Omaha daily bee., 1908-11-01
SOME NEW PLAYS FOR LONDON
jerome - Notable Part for
Fcruie Ward.

-
jerome PrOvidcl y Notable Part for
Fcruie Ward.
LONDON, oct. 3l.-Cspecial Correspond
ent.)-Whatever the fate of jerome X.
Jerome's play. Fanny and the Servant
Problem in England, it is bound to go
well in the United States, where doubtless
it will appear before long. Charles Froh-
man presented It here this week at the
Aldwych theater, from which paid in Fur
has just disappeared after an il-deserved
flasco. The chief trouble with the new
Jerome play is that it contains so many
fresh and unconventional terms Of thought
in so many unexpected places. When q
Hght comedian walks backward toward a
chair that holds a silk hat, It is from many
respected viewpoints an outrage on the feel
ings OF the audience and a violation OF the
dramas laws If the comedian refrains from
sitting on that hat. Thus IN Fanny and
the Servant Problem we have a lordling
who marries a music-hall singer, and brings
her to his ancestral halls and introduces
her to his two maiden aunts. II was fore
ordained that the maiden aunts should be
comic cats and when they fail to rulfill
their function and prove to be as gentle
and d~ignified and lovable as the old ladies
in Owen Wister's novel, Lady Baltimore
it is as disconcerting as when the comedian
doesn't sit on the hat. Likewise, when the
actress, who Is supposed TO have come OF
good family" arrives at her stately new
home. she discovers that the butler is her
uncle, and that the Twenty-Five other serv-
ants are all relatives. You begin TO enjoy
in advance the humors of the comic butler,
and-at any rate if you are an average
British c%ritic-sre inclined to have a griev-
ance against Jerome when he doesn't give
you exactly the sort of butler you had
counted on. but has been so contrary as TO
provide a partly-comic character that re-
quires thought and gives some hint of an
ethical intention. BY all the rules of the
game, too, the lordling should be an ass.
but as played by that fine young actor,
Leslie Faber, the Lord Bantock OF Jerome s
play is just different enough from the eN-
peeted type to disturb the equanimity Of
experts in those rules of the game.
In the end, Of course. the music hall lady
triumphs over the butler and the rest of
her relatives, and the play ends happily.
Sometimes IT is f%arcical, sometimes it is
first rate comedy, and sometimes it drags,
but It is a well constructed and carefully
thought out play-and II It fails so much
the worse for the English stage. The pit
and gallery seemd to enjoy it mors than
the half guinea part OF the audience.
The American interest Of the play lies in
the fact that the principal part is given to
Fannie Ward. and provides that sprightly
young woman with a first rate chance.
Some Of the critics complain of her Ameri-
can accent. but no one denies that she has
made a noteworthy success. She left her
much admired DIAMONDS at home. too, AL
though there was a splendid chance to dis
play them.
In another Of the Frohman houses G. p.
Huntley is achieving the coveted house
rull' sign nightly at the doors with his
musical comedy 'The Hon'ble Phil The
book is his-or most of it-and the chief
elements of the success Of the piece care
lis, too, for he has fitted himself with a
part that brings out his droll humor to
the best possible advantage. There is one
gcod thing about the plot, too, namely. it
doesn't even make a bluff at being a plct.
There is something about a summer resort
island In the Mediterranean or somewhere
whose authorities fine anybody who wears
ordinary costume, so that titled young
gentlemen may quite easily be mistaken by
fascinating young ladies for base born boat
men. The production is distinguished by
The return to the stage OF Denise Orme.
who married a peers soE a fw months ago.
Eva Kelly, who really can act, has all too
small a part in the piece. But Huntley Is
most OF the show and is a fountain Of Joy.
Hubert Henry Davies new play for Mary
Moore at the Criterion is a bit disappoint-
ing after ''The Mollusc.' In Lady En-.
pings Lawsuit" We have the same sort
Of a Mary Moore part" but without the
neat, shrewd idea that made THE Mol.
lusc' something more than an evening'
light entertainment. Lady Epping was d
futile. fashionable, would-be dramatist. whe
invelgled a real play wright into oouaborat.
ms With her, aEd@then sued him afterwaft
for RnneNing her plot for himself. II is a
delightful skit on a certain type Of fluffy.
minded English woman, but Mr.. Davie.
has painted the same type twice before foi
the same actress.
II. b.. Irving began his London season