The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-24


theatrical levels, the earnest endeavor
is to interest through oddity. In one
of this weeks new plays in New York, /
Augustus Thomas makes dramio-scl- |
entific demonstration of telepathy, and /
in another Charles FTohman makes a
star actress OF Marie DorO by assign
ing her to the role of a girl SO ingenu-
Gus that she doesn't know a single sex
ual thing. Yet / feel like writing first
about an advanced slapstick, with apol-
ogies to the more mental and emotional
singularities, for keeping them waiting.
Were the last of the pantomimes,
with their clown and pantaloon, harle-
quin and columbine, so long ago that
you have never seen an Old-Style slap
stick in operation? 1t was made of a
split Stat, so that when anything was
struck with it-that thing being, usual
ly, the part of poor old pantaloon that
he sat On-there was d doubled thwack,
and therefore an augmented amount of
laughter. The essential idea of the
slapstick passed from pantomime into
rough-and-tumble farce, and the value
of a sudden blow, whether cuff, kick
or spank, if only it made a noise, has
never Iessened. Dramatic genius now
moves the slapstick forward and up
ward in Stagecraft. Not always do /
find readable matter when l go TO see
new plays made to sell at 90 per cent
off Broadway prices; but an afternoon
ill Eighth avenue gave me the advanced
slapstick. 1t was in a farce named
king Casey" An IriShman, cast away
on an island of Lalla Pa ZaZa became
its ruler, and after awhile took vaca-
ton trip to New York, where a depu-
tatien of his officials came to recall
him to his throne. He was reluctant to
quit the pleasures of the TenderlOin.
I'VE have brought the sacred SYM
bOls of Lalla Pa Zaza," said the chief
of state, and struck him on the head
with them. At each stroke, there was
not alone the thump of a slat on his
Uranium; nor yet merely the additional
crack of the split portions of the wood
as they came together; there were both
of those in all their potency of by-gOne
pantOmime; but besides there was a
clang of a bell, loud and resonant, as
though a gong had been hit with a
hammer. Who says that there is no
progress in art on the American stage?
See the advanced slapstick, hear it,
take note of its power of laughter as
used frequently throughout the play,
and you won't deny the genius of Aaron
Hoffman. Talk of Irving as a master
of dramatic effects. Hush! Or of Be
lasco. Shut up! Hurrah for Hoffman,
if his authorship of king Casey in
cluded the sIapstick."
Having let myself into the predica-
ment of placing King Casey" ahead of
The Morals of Marcus" and 1.-The
Witching Hour" | will try to wriggle
out of ii in a single paragraph. King
Casey is this seasons farce for JOHNNY
Ray; also for Dan Coleman: because
the fun of the Ray shows largely de-
ponds on the ability of Dan to sag his
mouth as widely open as Johnny can,
and let out as loud noises. They make
up their faces in comic resemblance,
and their adventures arise always from
confused identities. This time they are
twin brothers Casey, one a fireman at
the Waldorf, the other guest there,
and they mug and whOop through a
farce of errors, with eight chorus men
as bellboys. eight girls as chamber
maids. eight more as hello phones. and
p soprano, June May, named so in the
bill because she looks remarkably like
the beauteOus Edna May. At the mid
die of the evening the action shifts to
the Island of Lalla Pa Zaza, and to ex-
travaganza.
Another paragraph seems necessary
before getting to one of the Broadway
productions Two tricks are played on
the audience. The first is when, at the
end of a wild western dance, accom-
panying song of Prairie Mary
eight cowboys grab up eight Marys of
the prairie, throw them over their backs
head downward and dash off the stage. |
AT every performance, one and the
same fellow falls sprawling with his
girl. and she, after pOUting a moment
as though angered by a real mishap, |
joins in the houses laughter. more
elaborate trick is when Johnny Ray
sings with June May a song entitled
III Teach You How" the lesson be-
ing in the practice of kissing. John
ny's makeup has been disfiguringIy |
grOtesque, with some of his teeth black !
ened to look like dental gaps, and his |
mouth painted to huge dimensions; !
while June has been a genuinely blonde |
beauty of exceeding delicacy: and when !
they begin to saunter fondly in a gloam. |
with their lips almost touching as they
sing of OSCILLATION, it seems as though |
Shudder of protest Tustles the audi /
ence. If he were to smack her mouth |
with his, there in the dark, I wouldn't |
be surprised if he'd be hit from the gall |
lery with an egg, tomato, or even a |
brick. Suddenly a calcium throws a |
light on the students in kissing, and it /
IS seen that Johnny has washed his |
IdCCs cicdlltu Ills lCclH anu lildub Mill |
self look fit to kiss the Dresden china |
June. It is a good joke, and the fooled |
audience appiauds il.
That leads up nicely, after all, and |
by the way of feminine beauty, to Ma |
RE DorO, and from rough to smooth /
stage diversion TO the difference that |
one block makes between king Ca |
sey'' in Eeighth avenue and THE Nor |
ais of Marcus in Broadway. l own |
up to being bewitched by Marie DOro; |
but wasn't William Gillette daffy over |
her in "Clarice," and he is as old as 1 /
am; and now c. Aubrey Smith, quite /
old enough to know better, falls heart |
over head in love with her in the play |
which puts her into stardom. If you |
haven't seen her big. wonder eyes gaz-
ing out from her little face, the girlish /
grace of her slender figure. and the |
childish artlessness of her manner, you /
can't comprehend why the audience /
doesn't sneer, oh, shaw" when, as an |
1S-year-old young woman from a Sy-
rian harem, she processes utter igno- |
rance of mans lust. / could discern no |
sign of cynicism in the sophisticated /
people who attended at Maries debut, /
where an ADLER actress. who had passed /
on from slim girlhOod TO rounded wo- |
would have been guyed. Sar-
an Bernhard at 90 is still satisfactory /