The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-13
THEATRICAL LETTER.
(Continued from Trge EIght)

put on the stage still earlier as Be linda" with Sarah Cowen Lamoyne. To Stanislaus Stange's prose he has added verses, set to music " Julian Edwards, thus evolving & very good comic opera, with a dashy sort of role for the spec tacular Miss D'AEville. Bat isn't StanSe a lucky chap to be able 70 save play from failure under its Qrst title when 1t was rather serious, and carry 1t along through very .uo1s:ate success under second title, when 1t was made altogether jocular. to finally land 1t with considerable triumph under third title. when 1t has pee 'me comic opera.
 Where is the incentive 10 the writ ing of original librettos for comic operas when the old plots and charac- ters are easier to sell? The title Of "The Princess Beggar' tells all in it's three words, that the daughter of king Is stolen in infansy, aid brought up by outcast wanderers, to be finally identified and to get her birthright. You are almost as surs, efore ever the curtain goes up, that the scene will be in a mythical kingdom, whose mon- arch Is hard up, whose court officers are grotesque, and whose Sun falls In love with the girl while ne and she still believe she is a. beggar born. Then. LOO, the name OI Edutd ESINdIuNb forms you at sight that the founding princess is a handsome lcyden. who sings and dances jolltly, and practices cleveriy all the tricks n the trade cf the soubrette prlma donna. -'aulas ancestry may be vague | )r awhile Tn the play, but I am lure that, profess sionally, she Is granddaughter or Lotta Crabtree, a daughter of Marian Manoia and sister of Lulu Chaser. This play was made in England by Edward Paulton and Alfred Robyns. and 1t Is a good one For Miss EdwardeS. I don't wish to give the impression that 1t is stalled by rne oldDess of It's scheme. It has a bright lot of new songs, makes fine showing girls, and is what New York calls good Casino entertainment.
 The takIngsest title that have yet cen Is Nellie. the Beautiful Cloak Model" I saw it in electric letters on theatre in a street of stores, and I said to myself that here was a play that would draw women like bargain sale It was one of those many cloud ed afternoons which, in the vagaries of New York's aqueous climate, lose their sunlight and become twilight. So the astute manager had illumined the signboard of Nellie, the Beautiful
 
 cents for a matinee, to lure the mob of shoppers in out of the rain. I was one of the perhaps hundred in the au- dience otherwise feminine But tried to imbue myself with the prevailing feminine expectancy as to Nellie, the beautiful cloak model almost add ed by own, "Ah" to the hushed hum when Nellie came into view. A Reata Winfield had been chosen for tine cloak
 eh baA ob l.Y as an actress. nor because her face was beautiful, for it wos no more than bretty, but because she had such a shape as would get her job in cloak lnanufz cturer's establishment to boom inc sale of garments to buying mer- chants The overwhelmingly feminine assembiage looked her over critically, d Id decided to admire her figure She wasn't so exceptional that most Of the younger spectators miShtn't say to themselves: "Porhaps I look as well as that" Therefore. when she got into nelodramatin difficulties. they further asserted themselves: That sort of thing might happen to mo if l were cloak model" Hence the undoubted money success Of an undoubtedly bum play. Yes, baum. that's the word for this winner.
 Let me tell you what you don't know. Unless you go to see the cheap uelodramas, that the heroic lover in them, the fellow played by the leading man of the cast, is nowadays com pelled to give up the centre of the stage to the eccentric comedian in most of the climaxes. In this example, the ration was four 10 one. Nellie. the beautiful cloak model, was a fouudl- ing .heiress to fortune, and murder ous scoundrcl, with a hendish mis- tress. was bent on destroying her. All that. of course She had a devoted low CT. eager to take any risk for her, but the play was almost over before the author gave him chance. Nellie was put out of a window or her boarding house on an elevated railway to be run over. but it was the comic young com edian, not the leading man, who hauled her out of danger Nellie was placed in the pit of a freight elevator, in tho store where she worked, to be smash ed by the descending car, and the lead ing man was hanging around. but the funny comedian was assigned to her rescue. Nellie wandered into dance