The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-11-11

VIZ E ARE in for a week Of non
w ers brothers will start it off
at the Metropolitan with their latest
McNally skit, the scene Of which is;
laid in Ireland. 1t is expected. that
culiar brand Of stage Teutonic humor
will shine brightly. Of course, each
will thrust his face in the other 8 in
their never-ending contest to see which
can be the more densely stupid. Of
course, there will be pretty girls, and
bright colors and jingly music. And
the willy McNally even promises us
plot--rbut this seems scarcely credible:
Next comes 'The Gingerbread Man,
one of those HMother Goose - extrava-
ganzas which periodically issue from
tertainment. This eollocation of fun,
and nonsense is said to be gusty with
merriment. 1t ought to be, for there
are fve-count 'em, fve--star come
dians in the cast, to say nothing of 9th
ers equally stellar if not so funny. The
Biiou offering piques the interest, too.
Charles T. Aldrich, whose vaudeville
faces,'' has been fitted out with a. de-
tective melodrama, called "Secret
Service SAM He works into it a lib.
eral element of illusion and magic and
the effect, press agent ingenuously adj
mits., is sensational. The Orpheum IS
headliner is that fine impersonater Of
well-known men, Henry Lee, who styles
himself "the American actor The
Frawleys will improve on the quality. of
recent Lyceum selections by producing
"Janice Meredith and 7. Daniel
himself will again appear in the cast,
with the dainty little Consuelo Bailey
as Janice. The Unique promises a fine
variety of vaudeville and the Dewey
offers the Tiger Lilies.
There seems to have been a diversity
of opinion about the merits Of Augustus
Thomas play, 1.-THE Education of Mr..
Pipp,' but none at all as to the trans
cendant merits of Digby Bells Mr..
Pipp. It is true that Mr.. Thomas has
drawing OF Mrs. Pipp and that there is
a good bit of melodrama in the make
up of the comedy. It is a daring thing
to attempt farce and melodrama in the
same play, but it is the fine character
of Pipp himself, as conceived by
Thomas and executed by Bell, that
holds things together and makes them
seem natural. Melodrama is by no
means necessarily bad, To say that
a play smacks of melodrama is not to
condemn it. Some of the finest of an
cient and modern plays are essentially
melodramatic. And any American who
has travelled in Europe and been put to
the blush by some vulgar and newly
rich coun tryman, will find Mrs. Pipp
not unduly exaggerated. -.
New York scarcely knows whether
to laugh or be amazed over Bernard
Shaw's Cesar and Cleopatra which
Forbes Robertson has brought to town.
The PLAY was written six years ago,
and the eccentric Shaw had Robert
son s Roman profile in mind when he
drew his whimsical portrait Of Julius
Cesar. But the London mind is quite
too dull to enjoy the Irish dramatist's
vagaries, and Robertson had no cour-
age to try the historical farce, as it
has been described, in the British
metropolis. He was a bit doubtful
surer of his welcome, if not of being;
understood. The action shows Cesar,
not as conquering general, tho he
has: gone to Egypt at the head of his
leglons, but rather in his more human
aspect as a man who becomes inter-
ested in the kittenish 16-year-old Cleo
patra. Not only does he put her on
the Ptolemaic throne, but he takes an
interest in her that verges sometimes
on that of the lover, but for the most
part is fatherly-for he is 55. He first
comes upon her sleeping between the
paws of the Sphinx in the desert, and
the dialog that ensues is decidedly
Shawesque. The dramatist, contend
ing that Cesar was a mere man and
CLEOPATRA a mere girl, declines to have