The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-01-06


Grant Stewart have written for Collier
TO star-act in is so inconsequential
dramatically, that ii might be dismissed
IN contefnptuous paragraph; yet
Caught In the Rain" probably will
bring in more money, by merely tick
ling more people than either of tho
brainy comedies which Richard Hard
ing Davis and Augustus Thomas pro-
vided for him. This farce happened in
this way: Collier was playing across
America on the route to Australia. Ir
his company was Grant Stewart, not
much Of an actor. but a facile writer OF
humorous sketches. In Denver they
saw a girl caught by a sudden shower
She didn't mind the rain much, as ar
awning gave shelter, and she was q
duck of a girl anyway; nor did the dan
gerous lightning scare her. for wasn't
she accustomed to electrical illumina-
ton? But with illogical feminity, she
was terrified by the harmless thunder
young man came along. Perhaps II
was one of the actors, but probably il
was not, for he was inclined TO be bash
full, and run away, when the girl-spot-
lit like stage heroine by vivid flash
of lightning, and made an emotional
actress by a deafening clap of thunder
seized upon the stranger and i'm
plored him TO save her.
X
There's the play we've been talking
about" said Collier to Stewart, or meb-
be it was Stewart said it to Collier, for
/ am guessing at the details. But there
was the start and the title of Caught
in the Rain" The incident is set forth,
with street commotion hurried or halt
cd by the shower. the natural phenom-
ena initiated finely, real water dripping
from the front sky border, and the en-
counter of Willie Collier and Nanette
Comstock taking place with humid illu-
sion.
The comedy which thus catches on in
a rain is for the rest a matter of YER
bal smartness. Collier and Stewart
were born in the same period as Davis
and Thomas, but not in the same world
Of dramatic genius. However, they face
audiences year in and year out, as the
other two don't and like monologuists
in vaudeville, they know how to get
the laughs. So the acquaintance of the
fellow and the girl runs on from the
meeting by chance to a betrothal, with
no particulars worth reading, but with
q continuous entertainment of pun.
repartee and other fun of kinds which
Collier can deliver with great facility,
juggle and balance with great IA
cility. He delivers the goods-that is
TO say, himself; and they are of a kind
which the public buys with all the
eagerness of shoppers at a bargain
sale.
New York ''Society's" caprice of going
to one of the female minstrelsy shows
at a cheap and smoky concert hall was
a topic in my letter of three Sundays
ago. The surprised company of mug
gers and chair-warmers, instead OF
moving on at the end of one week. as il
did last season, stays indefinitely where
1t is. This proves that our variously
smart sets are ready for a change in
theatrical enjoyment, but not that a
new departure will be made in down
ward direction, for their incline is up
ward, rather. But who and what will
catch them on the rise? Joe Weber
hopes to with The Magic Knight" and
Dream City" He is making a costly
try for it. Victor Herbert is, / calcu-
late, the most money-making music
maker in America, as his orchestra is
as prosperous as Sousa's, his compost
tons sell as well in the stores, and this
season he has half a dozen scores in
theatrical use TO the March Kings one
SO Herbert must have come high tc
Weber. 1t is in 1.-The Magic knight
that the value of Herbert is realized
as musical humorist, and Weber may
have bought a ticket that will win the
fashionable fad prize
Burlesque of grand opera has beer
common in negro minstrelsy, vaudeville
and extravaganza these fifty years anC
more, but seldom has it been witty, 81
contained other than crude fun. The
libretto of THE Magic Knight" is q
travesty on "Lohengrin," but the HUI
bert score is not made up of unassimi-
lated selections from Wagner's music
but of what may be termed Original
plagiarism-a stealing of notes and g
forging of them into counterfeit cur
Iency-a succession of keen, drOll, mu-
steal jokes. The oddity in this mockery
of Wagner is that, in the attempt tC
catch society" by it's musically cul-
tured ears, and lead it back to the mu-
sic hall which it had abandoned, the
matter is rendered in a genuinely grand
operate fashion. A prina donna of the
first class. Lillian Blauvelt of Covent
Garden record in London and Metro
politan opera house in New York. is the
Elsa in a collection of good voices. 1T
is up TO me-" Miss Blauvelt sings al
her entrance. Ito make good as a hui
man canary" she greets Lohengrin
with a trill of "Oh, look who's here
she cadenzans to the king. Twenty
three for you-oo-oo-ours;" and never
for an instant does she behave unlike
a WaSnerldn prifnd donna III SERIOUS
service. Thus the beauties and the alb
surdities of Wagner grand opera are IL
Illustrated simultaneously.
The other Smith Herbert play is 9
blend of farm farce and the Weber
Fields type of extravaganza. New
York has gone daft in suburban land
speculation. That subject is satirized
in Dream City, The first scene is tht
dooryard of a farm house, where the
owner listens to the visionary talk OF e
real estate boomer, and the second is
the marvellous city, which, as the
farmer dreams, occupies the ground In
a single night. The people shift from
rusticity to abnormal gaiety, and there
is an hour of senseless but sensuous
goings on, with new jokes for the come
dams, new frisks for the show girls
and new songs and dances for all.
The remarkable personality in this
piece is that of Cecilia Lotus. Not
long ago. after being Cissy long while
in vaudeville. she spelt out her giver
name full length, and played Ophela
to the Hamlet of z. II. Sothern she
4. 4, q n