The Washington times., 1908-10-13
Court of ElSinore Shows
Good Form in Brisk
Musical Comedy.
Kendall at Chase's- "On
Trial for His Life" and
Good Burlesque.

Where fares the melancholy Hamlet?
To that late discovered country. from whose
bourn.
Nor Wit nor musick holds itself secure:
Whereto 20 travel do patrons OF the stage
= re shuttle on their mortal coin
To view IN wondering ecstacy
An Inhnite interningi!ng o. gowns that
sheath.
Tin soldiers in a camp OF toys. maids wrapped
Modesly and In little else, bear that dances.
A chorus which 20 see Jand little hear
These patrons note with one suspicious and
one dropping eye.
Which is TO say that EIsinore is now
forgot i'm Washington. and "a room or
state In the castle abandoned for the
Belasco Theater, while eddie Foy doth
prove how little IS the play The thing
ana gags the means to make the laugh
ter ring. All Denmark goes Dughouse,
as remarks the mold Of fashion and
the glass Of form. and any audience that
undertook 10 n the noble prince to the
circumstances of this musical comedy
would 50 likewise
M, Hamlet Of broadway has been
in society a short eight days. In that
time he and his court have managed To
unset the SeemliHess Of Quaker PhiIa-
delphia. and rouse the less decoTous Of
cities like this 10 a pitch OF devilish ex-
last night as very few other Hamlets
ton or the next.
A Matter of Fit.
Now the extraordinary thing about
this version IF the greatest musical
comedy Of all literature is that It hangs
together Well, 81 It doesn't. It ali rises
together. Tush, tUsh Horauo. then Il
all ITS together, and It fits so closely
that here and there the audience won
ders Il there is any fl or only the coun-
terfett prcsentment or reality. The plot
would give incorporaI similitude TO any
comic opera of late years, though II be-
gins with a Cheatam and ends -vith
ghost of a ghost. BY which last Is
meant that the program doesn't make
good with number nineteen. which Is
supposed TO be sung by Hamlets IN
uIn'd spirit, Ophclia's ghost and a party
OF gravcdiggers who are likely not 10
have business with this enterprise IN
the vicinity Of the boxOffice till PhOebus'
cart goes round its thirty times and
motors back again.
See Thou characte was not writ
ten for the mincing Eddie. He never
saw character IN his life. It's all the
same 20 him whether he's getting col
lector Of orchids. or Mother Goose. or
Hamlet Here. however. he comes reaz-
Onably close 70 sticking 20 his par, and
he ought not feel that Hamle- was
such a very melancholy cuss TO stick
10 when he hears laughter like that
which drowned the BeIasco orchestra
last night. He sings only two songs
] Everything Depends on Money" and
Nursery Rhymes'-and at the close
Of the former he gave a really remark
able exhibition Of power as comedian.
As often as he was called back he turn
ed and dropped an Outstretched hand
in three or four steps, and that utter
idiocy evoked more hearty laughter
than the cIeverest line in Man and
Superman"
A Bouquet of Daisies
The fair Ophelia Of this cast Is Maude
Raymond. She is also a simple coun-
try maiden with a suspicious twinkle
In her eye. and a dusky Salome- This
last role is the one In which she really
reveals herself; here is another instance
Of a part that fits tight as wax. Her
rosemary is a carrot. and her pansy a
beet, and she herself is a pippen.
There are some others-some Rosen-
GRANTEES and Guildensterns-Iike Mr..
Cheatam, the proprietor Of the summer
hotel; Jonathan Bustle, Mrs. B and q
tiny pad; a captain of the militia; Mrs
Daisy Stringer, who is a New York
cloak model. draped; and Amelia, a per-
forming bear. The bear has his on, the
others have theirs mostly on And its
only fair to say that Oscar Ragland,
George A. Schiller, Mdbella Baker. Anna
Laughun, John H Pratt, Frances Dem
Arrest, and James F. Cook in these parts
are pretty good counterpart for Hamlet
when
They bear him ba-fac'd on the bier.
But the real support to the stars
comes from the young ladies Of the
pIay-Miss Take, Miss Fortune. Miss
Pronounce, Miss Behave Miss Adven-
ture Miss Understood. Miss Hap. and
Miss Deed. They are all there-aIl OF
EN-. and they invite you to look here
upon this picture and on this; and you
look After they have displayed their
"aht'' with a freedom that makes even
the old stager rub his eyes-though, OF
course you don't have to go IL YOU don't
want to, or being there you don't have
10 lOok-then come on a score OF nItle
tots They have the magic . on Jhelr
little chapeauX, but they do not skiddOO
unti{ the dropping lids tell audience and
PLAYERS alike that the soldiers music
and the rites Of war (and II o'clock
are not for them in ElSlnOre any more
than in washington
There's something rotten in Denmark
Not so as YOU can notice 1t when Eddie
Foy heads the bill and Maude Raymond
fits in as Ophelia and the eight misses
create the proper Artistic tGne- FROM
what we know of him, We think Will
Shakespeare would rewrite that line II
he had a chance, and could clip away
from the legitimate long enough to see
a real comedy of errors like this that
ends so We all like 1t.
ALLEN D. ALBERT.
EIIAfEnAI NE DAIV