Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-04
lie cAsT


nush ...,............... Harry Spea
Mrs. H. L. Kent. ......... Eleanor Care,
Mrs Joe Lacy Florence smyth'
OOo Lacy .....s....s.. -. Lewis >. Ston'
Mrs. Kate Brandon. -. Katherine Emme
Dave Lacy ......... ....,. Harry Glaziel
| Bud Young ......... $50. Charles Ruggles
II. Van Rensselaer, Kelly :. Richard Vivinr
Livingstone winthrop. ......, Howard scott
Bill ferguson ............ William Herancs
Lon Ferry .....,......-..., Wliltnm hHrE'
Gus Ferris s.............. John DAILY Murphy
hadge casey ..,.......... .DorOtny bernaro
DIR. Whipple le............. Joseph DeGrassS
BY SIDLE LAWRENCE
1T is EASY to understand why 1.-THE
Heir to the Hoorah" is popular
- with western audiences; and diff
cult to understand why it is also pop
ular in the east. Here is a western
play which upsets all eastern notions.
There isn't a cowboy nor an Indian in
the cast. Nobody is lynched and no
body drinks more Athan he can COM
fortably carry. The alluring whirr of
the roulette wheel, the enticing click of
ivory chips alike are absent, and not
man of the cast proclaims his exuber-
ance by firing blank cartridges at the
scenery.
How the east ever stood for such
iconoclasm of its best loved traditions
of western life Is one of those things
that cannot be explained, but the fact
remains. Perhaps the east is less blood
thirsty in its tastes than playwrights
other than Mr.. Armstrong have imag-
ined However that may be- this is a
good, red-blood play; a play in which
the comedy element predominates, but
which still has its appeal to the emo>
tions.
These are real men and women the
Belaseo players give us in "The Heir
to the Hoorah." The acting is note
worthy. The several members of the
company have seldom done finer work;
have seldom worked so well together.
The result is an achievement.
Has No "Star" Role
There is no star role in the play.
No, one or two parts overshadow the
rest, which is merely another way of
saying that this Paul Armstrong COM
edy is pretty good sort of a play for
stock purposes. The fun is provided by
a quintet of western mining men,
staunch friends of the Hoorah's owner,
and two young women, their accom-
plices in merriment. The sentiment is
furnished by the predicament in which
young wife finds herself; wife who
had married for money, who starts out
by cringing at her husbands touch,
and who finishes by falling in love with
him.
AS I have said. there is much good
acting in the Belasco presentation of
this play. Stone, as the husband;
Glazier as his brother; Ruggles, YER
ance; Murphy and Harris as his friends,
all contributed largely to the general
excellence; but I am inclined to think
the greenest laurels of the production
should be awarded to Miss Florence
Smythe, as the wife. Miss Smythe has
y1,A oTIra adI n
art recently. She has improved so fast
that appreciation has sometimes been
hard put to it to keep pace; but she
haa,don nothing, I believe, so fine as
herFplaying of Mrs. Joe Lacy.
They Wear Dress Shirts
AS for the comedy-the richest bit
comes in the opening scene of the sec
ond act. Here the friends of Joe Lacy
assemble to give him dinner upon his
return from a European trip. They
are staunch friends, all of them; men
who, as one of them expresses it, would
go anywhere for Joe, even into a burn
ing mine. Anxious to do the thing
properly, they arrive at the hotel at
tired in dress suits" Evening clothes
fails to explain the idea. These are
"dress suits" One man wears no col
lar until he is compelled by the others
to don one. Another wears a four-in-
hand tie that would create riot in any
self-respecting haberdasnery. All of
them wear belts, either underneath or
below their waistcoats.
Now that costuming is ludicrous in
itself; but the real fun of the situa-
tion lies deeper. 1t is found in the
shamefaced manner with which these
When one of them leaves the room to
go down stairs ne puts on an overcoat
to escape ridicule. Yet at the same
time they seem to be rather proud of
their garb. It's all in the acting. You
can't get it in print; but it's funny
enough almost, to make you forget
for the time being tomorrow's appoint
ment with the dentist.
Lewis s. Stone as Joe Lacy in the
first act gives us Characterization of
real value. Here he has succeeded in
getting away from himself completely.
Then comes that entr'acte trip to
Europe, and it is a different Lacy who
greets his friends in act two. The
transformation seems too marked.
Eight months of foreign travel might
do much for man, but 1t could not
overcome the habits of lifetime; and
not once after his return does Lacy
display any of the little social lapses
which had proved so grievous a bur-
den for Mrs. Lacy and her aristocrattc
mamma earlier in the play. For this,
however, the playwright doubtless is
more to be blamed than the actor. In
illustration, Lacy's handling of the
scene with his mother-in-law in the
last act is a cleverly executed bit of
social strategy. He doesn't CALI her,
as his brother phrased it, but he at
tains his ends. The difference is as
marked as it would be if instead of
ordering a man from your house you
were to comment politely upon the
magnificent view to be obtained from
the south terrace.
Apart from the character types al
ready mentioned clever work is done
by Richard Vivian as an eastern min
ing engineer in Lacy's employ; How
ard Scott as an eastern investor of in
different morals; Joseph DeGrasse as
a physician; Miss Eleanor Carey i'm the
role of the society mother-in-law; Miss
Katharine Emmett as a widow mine
owner, and Miss Dorothy Bernard as
young girl newly from school.
CAM pEnR0 TInE TARl E