The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-22

| wife. and who sets about accomplishing
his purposes in a way that, in any one
possessed of the least self-respect, would
inspire nothing so much as a desire to
punch his face. In the effort to make the
character theatrieally effective Mr.. Klein
has succeeded only in making 1t. to n calm
observer, supremely ridiculous. Shirley
Rossmore, the girl who in such strange
manner invades the milllonaire's home, Is
a little more like a human being, though,
at that. she is a bit too good to be true.
Yet these two parts are what actors call
fat parts. They offer no great diff
Guilty in the enactment and produce a
superficial effect, by force of the situation
in which they are involved, out of all pro-
portion to their significance. They rave
the numerous points which, never fall
ing In their obvious melodramatic appeal
for applause, must rejoice the hearts Of
their Interpreters.
Both parts were in the care of skilled
performers last night. Edmund Breese,
who played Ryder during the long New
YORK OF the play, again assumed the
role. lie is a good actor, and he did all
That could have been expected of him. As
the author had directed, he made AFRO
ganee and petty vanity the salient traits
OF the character. Sometimes he bettered
the instruction, exaggeratlng the traits of
puerility and stupidity to such an extent
that the audience, which should have been
forced to respect the character, was i'm
PEELED to laughter. Laughter is, in fact,
the only reward of merit the part deserves.
MISS Gertrude Coghlan played Shirley
Rossmore with sincerity and charm. She
utilized practically all its possibilities of
emotional appeal and made the part as
near to reality as it could possibly have
been. Only in the Strong scene with
RYDER IN the third act, when she denes
MIN and declines to ally herself in mar
rage with the son of a sire so wicked,
does she lack the sheer physical strength
to bring out the force of the situation to
It's fullest potentiality. Hers was. never
theiess, = performance unreservedlv
worthy OF praise, and to her went easily
the honors of the evening.
Ihe other parts, none of them particu-
iarly striking. were not so well inter
preted as they have been by some of the
other companies which have been seen In
the play. The inferiority was noticeable
especially in the impersonator of Jefferson
Ryder, son of the millionaire and lover of
Shirley, and of the English secretary of
the financier, who became, in the hands of
MS present representative an almost
painfully bad burlesoue.
Yet The Lion and the Mousse will
draw big crowds TO the Newark Theatre
an the week, and the reader is advised to
see II, II for nothing else, at least for the
sake OF its third act, and to study the
manner in which a topic of timely interest
may be treated dramatically. 1t is by no
means Its authors best work. THE Music
Master was the finest play Mr.. Klein
ever wrote, and the standard he set there
ne mas approached in nothing he has done
since, neither in "The Lion and the
Mouse" nor in his talky Daughters of
Men,, nor in "The Step-Sister." which
has proved one of the most dire of the
current seasons failures. The trouble is
Mr. Klein does not go outside the theatre
to study character, and he is more anxious
to disseminate his views on current prob
lens than he is to reproduce and reflect
life In the terms of the dramatic.