The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-04
Cbe Cbedtres
The Maid and the Mummy.

The Maid and the Mummy shown af the Montgomery Theatre last night was neither the best nor the worst musical com cdv seen at the Theatre this season It rSnks however. nearer the best than the worst.
 The music is pleasing enough without being sensationally brilliant. The princi- pals. except Fred Warren. did not particu- larlv distinguish themselves and there was even less of a plot than the small modicum which goes with the average musical com edy. Notwithstanding all this. a pleasant. a very pleasant evenings entertainment was gotten out of the performance. For one thing. principal and chorus chowed 70 much spirit and enthusiasm in their work. The Iiveliness and enthusiasm of last nights company would have redeemed 'The Maid and the Mummy" had it been quite as bad as some of the musical comedies which have been seen this year This thing of spirit and enthusiasm counts. And the stage manager and the musical director have both instilled in tine company which presents ."The Maid and the Mummy" The author k under obligations to whichever one 1t Mas. the musical director the stage man ager. who has given so much livelness and vitality to the company's work.
 There was a bit more of straight vaude- vile in "The Maid and the Mummy than is ordinarily seen in musisal comedy of these days Every actor with a good stunt was given his chance. The field was open to them if they had an idea. Far from detracting from the merit of the entertain ment it gave the audience an added inter ost in what was going on, the stage The players had better chance 10 win c: edit for themselves in their own vaude- vile acts than in playing straightaway mu- sical comedy parts. from start to finish.
 The chief fault to be found with the en- tertainment and it was not such a fault after all was that it was not quite as fin shed and as polished as it might have been. At times there was little more noise than there should have been and the different parts of the play did not dovetail into each other they should have done
 But these principals with their own spec ial acts. q good looking and well dressed chorus. all contributed to give the audience three hours of forEetfulness of the outside world. The chorus really demands more than a passing word. It was not so strong was not so strong on singing as 1t was on fine costumes. II a graceful well trained and good looking chorus
 There wasn't much 10 the story. There T ever Is to the plot of these musical come dies.
 A broken. impoverished curio dealer. palms off hos t2t office boy as Egyptian mummy to rich. but foolish collector. That vas about all to the story
 Of course in the work of the company Fred Warren carried off first honors. He the fat office hoy. It was expected that he good and expectations were not disappointed In fact he was much better than some people expected to see. He was not much on looks. but looks don't count when fun making Is the business at hand But he was funny and that was the main thing. Outside of his general good work one of the hits of the evening was his song I'm so dizzy" The audience had him hack for an extra verse al least half doz- times.
 Hardly less meritorous was the song and specially of Miss May Taylor The Vil- lage Cut-up." It quite a nice special ty and the audience showed enthusiastic appreciation of it. Miss Taylor's business throughout the piece was quite good Not only m this piece but in others of her spec ialties she scored heavily,
 Earle Bewey was another favorite of the evening. He not only won credit for his character work but the audience was vast ly pleased with that song of his. T Fell in Love With Polly"
 Some excellent character work was done Sy Frank Murphy crazy man. He was t. feature of the evening
 This piece which is by Richard Carle was well staged.