The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-05-20

I
What the people saw on the stage
was row OF girl students squatted on
their knees. with short ballet skirts
hanging from their necks. and with
their arms and hands in tights and Slip
| pers serving for legs ana feet In a can
can.
The American eagle screams to the
British lion Uncle Sam hurrahs to
John Bull. New York sends a theatre
cal token to London. The Bowery
gives a dramatic salute to the Strand.
All for what? The manager of our the
| atre hallowed by memories of Edwin
FORREST, Charlotte Cushman and the
elder Booth, the Old BoWery, has leased
its theatre in which Henry Irving made
hlstr1onic history, the Lyceum, and will
| present therein a series OF American
plays. The first will be "Old Isaacs
from the BOwery.~ The late Sir Henry
/ would be much interested in it, 1 am
sure.
/ Irving used to act the Jew from the
klalto Of Venice, but this Jew from
me BoWery Of New York is different
| Yet there are striking resem bIances
/ 100. Old IsaacS' business is something
/ ike Shylock's in the matter of usJIry.
! for he sells house furnishings on the
lnstaIlment plan, and would slice flesh
OH MS debtors in minute after pay
ment became overdue, if it were so
nominated in the bond. Moreover
| ISaacs has a daughter Rachael who.
Following the example OF Shylock's Jes-
slca, marrfes a Christian and robs her
/ father Of pint Of diamonds from his
| safe The author of ''OId Isaacs from
the Bowery" doesn't own up. Mebbe
ne breads the London critics, or the
ghost Of Irving. He needn't fear New
or
many dramas as bad, and nothing pain
ful has been done to their writer's. Our
reviewers deal savagely with plays that
| don't equal their pretensions (as this
week with Mistakes Will Happen"
and An Embarrassment of Riches')
but they pay no attention to these
wTetched pieces that promise no more
than they perform.
The comic Jew has been present in
hundreds Of Bowery melodramas, un-
Varyingly dull yet sharp, tricky yet
never criminal, a human arnaIgamate
carefully made up to amuse Christians
without offending Hebrews. But Old
1saacs is variant. Instead of being a
subsidiary character he is paramount
There isn't shadow Of q change in
| his looks, however, for he is an exact
copy Of that tribe Of Israel which was
fathered by David Warfield in musical
farce and has spread throughout all
vaudeville and melodrama. The story
is essentially the same as that of War
fields peddler-to-merchan back
again in The Auctioneer."
A rule of muck-rake drama is to la
/ bel every character Enthusiastically. But
here the audience is misled as to a po-
lIceman. While patrolling Fifth ave-
nue., he comes across a tough comedian
and tough soubrette doing a song
and dance on the sidewalk in front of
Martins restaurant, in which a smart
set masquerade is taking place. He is
not surprised by the stunt, which draws
no curious crowd, even when he joins
the pair in a Jig. Now, If there is any
thing IN dramatic art that a BoWery
gallery IS wise to, from atmosphere to
technique. IL is a Jig. This policeman
is a fawless jtgger. The gallery pins
medals all over him; and those are
tokens of the highest personal as well
as professional esteem. zen minutes
after that, this hero Of the dance passes
over to the service Of Villainy, arrests
Old Isaacs on a false charge and drags
him away
At the end Of the HveIiest act, as the
usage is, the characters file across the
stage, the good ones to be cheered and
the bad ones to be jeered. What now
shall be done about that policeman?
How can such a good dancer be bad?
How can such a bad clUbber be good?
The audience is in doubt He gets al
most across the stage in silence. Then
Of a sudden the decision is rendered in
his favor. A man with all feet right
/ like his can't be wrong in his heart
He exits to tremendous applause.
At this time in the theatrical year
/ look out for things more interesting
/ than important. For an instance, there
i
/ johnson in Mistakes VIII Happen. -
| Lest a mistake might happen in the
| first audiences sizing up Of Johnston
/ Johnson values, as appraised by the
management, it had been given out by
the press agent that Anna by all means
and Alice by no means was the reason
/ why the Johnston of real account
should be spelled with a Z. On the
opening night the theatre held many
roOters for Anna, bushels Of flowers
were passed up to Anna, and there was
a determined effort to make the Occa-
| sion one Of hosAnna and not Alicelu-
/ Iah.
/ Anna is a very beautiful creature of
! the baby-bOO and girly-goO type, and
Grant Stewart seems to have amended
| her role so that Charles Dickson, the
principal comedian, shall take her in
/ his arms often to coddle and comfort
her when she wants to cry. She IS in
/ her dramatic infancy as yet, and may
grow up a genius. but at present she
| hasn't cut a theatrical tooth. Alice is
older and no more than pretty, but she
| is a fairly proficient actress The au-
dience as a body cared very little for
/ Alice, not any for Anna, and picked
out the grotesque Edna Aug for a IA
vorite.
/ The lobby lOungers, having noted that
/ in the farce Anna Johnston was an &C
/ tress in quest Of an angel" to finance
a play, set themselves to gossiping that
/ Anna--whOm Rose Etynge had brought
/ from Oregon-had discovered in her
own lovely self the angel on whose
/ long green wings Mistakes VIII Hap
| pen' might set out to soar. The fight
/ Is brief. The play falls fat. I write
/ this about it so that, whenever any
/ one tells you money can make a the
atrical favorite, you will feel safe to
/ say: 'Boshl 1t can't be done without
/ talent to exploit"