Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-05-11

hOhbANh duulenCeS yesterday were
Il happy. Only give the person with
~ the Morosco habit a sufficient
number of opportunities in the course
of the performance to wear off two or
three layers of his or her cuticle in
giving the glad hand to someone, and
he or she is better pleased than he or
she would be at the return of Richard
Mansfield from the bourne, etc First
of all, James Neill, absent from the
Burbank nearly five years, was hailed
noisily until he responded by telling
how he came to Los Angeles twenty
years ago. Then William Desmond had
to be given round of applause, to
show that he was not overlooked in the
shuttle. Then Edythe Chapman Neill
was shown how much everyone liked
her Last but not least the latest of
benedicts Harry Mestayer, blushfully
fresh from his honeymoon in the Yo-
semitic, was called upon to tell how he
felt about 1t. Therefore as the ma
GRITTY of the palms present were taken
home, glowing from the treatment re-
ceived, 1t must have been a great
show, for it is only the applause of
the audience and not the critical an
alysis of the student, that is to be re-
lied upon as an estimate of worth.
Lacking In EmbonpoInt
''Pudd' nhead Wilson" is good
play. 1t Is better as a story, because
there are certain incidents which were
made very interesting by Mark Twain
which are passed over in the stage
version. Still there is a great deal of
comedy, an interesting plot and a con-
siderable amount of original charac-
terization remaining and the treatment
given by the Burbank company is adj
equate in the extreme.
Mr.. Neill himself, in the title role,
departs from the traditional versions
of the character, and while he imparts
calm and judicial air to Pudd nhead's
actions, he fails to carry the weight
that is necessary to a satisfying por-
trayal. The Dawson philosopher was
man Of many disappointments, which
had ripened in him a feeling of kindly
tolerance of the world in general, a
good humored imperviousness to criti-
cism, and this finally rounded out his
entire character to a bigness that was
undisturbed by any event, however
surprising. With such character
highly arched and rather delicate eye
brows are scarcely compatible, and a
figure rather inclined toward the svelt
also fails to carry conviction. The big
ness of Pudd' nhead presupposes a big
physical being, and although Mr. Neill
kept himself we'll In hand there was
always suggestion that he felt lit
tie Ill at ease in the slow, deliberate
voice and actions of Mark Twains
character. This was rather a surprise
to those who remembered his excellent
impersonation of David Holmes in "A
Bachelors Romance" but Mr.. Neill is
changed in many ways. He seems to
have lost In avoirdupois. and vaude-
Vile has left it's mark upon him. That
he has retrogressed Is not charged,
but at least he has proved little dis
appointing as Pudd'nhead.
Has Excellent Company
Mrs. Neill as Roxy is an unalloyed
delight. This attractive woman appar-
emily has reached the zenith of her art.
No longer is there the feeling, even in
the slightest degree, that she is strain
ing for effects which do not come quite
easy to her. The grace with which she
dropped the role of the woman one
sixteenth negro, brought up to occupy
the position of slave and yet with all
the desires and ambitions of the white