The Washington herald., 1907-09-08
NEW PLAYS IN NEW YORK
Variety of New attractions and How
They Have Taken Hold

lated Miss Harmed has In Anna one of
those effective emotional roles in which
she is at her best, and her work in the
big scene of the play, the second act.
was played with an intensity which thrill
ed. The plot is q powerful study of mis-
| directed love and social conventionalism.
Anna is the wife OF an astute and cold
blooded Russian minister of the Car,
who has known no other instinct but
! duty She meets Count Urons;sy, and they
| fan in love with each other. Their af-
/ fair is revealed to the husband, Kare-
nina, who confronts her with proofs
She confesscs her love for Uronsky, but
appeals in vain 20 her husbands gen
erosity to make her free by a divorce
She elopes with her lover to Italy Here
gradually, the consequences of their act
reeoil upon the woman UrOnsky's de-
votlon is not proof against time and ad-
versity, and she IS distracted by vague
! i0ngmgs TO see her boy again. The un-
happiness and bitterness of their destiny
soon begin to weigh heavily upon both.
ana Anna is persuaded 10 return TO Rus
sia 20 put an end TO her position as
Karenina's $ wife; but believing herself 10
/ be betrayed by the man for' whom. she
has sacrificed so much she throws her
self under the wheels of a train and Is
killed.
OF course, this is the sort of a part in
which Miss Harmed is at her best. and
her work IN some OF the critical moments
1 Is persuasive 10 a degree anC fairly ex-
cites your keenest interest; but there is
in the dramatic version itself a. lack Of
harmony. something not supplied by the
action that makes one think that Miss
Harmed has made the common mistake of
actresses, Of confounding a good part
with a good play.
Manager Lawrence believes there is
virtue In good title, so after his strik-
ing success with The Man on the Box
he gives US The Man on the Case" The
relationship between the two farces is
even closer than in name. In the one the
hero is man Of breeding who becomes
a eoachman in the household of his god
dess. in the other he is d young million
aire who poses as a detective in the
household Of his inamorata 70 trace the
theft of a diamond Except in this su-
perflcial resemblance there is no further
direct affinity of matter or spirit. and the
man on the case stands as firmly on his
own feet as did the man on the box II
is a rattling good farce. played with a
hghtness and delicacy or method. and
staged with a certain warmth Of color ana
atmosphere, that winds out an evenings
pleaSureable entertainment. Mr. Finney
scores very materially in the role of
carroll Dempsey, and The Man on the
case bids fair 10 equal in popularity that
OF other Madison Square Theater plavs
since that one-time popular playhouse was
aroused from its Rip Van WinkIe sleep
oy Mr.. Lawrence. The love interest in
the little play is well sustained in the
complication arising from the determina-
ton OF the girl in the case not TO marry
the man who has been selected for her
ana the counter determination Of the man
10 win her in spite Of her will, wherefore
ne exchanges roles with the detective as
signed 10 ferreting out the thief of a
Valuable diamond. The action is brfsk
ana the general style Of presentation is
breezy. FRED r SC,9RADFp