Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-19

Thomas F.. Shea in a repertory of tragic
plays a bob-tailed season" of grand
opera and repetition of "The Blue
Moon which is beginning to show the
unmistakabe signs of advancing years
were the chief features of an uneventful
dramatic week-the hiatus between the
regular season and the opening Of the
stock companies There were also moving
pictures, and remarkably good ones. too.
at the Columbia while the National was
crowded for two nights by audiences that
were nightly pleased with entertain
ment in which children were the perform
ers-.rniles away from the shadow of the
Gerry Society.
1t was only to the performances of Mr..
Shea at the Academy in "A Soldier of the
Cross DIR. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde" and
The Bells that any purely dramatic in
terest attached. The first play Is quite
unworthy of the actors undOubted talent.
for like "Quo Vadis'' and similar dramas,
it contains a vast quantity of buncombe,
designed to win applause by appeals to
prejudice. irrespective of reasona bleness
in the plot. In Or Jekyl and Mr.. Hyde.
however, Mr.. Shea was better suited.
His Hyde was a somewhat noisy creature.
but he was sufficiently horrible to alarm
the more nervous spectators. Mr.. Shea's
presentation of THE Bells was adequate
and dignified His company in this play
was eminently satisfactory. and even the
shade of Henry Irving might not have
refused to express qualified approval.
At the close Of the spring festival at the
New National the subject of Washington
as the corpus vile for theatrical expert
ments brought forward by Justice
Gould who. in an address from the stage.
declared that "a prominent dramatic critic
of New York had told him that prOduc-
ers were particularly anxious to get the
verdict of Washington first since the au-
diences of this city so discriminating
III critical This is balm to the wounds
IN its vanity which Washington feels re-
currently at being classed in the theatrical
world as one of the dog towns" Though
it may be delightful to see for the first
time excellent play, starting on its
career of success, yet it is a question
whether the enforced contemplation Of
numerous dramatic Nightmares, soon to
be exercised, is not too great a price to
pay. even for the compliment of being
called discriminatory critical"
What with wholly unintentional
humor is called 1.-The brief season of grand
opera in Washington is always more or
less of a painful subject, because the
management selects the end of Holy week
for Its visit; because it gives whatever
operas 1t chooses, whether Washingto-
mans would prefer them or not, and be-
cause it does not present the singers whom
Washingtonians would as a rule. most
care to hear. The idea seems to be that
Washington must take what 1t can get
and be thankful From the opera man
agement nothing is heard of the 'discrin1-
inatingly critical audiences" Yet Wash
ington is a musical center, and it gets and
appreciates the best in music, in every
thing except grand opera. This year an
entirely gratuitous affront was added by
the failure of the management to present
the two singers advertised to take the
women's parts in La Boheme'' and by
the managements omission to take any
step to pallate the offense, either by
timely warning of change of cast-a
change known day previous-or even by
apology or the expression of regret