The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-24

l AMI others have thought of a full
length song and dance farce devel-
oped from mighty Casey's three
strikes with no hit. The account Of
CaseY's rise and fall was recited by a
woman who had scant ability in her
capering feet, none at all in her lisping
voice. and distinction only in being the
companys one bleached blonde. / said
there was no change in this thea
trical field. That isn't so. \ year ago
three-fourths Of all the feminine hair
in every company was faded to yell
low; now nearly all is left in the color
that nature gave 20 il, and peroxide Of
mercury must have slumped in the
drug market
Twenty-Five dollars d week in addi-
tional salary would have provided an
elocutionst to declaim Casey at the
Bat" in tolerable imitation of De Wolf
Hopper. A further hoist in the wage
of an Irish comedian TO perrnate
Casey would have secured a panto-
mimist to illustrate the humor effect
ually. To save $50 a week, probably
$500 is lost in receipts, because the
setting of the scene, the by-play of the
spectators and the popularity of the
subject need only a comedian with a
clownish knack for Casey, and an elo-
cutiOnaFy hit-off in the Greek chorus
sort of reciter, TO make audiences roar
merrily at the deep, dark, classical
tragedy of the mighty Caseys three
strikes and out. But you are not a
manager of burlesquery. and results
rot processes, interest you.
The dramatically best of the four
shows that l inspected was immorally
the worst. / am sorry TO say: for il
qd T1.i-
an actress, who. poor old thing re-
tained the skill which twenty years
ago, might have ranked her with
Aimee and Jude Aside and by the
way, let me tell you that all concerned
in making this show Ike to have their
names read through the smoke of to-
baeco. The program not only tells
who wrote the librettO and score of the
opening play. but also who revised the
verses, and contributed extra songs;
and. after billing the costumer, the
providers of tights. hosiery and foot
wear" are printed. Ashamed of their
work? Why, these men are proud CT
their agency in the exhibition of Wo-
men.
The first play is sensual with the ar
rival of an East Indian prince at a re-
CeptiOn given by a Mrs, Astorbilt-note
the compression of Astor and Wander
bilt in one best society" name-in
quest of fresh young beauties for his
harem. Isn't there in that the sugges-
ton of a serious drama? This show
of course, is sung and danced in sire
ME abandon The Mrs. Astor. or Mrs.
Vanderbilt-take your choice as to
idenJity-leads a dozen chorus-ballet
of flirting girls" and undresses with
them for the live tableau of untram-
meled diving girls.
The second play had love kiss" in
II. Are you tired of reading about
the erotic waltzing that began with
The Merry Widow and has been
continued here and there and every
where in stageland? Time was when
Emma AbbOtts kiss in Faust" grand
opera sensationalized her, and later
Olga Nethersole kissed advertisingly
in Carmen" and "Ss pho
Il am dramatically delineative -
Olga once said; my Carmen kiss is
Spanish: my Sapho kiss is French, and
if ever ! enact an American kissing
heroine, 1 viii try to depict the typical
American kiss
Miss Nethersole has been renewing
Carmen and "Sapho' here, and il
seemed to me that. feeling she was up
against a lot of waltz-soul-love oscu-
lation, il was no time TO mince mat
and cosmopolitan with might and
main. and no Characterization.
Ny immediate subject. though is
the love kiss in a burlesque show
don't know how ii is in Salt Lake, but
i'm New York a kiss in an Broad
way theatre is by usage an object Of
jolly ~ridicule. If Romeo's lips touched
Juliets on a Bowery stage, the gal
lery and balcony. if not the parquet,
too. would respond with hilarious de-
rision. But this soul kiss" blended
with a love waltz" done in moon
light by pair OF pantomimic artists
yes, really. artists in pantomime-
silences the guyer with its sensuoJs
Waiting, holds them speeIbound
through the ensuing poses of passion,
and doesn't let go of them until the
climax kiss. having lasted twenty sec
onds by my watch-equal to a full
minute in theatric suspense-relaxes
the tension and let's laughter have its
way The addition of a hundred dol
lars a week TO the payroll-but who
cares for the gains and losses in the
show business?
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