
footlights and two bony chorus girls
licked their lips. aud looked wistful.
Taken as whole. however. Wang
is easily the best of all the comic
operas we have had this season. and
Mr. Hollebaugh is TO be congratulated
ON his success in bringing Mr.. Hopper
and his company to Annapolis.