The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-08
FASCINATING FLORA" AT
THE NEWARK.
A Musical Comedy with Little Claim to
Novelty-Two Very Good
Vaudeville Bills.

Just another musical comedy. Just one
more among 10000 others Of the same
kind. Same old hodge-podge of frivolous
song, foolish comedy and interpolated
vaudeville. That is Fascinating Flora
the musical comedy, for which r. H..
Burnside and Joseph w. Herbert wrote the
book and Gustave Kerker the music, and
which inaugurated a weeks stay at the
Newark Theatre last night. The audience
seemed vastly entertained by 1t, and
laughed and applauded with great gusto.
1t was q very sizable audience and will no
doubt be followed by other audiences of
equa size and enthusiasm through the rest
of the week. 1t is impossible to repress a
sigh of regret that such jealous interest
cannot be directed to something really
worth while. such as In its other offerings
up to date this season the Newark Theatre
has provided. But such regrets are futile.
The people apparently wan most just such
entertainment as Fascinating Flora" sup
piled last night, and the theatre managers,
who have bills to pay like the rest of IFS,
cannot be blamed for giving 1t to them.
1t were pure waste of time and type to
attempt to ferret out the plot of the piece,
and. to be quite frank about it, though we
sat through 1t all patiently, we AVE too
poor an idea of what 1t was all about, and
cared too little in the bargain, to give an
intelligent %recounting. There was some
thing about a French music teacher with
a great reputation for moral rectitude, and
a pretty wife. who wanted a divorce and
couldn't find any excuse to get it because
her husband was too expert in concealing
his intrigues with other women. There
was also a lot of burlesque connected with
a bunch of missing Bullfrog mining shares
that jumped up and down in value by way
NJ i.,ctf(1T;,a1r f4as, Dad IA ell
merely a peg to hang a song upon. The
librettists saw to it that the pegs We're
placed at frequent intervals, and Mr..
kerker did the rest.
The songs were all of them jingly md
catchy. They didn't have much of the
quality of music, but the audience ''fell''
for then with no less pleasure on that ac-
count. Several of them have long been
familiar. ''Zuyder Zee" 1.-THE Subway Elk
press" I'D Rather Two-step than Waltz"
and Oshkosh" One of them was a
topical song called What VIII Happen
Then?' the situations suggesting the ques-
ton being acted out with amusing effects.
One of the situations, however, could
have been missed with profit. 1t concerned
the advent of a newly married man with
a gay past in a hotel where he was known.
Just a bit raw it was, even IL no worse
than numerous others that make musical
comedy rare and racy.
Dances there were aplenty, and the
chorus girls made more of a success with
their twinkling legs that they did with
their tinkling voices. The best danced
number came in the second act, when
three young women, nominally disguised
as "sunbeams." went through evolutions
originally evoluted BY the English pony
ballet. They did 1t very vigorously.
Miss Adele Ritchie, a musical come
dilemma uyho has aIurot ro -, ~ @olI~-;nar
on Broadway. occupied the stellar posi-
ton in the cast. Miss Richie possesses
good looks. which she sets off attractively
In gowns to which no masculine pen could
do justice. Her singing voice is quite suf-
hcient unto the demands of musical
comedy. She has pronounced mannerisms.
but most people seem to find no fault
with them. Last nights audience ap-
proved of her emphatically.
Miss Ada Lewis was the zone best bet
of the show. She has been doing her
tough girl speciality for years, and her
ability has had many opportunities of ex-
ploitation superior to that of last night.
But she made use of every possibility Of &C.
centric comedy the role contained. Frank
Rushworth, with his good tenor, helped
out greatly in the musical part of the
entertainment. George Schiller, James
E. Sullivan and Sam Edwards worked
arduously to make fun and they succeeded
whenever a tired librettist had given them
a chance.
Of course, the producers of a modern
musical comedy couldn't consider it COM
plete without the usual limitations. SO, in
the present instance, Miss Sadie Jansell
was put on the job. She initiated eddie
Foy singing who the Hell Would Want
to be a Camel" with some success, but her
attempts upon Anna Held and Hattie
Williams were atrocious libel. Anything
in this line goes" with an audience, how
ever. and it went" last night with an
emphasis. Truly. the ways Of the theatre
goer are past finding out.
AS might be expected, the road production
of Fascinating Flora is considerably in
ferior to its New York production. For
one thing, the cast lacks for the absence
of Harry Gilfoil, the inimitable old roue of
a baron, in his famous speciality, and for
another the jovial presence of Fred Bond
is missing. The settings were the same,
but the CHORUS was different. The Sub
way Express" stunt, very clever In it's way,
was not nearly so well done as at the
Casino. Miss Lewls's song with Caruso on
the photograph was just as novel and
amusing, though. 1t made a separate and
distinct hit.