Los Angeles herald., 1908-12-21
MAX FIGMAN A HIT
IN 1.-THE SUBSTITUTE
FIRST CLASS COMEDY DRAMA
WELL PLAYED
Garden Scene in Third Act Model OF
Good Staging-Miss Robert
son Wins Her
Audience

play of unusual merit, although by no
means as noteworthy as 1.-THE Road to
Yesterday" the earlier work of these
two authors. The opening performance
of Max Figman and his company at
Hamburger's Majestic theater last
night deserved an audience much larger
than that which attended. 1.-THE Sub
stitute' is q good comedy drama, well
written and well played. There are de-
fects, several rather glaring ones, but
they are excrescences, not fundamental
weaknesses, and the play is much more
entertaining and amusing than many
more technically finished dramas.
James Smith, q young lawyer, goes
to a country parish to fill a. pulpit for
his intended brother-in-law, who is a
theological student. He does this in
keeping a promise to the young theolog
that the pulpit shall be filled. Before
he leaves, the dramatic theme of the
piece is revealed in the Attempts OF an
ambitious young district attorney to
ruin an aged clergyman, who is de-
Tended by Smith and his partner. When
Smith visits the parish house, ilnper-
sonating a theological student and
ready to take the pulpit the next day,
he learns that the clergyman whose
place he is to take is the old man
whom the district attorney is attack
lIlSs 6UtlLllg IidNAilE PAOllApbAS AetANAi -
love with the clergyman's daughter,
comes to the rescue and saves the old
man from disgrace, at the cost of the
revelation on his part that ten years
before he was married to and divorced
from the villainess in the plot. The
girls faith stands the test of this dis
covery and the ending is felicitious.
There is q defect in the play also
noticeable in 1.-THE Road to Yesterday"
In the introduction of comedy lines to
give tone-relief an anti-climax results
This almost ruins the last scene, where
the woman, in the role of chief trouble
maker, is revealed in her true character
by Smith. The climax of the play is
reached in her breakdown, yet it is all
but spoiled by the supposedly lighter
touches.
Max Figman is delightful as the alto
gether likable Smith, who finds expia-
ton for past follies In honorable sue
cess and his exalted love for the min
ister's daughter. The comedy of the
piece is wholesome and natural, and Mr..
Figman is at his best in it.
Miss Lolita Robertson's Celia 10th
rop stands out as a strikingly good bit
of acting. No minister's daughter in
real life could be more natural and
flowerlike than is Miss Robertson in
the part. The stenographer also is well
done.
Quite often we see automatons on the
stage impersonating real persons, but
seldom do we see a real person imper-
sonating an automaton Miss Muggins
Davies, as the doll in the "Toymaker,"
which is the Christmas bill of the Fer
ris Hartman company, is the most
charming automaton that was ever
glued together; At any rate you mag
inc her glued together for the stime
being, with her admirable stimulation
of the jerlky movements of a me-
chanical toy.
"The Toymaker'' is a delightful comic
opera and is well played by the Hart
man company. There is small oppor-
tunity for individual stars to shine, but
the parts all are we'll taken and the
piece still has the charm which appeals
alike to the graybeards and the kids In
short frocks.
While comic opera imposes only a
questionable adherence to reality, there
is limit to the amount of exaggera-
ton with which new part may pc
given without destroying its artistic
merit. Mr.. Hartman makes the old
toymaker more of vaudeville char
acter than a comic opera character,
and at times is grotesque where there
is an opportunity to be really funny.
Robert Lett is not only comedian OF
considerable cleverness. But he is some
audience hailed him delightedly when
he appeared as Herr Schwartzenbach,
and he did not disappoint them.
The staging of the piece is an ambi-
tious undertaking, but 1t is well done.
The toy shop scene at the end of the
first act, with the mechanical toys in
motion, is especially good
Augustus Thomas rollicking comedy.
"On the Quiet" will be the offering of
Lewis Stone and company for their
final week at the Auditorium. The role
of Robert Ridgeway. the young Yale
undergraduate who marries against the
wishes of the girls family, will give
Stone a fine chance for the display of
his talents as a funmaker of the Willie
Collier type. There will be n special
Christmas matinee at the Auditorium,
in addition to the regular Tuesday
Thursday and Saturday matinees.
over fifty carpenters, painters and
decorators took charge of the Belasco
theater Immediately after the perform
ance last night and will work for a
time-record in getting, the house in
readiness for the opening of the
Belasco- Blackwood company with
Lewis S. Stone as the featured" mem
Der a week from tonight. The sale of
tickets for the first week OF the Stone
tenantcy of the Belasco stage will COM
mence this morning with Treasurer
George Clayton in charge of the box
office. Clayton reports that he has al
ready received over HOO season reserva-
lions for the Belasco under its new
management.
The William Fl. Hoegee company viii
give its annual Christmas party to its
employees at the Grand tonight. Two
hundred and fifty seats have been re-
served for 1.-THE Toymaker" and were
distributed with the pay envelopes Sat
urday afternoon. The thirty-one heads
of departments in the employ of the
company will meet for a dinner at
Levy's before the play, while the otho'
employees will assemble. at the theater
Charles Erin Werner, well known both
here and abroad as an accomplished
actor of Irish romantic character roles,
opened a two weeks engagement at
the Peoples theater yesterday after
noon, presenting his own adaptation
of the favorite Irish play, "Shamus
O'Brien." The second week of Mr..
Verner's stay will be devoted to
"Robert Emmett" "Shamus O'Brien"
will continue through this week, with
the usual Wednesday and Saturday
matinees and with a special matinee
Christmas day. If yesterdays aud
fences are any criterion this famous
old Irish play will attract large aud
fences through the week, as it should
do. The play is one of the best of it's
kind. and It is well acted. It's patriotic
appeal is strong, its story interesting,
and If some few of the scenes are
rather clumsy judged by modern day