The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-10-27
TOLD OF "THE MERRY WIDOW
BY FRANKLIN FYLES.

New York, Oct. 25,-Descriptively and
not very critically will tell you about
the really salient things in the operet-
| ia of The Merry Widow" the tragedy
of ''Sappho and Phaon," the musical
comedy Of THE Hoyden" and the ex-
| travaganza of THE Top o. the World,
which are noteworthy stage produc-
| tons within a week in this town The
| oldest thing in ''The Merry Widow is
| a sentimentally dramatic waltz The
| widow is not as merry as she pretends
| to be. She is Transylyanian million
| heiress and she goes to Paris for fun,
| but gets serious with the estrangement
| of her sweetheart. There is no need
to tell the story of this lovers quarrei,
but only to note that, at its worst, ti .,
man VOWS he'll never say Il love you
| to her, and she vows he shall Iha'
the fond feud between them when, at
ball given by her, they are coupieu s's
dancers. She is bent ON enchahtllS
| him, while he is determined W ioSiS,
| her allurement At first lheS Will
and stamp In a Hungarian SORT VI ma
zourka, but soon they waltz W oiiS tune
that is most effectual III an inc RAM
char music that has been the making
oe ssrT,t-, [Toyr,J widow in Europe. The
| 1--we affair mind you, is not a triviality
| os .-ooor an5 dance, but one of acute
baartaches: and in the waltz the real
Io,~ars and pretended haters enact a
deanIv emotional scene. The music is
a sensuous, circling melody, and to il
ire widow Sonia and the Prince Da-
silo simultaneously talk like high
tragedy and dance like low comedy.
THE pure-minded young woman be-
comes a siren of voluptuous deviltry
to make the distracted man say Il love
you" So the audience gets an eXpOsi-
ton of soulful passion along with a
wonderful show of physical attack by
a woman and resistance by a man. |
don't advise anyone to read Shakes
peare's Venus and Adonis," but feel
bound to say that il expresses the feel
ing of that conversational waltz by the
widow and the prince. The ingenuity
Of their gyratory embracings and the
grace of their passionate pantomime
would be offensive if they were not
beautiful, and if they did not look as
though inspired by the melodic waltz
which, having been danced to at all the
summer hotels in the land, will have a
winter of prosperity in our bathrooms.
X X
During three years The Merry
Widow" has thrived so exceedingly in
Vienna, its birthplace. Berlin. Paris
and London that not a scrap of doubt
v
York That feeling Of certainty was
betrayed by the assignment of the cost
lest of the theatres to It for the re
mainder Of the Just begun season, and
the employment of a starleSs company
to perform it. There is no use guess
ing how high a royalty is paid for the
use OF the play, nor the cost of gowning
in the most modish possible manner its
hundred women; but the only names in
z
OF Ethel Jackson and Donald Brian
the principal lovers. and r. E. Graham
an old cuckold diplomat. Yet Colonel
Savage has made up an entirely ca
pable company from his operate
forces mostly. and expensive stars be
bowed Therein lies comfort for those
who don't like the starring system, and
greatly increased profit for the man
ager, for here ''the plays the thing
indeed. and he may send out as many
companies as he cares to, with none Of
them second to any other.
While THE Merry Widow is away
up in the scale of dramatic and mu-
steal art, the purist can't enjoy il
without rack to the consciences. The
ball that the Widow Sonia gives is in
a garden, and into a summer house an
old diplomat sends his young wife
with a gallant officer to cajole and
wheedle him for political purposes; but
on peeping through a keyhOle he sees
and describes to the audience-sOme
mutually sincere endearments.
"She's letting him kiss her dreadful
ly-oh. yes, awfully," the husband ex-
claims.
The last of the three acts represents
a hilarious night at MaXim's notorious
Paris resort for rakish eaters, drinkers
and dancers. Candid tourists return
from the French city with word that
Maxirn's doesn't deserve its reputation
for frenZied and ornate gaiety; the
older men say it is not less sordid and
sodden a place of iniquity than Harry
Hills once famous hall used to be
here in New York; but in 1.-The Merry
Widow" it is represented resplendently
with an all-night orgie in full swing.
The excuse for this showing of Partisan
depravity is that the merry widow goes
there to grab out her beloved prince
from the sirens whom he has resorted
TO for solace in his Iovelorn despair
Here a skirt-tOssing. lingerie-whirlng
hells-over-head grisette leads in such
vicious saturnaIia as 1 have never be-
fore seen beautifed on the stage: which
is the same as to say that "The Merry
Widow is exquisite in theatrical han
dicraft, and at the same time wicked.
X X
The dignity OF the drama is upheld
against all the frivolity by the tragedy
Of "Sappho and Phaon,' and 1t is held
away UP. One cannot approach an I'M
dertaking of this cOmmendable intent
and good accomplishment without a
feeling of gratitude and respect. Percy
Mackaye is the only contemporary
American whose verse tragedies reach
the stage.
Mackaye has undertaken to adhere
to the form of Greek tragedy; telling
his story, for instance, in one scene for
his three acts. and arranging his Incl
So