Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-31


recollections of the Theatre
mi week 1t was distinguished
rather by effort misapplied
than by achievement, except
ing I'm the case of Huntley, the comedian.
who has created a character quite as
worthy of setting in legitimate story
as Lord Dundreary. Music has CHARMS
but It also has its disadvantages, and
PLAYER of his skill is handicapped instead
of being assisted by the show girl dis
play and the tnkle of rhymes and melo-
dies of the sort now turned out In pro-
fusion There are few 'song hits at the
nresent time for the reason perhaps
that songs are produced with such FAC
tory-l.ke steadiness that the supply has
gotten away ahead of the demand DIT
ties that not long since would have at
tsched themselves to popular memory
20 in one ear and out OF the other.
owing to the industry with which COM
posers have been at work providing mu-
steal comedy material. There Is 100
much music in the air. The result Is
confusion. One melody treads on an
others heels like the brass bands that
are allowed to march too close together
in a parade.
II Is peculiar that MT ttuntIeE mas
been encourag ed or required To devote
himself closely TO a form of entertain
ment which subordinates the comedian
TO the singing teacher and the dancing
master. If Augustus Thomas could be
persuaded to write another play on the
lines of THE Earl of Pawtucket' for
Huntley It would be one of the most
hopeful enterprises a manager could I'M
dertake.
The ambition of a musical comedian
for legitimate prestige does not receive
much encouragement from The Man
Who Stood STILL" in which Louis Mann
makes another step toward placing his
musical comedy past far enough in the
background to be forgotten. Musical tall
ent In a popular vein is by no means an
indication of dramatic deficiency. 1t is
related that no less an artist than Edwin
Booth was known to play the banjo Tor
his own amusement in the privacy of
his dressing room. Richard Mansfield
could give limitations of musical instru-
ments and sing Little German songs most
fetchingly. Instances might be multi
piled of players who have risen to serious
eminence in spite of early musical ten
denotes. Mr.. Mann's personality Is more
important this season than his play,
which rushes precip. lately into a situa-
ton SO painful that its further discussion
is almost impossible.
The playwright persists In 1t without
even awaiting himself Of the relief which
Goldsmith extended to SO many dramat-
lists, when he invented the supposed mock
clergyman who. just when the trusting
heroine is to be overwhelmed with dis
grace, discloses 1nself as an ordained
minister and proves to the designing viii
lain that he is, despite his Vaccinations,
a regular married man. The happiness the
play seeks to arrange for its characters
must at best limp with a shabby and in
secure crutch of impractical sentiment.
The plot does not assist Mr.. Mann's i'm
PRESERVATION. which stands out as a fine
character study. The story is a continual
distraction from the central figure, who
even on it's own account does not con-
sistently command sympathy. The char
acter study, is the more a work of art
because it does not gloss the traits of
irascible Obstinacy which render the
matchmaker merely the victim of his
own short-sighted folly. If it were the
devotion to an ideal that held him from
the forward movement of his time and
ton, but as it is. there is only the dam
gerous pity that, for audiences repre-
senting the very spirit he anita gonizes,
must have in IL a touch Of contempt Mr..
Mann is accustomed to laughs and seeks
them at times by the same methods that
made him so entertaining in burlesque.
He risks the destruction of his own de-
sires. The confusions of English the
spluttering indignation which winds up
in the desperate ejaculation What's the
use" are effective and amusing devices.
wherever he may choose to interpolate
them: but every recourse to this old ma
terial Is calculated to impress him in the
minds of his auditors as a comic spe-
cialist TO the detriment of that recognition
creative artist that he unquestion-
ably deserves.
Better reports came later in the week
from THE Golden Widow" The Tues
day night Performance was given under
disadvantage for which. perhaps, no one
should be held responsible unless it be the
management ia providing too scant an
opportunity for rehearsal. Tie piece was
presented to take the place of the one
In which Miss Lulu CHASER was 10 an
pear. Miss CHASER was not willing to 90
on with the production, and the com
pany was reorgsnized in PHILADELPHIA,
and The Golden Widow placed I'm re-
hearsal. 1t had scarcely "a weeks prepa-
ration. and. while not an entertainment
entitled To rank with the offerings of a
regular theatrical season, displayed ma
tcrfal capable and worthy of development.
The Golden Widow emphasizes Tho
melancholy fact that Washington's glory
as a first night city has temporarily
departed. Tho only original presenta-
ton I'm long time was .'1'ho Golden
Widow which arrived only because OF
adverse circumstances. We are no longer
the dog" We are the goat"
PIIlLANDER JOHNSON.
CECIL SPOONER STATISTICS.-CcclI
Spooncr Is roputed to have the smallest
foot on the American stage. Miss SpoOner
- five foot four I'm height and weighs
loo pounds and wears a ia shoe.
There Is on exhibition one Of Miss
Spooner's shoes. and card that accom-