Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-16
THE UNDERTOW'
GETS ITS PREMIER
BELASC0 PUTS ON NEWS
PAPER PLAY
Remarkably Fine Depletion Of DalTy's
City Room and of Political Con-
ditlons-PIays Needs Some At
tentlon, but Is Strong

When the curtain went up at the Be
iasco on "The Undertow' last night
every newspaper man in the audience
and there were many-grasped his
pencil, pulled his wad of copy paper
from his pocket, looked for his hat and
prepared for work. So very natural
was the scene that It was almost i'm
possible to believe that one was in a
theater and not in q busy city room at
the crisis Of election night, listening
for the raspy voice of the city editor
issuing assignments. So lifelike was
the picture that it was startling. 1t
was nothing short of marvellous.
The effort to dramatic a newspaper
office or to put newspaper men on the
stage has ever held a fascination for
the playwright, and has ever hitherto
proved for him a rock Of disaster. To
the public mind. there is seemingly
something intensely dramatic about the
making of daily paper, and strongly
appealing in the lives Of those who as
sist in that task. 1t cannot under
stand, therefore, why such apparently
tempting material is not oftener used,
nor why, when this is attempted, the
result is simply q frightful caricature
or a diabolical joke.
For the dear public cannot realize
that the very routine of a newspaper
shop is inherently repulsive to melo-
drama, so saturated with the plainly
practical and so decidedly matter of
fact that 1t becomes about the least
dramatic field of operations on earth.
And this because every incident and
happening in "the shop" every episode
and event must contain the dramatic,
thrilling and unusual to be news"
and further because, living, breathing
and existing in an atmosphere sur
charged with the theatric, the purvey
ors thereof simply cannot be other
than Indifferent to it, and incapable of
showing it.
Bearing these facts in mind-and they
are the keynote to the problem-the
extreme difficulty of making a play
with newspaper offices or men as
motif is readily appreciated. Almost
never has a reporter been put upon the
stage who hasn't proved an uproarious
travesty of the greenest cub who ever
carried a red leather note book. The
only play of record even approaching
verisimilitude in this respect was Jesse
Lynch Williams 1.-The Stolen Story"
written by a man who had a glimmer-
ing idea of the interior of a city daily's
Northumberland it failed. The real
reason-outside of all explanations
was that if the "shop" was set and
played to approach actuality it would
not impress the general public because
of its almost monotoous routine: If
keyed up to catch the uninitiated, it
became joke to the real men of the
press and was deservedly roasted.
THE Undertow," by Eugene Walters,
which the Belasco players gave its
premier on any stage last night, is
newspaper-political melodrama, writ
ten by a practical newspaper man,
dealing with actual events, thinly dis
guised. It's first act Is in the city
room of metropolitan daily, it's third
in the anteroom of municipal coun-
ell chamber It's atmosphere is sur
charged with the reform idea, now so
prevalent; it's keynote Is a fight on
graft; it's climax is mobbing of the
authorities, and it's end is the revival of
the good government alliance and the
driving from power of the traitor
mayor who betrays it. Incidental to 1t
is a love story between a newspaper
woman and the reporter who leads the
reform crowd but loses his hold through
drink.
A careful reading of the Script of
'"The Undertow'' did not impress the
writer with a great idea of it's strength.
A view of the play as carpentered and
revamped by the Belasco workers COM
pletely dispels this idea and makes one
marvel that 50 much could have been
done with the material at hand. But
he is still to be convinced when he for
gets his enthusiasm, that the drama is
destined to win wide recognition, either
as a strong play per Sc, or by any Spe-
cial appeal, such as was made by that
other intrinsically weak but tremen-
dously successful affair, "The Lion and
the Mouse"
In the first place, the appeal of this
play is too largely to the men and not
enough to the women. Its keynote is