The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-03
aFHE STOLEN STORY" SCORES.
A STRIKING STAGE NOVELTY
WARMLY GREETED.
Newspaper work and Graft A~musingly
Pictured In Varied scenes, with . Love
story squeezed Rather Thin ana shriIl
Between Them-A savage Production.

Garden Theatre last night with a play
which in many outward aspects resembled
The College Widow and which bads
fair to rival that banner production In
popularity.
The Stolen Story" does for newspaper
work in the metropolis what Mr.. AIDES
play did for the ~freehwater college and
football. In the light hearted breeziness
with which II portrays slices Of oontem-
porary life IL quite equals the great pro-
tagonist OF humorous vernaoular; and II
IL falls short in its low story and the more
serious portrayal Of character hat Is q
matter in which Mr.. AIDE himself did not
excel. and to which the public pays small
heed, provided 1t IL interested and amused.
Interested and amused the audience last
night undoubtedly was. Throughout the
action was brisk and lively, fresh, rapid
genre comedy frightening at the crisis
into something very like melodrama; and
the inal act, in which the story eliminates
amid the hustle and excitement OF a big
newspaper going to press with an import
ant beat, stands forth az one Of the most
original and absorbing scenes in the con-
temporary drama. ..
II was not a production that disposed
n to any very studious confederation
but potentially it deserved il, even though
LDlB Involves CdVll. EbheUJlhlly tn4 play
has literary pr~etensions, in that 1t treats
with ability and real temperament an i'm
portant phase OF contemporary life which
has hitherto escaped the dramatist. Mr..
Jesse Lynch Williams, who wrote IT, ID
we'll known as author Of the most truthful
and sympathetic Of the many collections
of college yarns, Princeton Stories"
besides many miscellaneous magazine
stories and articles. The present play is
founded on a story Of the same name, which
10 generally acknowledged as the best tale
yet written of newspaper life.
In charging this to the ramatic oallbre
and TRANSMITTING il to the stage, however,
Mr.. Williams has shown the crudeness as
we'll as the freshness and charm OF the
novice. Upon the original theme OF a star
reporter at work on a gigantic beat ne
has grated the necessary dramatic love
story, and this is not only rather compll-
Gated in its various twists and turns. but
p~erplexing, even Incredible. There Is a
foursome Of rather melOdramatio villains,
and one melodramatic villainess, who IL
a ubiquitous host in herself.
Two passionate love scenes take place
in the busy city room OF a daily paper and
a third in the crowded promenade of the
Metropolitan Opera House. 1t does not
help matters that in making way for four
scenes Of novel and amusing life this love
story il squeezed thin az times and height
ened to the shrill and unconvinoing note Of
melodrama.
But in the typical Savage production,
under the skilled direction Of George
Marion, such things are bagatelles. h
story. such as il Is, moves with all the sem
banCe of vitality. And the four slices o.
life" if the have something less than thief
fiatfooted realism Of Zola,W who invented the
phrase, nave an unusual degree OF the
verisimilitude OF their theatric kind, and
are necessarily laughable.
The action, already familiar to the readers
of the short story and a novelizatlon OF the
play lately published, centres in the attempt
of a ban Of predatory politicians and
yellow journalists to make an important
public measure the means of graft, Billy
Woods, the newspaper man who thwarts
il, is a discouraged sutton for the hand OF
the daughter OF the statesman who has
fathered the bill and whose reputation is at
stake.
The first act il in General CuRHiR0hdm's
country estate in the Berkshires. 1t shows
the old man entertaining at dinner a band
of Tammany politicians, and the efforts OF
a handful OF newspaper men to make news
of IL. There il much kindly political satire,
which the audience hugely rellshes, and
not a little serious talk OF the function and
ethics Of the business Of n~ewsgathering.
The second act showed a morning scene
In the city room Of the newspaper in which
these lines are written, the venerable dinRi-
ness of which was very faithfully por-
trayed. The audience was largely made
up of alumni OF the paper, muck rakers,
magazinists and like cattle, who mani
Tested delight in seeing their dear old COM
rades work. Here, too, the satire was
keen and kindly, and was relished by the
public OF newspaper readers.
In the fourth act the same scene was
shown under the PRESSURE OF a sensational
closing, ending with the triumphant rumble
of the presses. 1t was very different from
the tense quiet usual to such occasions;
but then the circumstances we're extraor-
binary, and the case is one IN which the
public is not likely to be critical.
In the promenade scene at the opera
the voices OF the singers off stage in the
auditorium we're very realistically rendered
by gramophone, asalso the noise OF applause.
But the metropolitan public Is likely to
strain in swallowing the plots Of vlllainy
and the complications OF love that are there
transacted. This was, in fact, the weakest
act in the play, both as regards the story
and the picture.
When all deductions are made, how
ever, the salient fact remains that " The
Stolen Story" introduces a new playwright
Of the highest promise and a play that
is that rarest and most precious thlng
in the way Of theatrical novelties, a novelty.
Such faults a. it disoloses are those OF
virgin ignorance, a far more valuable
thing than the callow sophistication OF the
common run OF novices. It's virtues are
those OF a temperament and a power OF
observation az sympathetic as they are
fresh. Mr.. Williams is the kind Of recruit
the drama most needs, and his present
undoubted success should give him the
courage and the opportunity for work OF
the highest order.
The cast was of unusual ability and very
evenly balanced. The tempo OF the action
and the emphasis in the acting we're per-
sistently, and no doubt Intentionally, melo-
dramatic, and several Of the cast were ap-
parently at once overexcited and stale to
their work. Jameson Lee Finney, who
played the star reporter, was the chief SUI
ferer. By nature one of the quietest and
most refined Of our younger actors, ne es-
saved a salient and emphatic style which,
together with his nervousness, made him
mechanical and posturing where he might
have been easy and lifelike.
Miss Dorothy Tenant played the up-
town heroine in a manner that disguised
it's few moments OF artinoiality and brought
out in warm colors its essential sincerity
charm and frolic. Harry Stone brought
out the character comedy OF a villainous
reporter with a Bowery manner with strik-
ing effect, and Miss Beverly Sitgrea ves
played an anarchistio Russian society
reporter desperately in love with Billy
Woods in a name worthy OF a better
cause. r.. Peyton Carter played the har-
assed statesman simply and with dignity.
The comedy hits Of the production we're
made by a juvenile actor rejoicing in the
name OF Augustin DAILY Wilks, who played
a newspaper o p boy With a racy touch
OF character and humor, and Edwin Holt