The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-01
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

x
The contract of safety in "ONeill of
Derry" is wide. Chauncey Olcott, max
ing his New York debut in two-dollar
theatre of fashionable standing, acted
his usual sweet-singing. love-blarney-
ing, sword-proof Irish hero in a good
new melodrama. Still, he does vary the
entertainment by running 1T through
an intermission. He showed promise
of rivaling Frank Daniels and De Wolf
Hopper as a comedian who may be
looked TO for extra-measure by making
a witty speech in his own character.
Having. in the third act Of 'O'Neill OF
Derry" come triumphantly through f1ve
distinct near-deaths. and retained the
love in his heart, with the song on his
| lips unimpaired, and being pelted with
1 bouquets, he was forced to make
| speech. At the start he numbered
enough in his efforts to utter thanks
to convince me of his sincerity in hold
| ing back. Then, when he got warmed
up" as he frankly expressed 1t, he
turned to anecdotes. What the news
| paper critics might say was on his
mind. First he told of a morning at
the Lambs club with an actor who had
| appeared in a new play the night be-
fore, and looked detected as he read
the morning reviews. do they say
Many" was the answer. do they
say good things?" More" well"
put in the friend, look out for the day
when they don't say anything"
Oicott became more personal with
story about himself in Minneapolis,
where he discussed with a journalist
| friend the opinion of q Detroit paper
( that an actor should keep in the press,
even II he has to irritate CRITICS TO do
! 1t. Olcott inquired what was the best
way to annoy writers TO that end. DO
| you really want to irritate them?" he
| was asked. Mildly" said the actor.
| We'll" the journalist concluded. lust
keep right on acting as you always
have"
There is nothing to irritate anyone in
| Theodore Burt Sayre's "O'Nein of Der
ry." Sayre has had much experience in
writing this style of play for Olcott
and Andrew Mack. 1t ventures no in
nOvatiOn upon the form and character
of the conventional genial, saucy, ro-
mantle melOdrama of Irish popularity.
A young cavalier of Ireland, singing
when not blarneying of rescuing ladies
i'll distress, his own especial colleen in
particular, is not fighting a cruel Eng
| fish landlord this time, nor has he a
group of children or a dog to sing to;
| but he does end all his difficulties in
| the beautiful ruins of an abbey, which
we see, however, in the gray of dawn
| instead of moonlight. He is lighter
| hearted than many of his sort. because
all his tribulations come really from
! being mistaken for a rebel friend, who
| has returned secretly to Londonderry
to see his old sweetheart. now the wife
| Of the Cromwell governor of the town.
J q xx-Io
| see O'Neill captured and taken before
| the leering governor, and even when
| that wicked man sneaks across the
stage to stab him in the back-fortu-
| nately dropping dead from heart fail
ure, just as he has the knife lifted
! There is O'Neill in greater danger than
| before, lest he be accused of murder
. ing the assassin. The only way of es-
cape is through a locked door, guarded
on the other side by three armed men.
ONeill carries out a pretty plot to
marry the governors wife. now happi-
! ~ widowed, to the man of her first
choice. O'Neill shoots off the lock of
the door, whereupon the three guards
rush in, and, at the lady's direction
pursue her supposed assailant into an
sdjOining room. Now, O'Neill is hid
ing behind that opened door, so that,
when it is closed behind them. he es-
Capes down the now unguarded pass
age For O'Neill is tricky as we'll as
brave.
X x
In the cases of two plays brought
out here, THE Girls of Holland" and
DR.. Wakes Patient" there had been
enough of hope deferred TO make the
authors heart sick Take first the
musical comedy in which the girls
mentioned in the title are not all of
Hollands girls, as might be inferred
from the title, but only three of them,
who sing and dance with three stu
dents while passing through courtship
into Vedlock. Several years ago, when
''Piff, Paff, POUR, was new, New
York laughed at Eddie Foy as a sand
man. In a scene at a seashOre, he lay
down to take a nap on the beach and
busted himself in the sand, so that
when discovered he was mistaken for
one or those images that wandering
sculptors mould for small coin at sea-
side resorts. 1t was i'm that show that
Foy Won over New York to an agree
ment with Chicago that he was a fun
ny actor. The writer's of the play, |
Stanislaus STANCE and Reginald de
KOVCn, decided to put their pens to-
gether in work for Foy, and call it !
'The Snow Man" because he would
come out Of a snowdrift, as the other
wayfarer had out of a sand dune Foy
didn't like 1t when IT was done. and it !
was tried i'm several cities with an
other comedian, and without any sue
cess That wasn't the end of it, how
ever, for the authors wrote Ii over
again, this time basing it on a Dutch
legend-Of STANCES own Origination. l
suspect-of frozen man coming
down from the north TO chill everyone |
who came near him. until love lit a
fame in his heart and he melted away. !
Now, not THE Snow Man. for that
title had meanwhile been used by q
lyceum show, but THE Girls of Hol- |
land" comes TO the big theatre of !
which de Koven is a part owner It is |
bright, melodious and rather active |
show. but THE Snow Man isn't |
laughable. and the authors remain |
heartsick from their deferred hopes.
4
Mr.. and Mrs. Raynor Mackay, Lon |
don PLAYERS. wrote two years ago. a /
: