The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-08-29

to ridicule if not OpprObrium. Drama
lists, ready TO curry favor with journal
lists privately, like to flOut them publicly.
II is refreshlngly not so in Detective
Sparkes'' The wreck of q balloon is
found on an English heath. The owner
is guessed to be certain nobleman-
brooch IN the debris indicates that he had
a woman companion in his air flight.
Who was she2 The mystery figures IN
the current news. London journals send
correspondents TO get the facts. and their
strenuous efforts cause the play COM
plicatiOn; but they are not Doors, chumps'
nor any other sort of knaVes; and they
contTive to be polite in their inquisitive
work Maybe. as I said, this absence OF
ignorant or Wilful libels on journalism
disposes me to like the play, anyway.
But I don't think So I am sure that
the heroine wins me all by herself, she
is an American cousin Of the English lady
who went ballOOning Scandalously. To dl-
vert attention, confuse gossip, lead the
newspapers and police astray, and thus
hide the implicated lady, she invents
plot to burglarize the husbands country
house, commits the bogus crime herself,
assumes the character OF Sparkes,
SherlOcka Hoimesiana, and fills com
edy with her ViCiSsitudeS and final tr1-
umDh You have laughed at many mas
culine liars of good humOr and laudable
intention in plays. Well. such a person
atty feminized winsOmely by an author
and an actress is the making of "Detec-
| tive Sparkes.'
vienna comic opera.
The big whoop of THE Merry Widow"
last season has led to a grab for this
season of all the Vienna comic operas in
sight The first of these performed here
is THE Gay HussarS." The thing that
it pOkes fun at is the compulsory mill
tary service by young men in European
countries The tuneful music is sufn-
Cient to sing the play into American IA
vor. but 1 wish that some speedy Yam
kee humorist could have transferred its
ck-soldiering-i tactical war game
from the military investment Of an Aus
trian city to the recent make-believe cap
ture OF Boston Instead Of that, the Vi
ennese librettO has been translated mere
ly, with its points of caste between the
amateur militia and the professional
army unexplained, and most of its satire
left to lose itself in the unOriginative
transfer Its lovers sing their romance
to bewitching airs and they look well in
the picturesque old castle where they
meet; but the one performer who gets into
jolly good humOT with the audiences IS
| Bobby North. brought in from vaudeville
to monkeyshine and cut up as a barber
serving as a lieutenant. 1t is likely, how
ever, that improving alterations will make
The Gay Hussars" win out.
If some handsome young actor of emo
tional lovers. who has also a tenor voice
of uncommon excellence, and besides that
can dance with the highest degree of pan
tomimic grace, reads this call for him, he
has the chance of his life. The hero OF
THE Cav Hussars" is maddened by the
conduct of its heroine. His pent-up emo
ton breaks out in a passionate song, and
belches from that into a wild Hungarian
dance For that role, you see, a Sothern
for speech. q CaTusO for song and d
Niarick for dance is needed. Maybe the
adequate man is available in Vienna. He
isn't in New York as yet The manage
mant thought it had him in Orrin john
son. What actor on our stage is hand
somer than Orrin2 Who is a more fer
vid wooer? His voice, too. sings up melO-
di0usly to the roles top notes. And he