The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-20

wards neuritic uneasiness. That is to say, his waiter is veritable Sir Charles Coldstream in stage portrait ure, while the men he serves. although not American but English. make you dread that, next minute, they'll lay down forks and spoons to take up knives
 Drew might be funnier If he carica- tured his bogus waiter, but won't say that he ought, to. By and by, though. when this play gets to the stock cona- panies, I shall expect the leading &C., tors to become low comedians in the starting act of this play.
 The hard up Jack Straw is no shirk of work. He takes the clothes and job of . London restaurant waiter. and is recognized by a former American fellow adventurer. Holland. who at the moment is being snubbed. along with his wife. by the London parvenu Jen. nfngs family. Holland. asks Jack Straw, who he doesn't know as an heir possible to a throne, to be intro- duced to the Jenningses as the prince ling whom he really Is. but seemingly Is not That's the oddity of Jack Straw"-a waiter assuming a princes title that actually belongs to him. The beard thereupon drops off Drew. and we get an evening of fun with him as a counterfeit yet genuine prince woo ing the lovely Miss Jennings. while guying her boor father. shoddy mother and chump brother. Need I tell you that John of the Drews. best American example of the quiet type Of English light comedian, finds happy role as this Jack of the Straws, who turns out to be a king in futurity. That Is to say, he is a bully good-what did nickname him--oh, yes. Gofmof. The writing of the play Is less clever than It's theme of a prince figuring as waiter and falsely pretending To De himself; but all the entertainins value of the play is forced across the ioo'- lights.
 The Mrs. Jennings of Jack Straw purse vain and playing low TOT hign in a social game of stacked cards, IS acted by Rose Coghlan. once beauti- ful young actress of Wallackian nero ines. A pretty Mary Roland Is the fragrant posy of the Jennings famlly' and . dozen other members of the Jen- ninr's bunch of loud society smeiiers- I won't say stinkers-as they are mer. r,lv diverting: but on the first night Miss coehlan. good old Rose. got such a hearty welcome back to Broadway as unset her boise for awhile.
 Drew has for many years had @ wsn him young stars-yet-to-shlne. rom Msua Adams to Billie Burke. but this time his potential aid comes from an accomplished woman of his own age. I love Rose; indeed I do. and that's why I'm pained to see her sex dominate her art She would look the matured matron of Ugh society to dot without a touch of make up; yet she falls to count the years since Wallack and she were romantic lovers. and hardens her face artificially. All the same. this Is a Broadway re-blooming of the Rose.
 
 sneakine of lovely actresses. not as vounr as they used to be. there's Vir- sinia Harmed. Wonderful creature! I don't say so because she Is a beautiful woman with a melliferous voice much like Rose Coghlan's and a similar skill to use 1t effectually. Nor yet. because having failed at the seasons start with a long play. she writes a short one herself and goes into vaudeville
 This piece she calls The Idol of the Hour" and she. of course. Is its hero inc The cheek or her" thought I, as I heard her described in her own com position as an artist of physical lovell- ness and romantic glory. Then. being disposed to further impo .teness, I be- gan to count up the years between my first sight of her in Henry Arthur Jones's first Hitting play. The Danc- ing Girl" and her last appearance with E. H. southern De1ore diVorclng him. I was drifting from arithmetic into algebra to solve the complex problem of Virginia's age and that of another famously preserved beauty, Lillian Russell--who Is hero with new play and was basing a calculation on the ! bringing out of Lillian by the just now dead Tony Pastor in a variety show condensation of Patience" when I heard Virgini- say: T am too old Il woman to let a boy like that love me-" My ears prieked themselves up at that-and I do believe they wagged like a donkey's when, a minute later. she made a remark something like: He shall not give his youth to my ma : turity"
 That is why celebrate Virginia Harmed. An actress. in a play written by herself, for herself, makes herself comment on the regrettable age of her self. Well. I never!
 However. Virginia. in putting to- gether The Idol of the Hour," has | done what actresses are prone to do
 (Continuea on Page seventeen.)