The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-15

his place as maker of the material,
should by right have held patent on
the device.
The initial impression given by Nc
Nally's successors is an unfavorable
prejudice when one sees in the program
the names of the Rogers characters
Hugo Kisser and A Gustave Windt.
Do you get it? Hug-and-kiss-her and
A-gust-of-wind. Each pun has to be
explained to an audience that even
then wouldn't laugh at it. But there
are so many things so much funnier
that the new show is think, the best
of all that have borne the Rogers
brand. And that is true, notwithstand-
ing that, although it sends the Rogers
brothers TO Panama, all expectation
of travesty or burlesque of the canal
project meets with disappointment.
The pet Rooseveltian project is hardly
more than mentioned. The chorus be-
gins a song with Panama, oh Pana-
ma" for its catch-line; and pretty soon
they are warbling and wabbling to
rythm Of Way Down in Colon Town"
but neither shovel nor hoe makes any
dirt fly, and Roosevelts isthmian pol
icy isn't attacked nor defended. The
Rogerses go to Panama as Wallets, but
are hired to make believe they are
admirals in the United States navy.
The job is beset with difficulties that
send the two frauds to Jail; and their
escape from durance is an oddly spec
tacular incident to put into a musical
farce. After getting out of the prison,
they dive into the ocean and swim for
distant island. The scene changes
to the open sea. with waves that look
sloppy in the light Of a shiny moon,
and the two actors floating wonderful
ly like real swimmers. Goodness, but
We do move in stage illusions. Thirty
years ago, Dion Boucicault had the
dear little Colleen Bawn thrown into a
pool Of mosquito netting water, and
sprang to her rescue from a fret
sawed rock to a soft mattress, to the
delight of thrilled spectators. There
was but the faintest suggestion of
reality. Now, there is moving photog-
raphy to turn the canvas into waves,
with an archaeological moon to shine
with a moving panorama TO make the
shores seem to stand still while the
stationary swimmers appear to get
along like racers. The inventor Of that
tricky sight might be money in pocket
If he had held it out for a melodrama:
yet in extravaganza it has the value
Of unexpected novelty.
1 don't say it because I know 1t. for
it is merely a guess, that the Rogerses,
now having their own way under their
own management, are disposed to be
less like conversational specialists and
more like legitimate comedians. Sure
! ly, they add acting to their talking,
| singing and dancing much more than
ever before. And they let their very
good tenor voices go in higher range of
vocalism. 1 wonder II it is so that
Maud Raymond, being cause of dis
| sensiOn between the brothers. retired
1 in the interest Of peace Somewhere
or other, they have discovered a Ma
riOn Stanley, who sings so very well
that she helps them up into semi
/ operate heights. Also, she is a grace
full dancer, a keen humorist, and 80
much of mimic that she gives imi-
/ tatiOns of other persons in the play.
/ Where did they come across the bushel
under which she was hiding her tai
ents?
But she has one grievous fault"
said a smart-set girl.
And what may that be?" I asked.
Her hips" was the calm reply
/ 1t is so. Marion is comely, if not
/ extra pretty. but at her widest she is
wider than symmetry permits. In
/ deed, she would be barred from the
chorus for that offense. And this Rog-
ers show is to a considerable extent
an unskirted girl exhibition. Even
I NAAo@S NNNAAA1S NCAAS VI oObNdtC
/ dignity. the HengIer sisters. Flo and
/ May, are made to see their own ankles
| for about a minute In masculine garb.
| The ordeal seems to stun them. But re-
| lief comes TO the sisters Hengler in
/ the brothers Rogers, seemingly
stripped for the swim that 1 told of:
and then a section Of the ballet chorus
| divert attention by trooping forth in
castings skin-tight, though not skin
| hued, from neck to heels. That is
when they march into the arena as
| ptcadors at a bull fight, I'm which the
| RogerseS figure as toreadors. and end
the show by cutting a bull in two sec
| tons.