Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-04
ROLLICKING FARCE is
BURBANK'S OFFERING
MUCH FUN AND GOOD COMEDY
IN "NANCY & CO."
Augustin Daily at His Worst Produced
Entertaining Skit Well Acted
by the Morosco Com
pany

by the Morosco Com
pany
NANCY & CO.." an eccentric piece in
four acts, from the German Of Rosen, by
Augustin DAILY.
THE CAST
Mr. Ebenezer Griffing. John w. Burton
Keife O'Keife, esq. "A. Byron Beasley
Captain Paul RenseIer. =. William Desmond
Young MIR. Skies StOckslOw. ...........
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. Henry StOckbridge
Tippy Brasher Harry MeStayer
Oriana, her daughter and his niece. -.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. Alice Lowell Taylor
Daisy Grifing, his daughter and her
niece NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. Mango buffet
Nancy Brasher. Observation-Disclosures Mary Hall
Augustin Daily is never more a law
unto himself than in Nancy & Co."
the weeks Offering of the Burbank
company. The play is built in happy
disregard of most of the accepted
canons of playwriting, and this very
fact, strangely enough, adds much to
it's effectiveness. If there were any
pretense to finished work in the piece
the clack and clatter, with the clum-
silly devised situations, would be dead
ly, but as it is there is much pleasant
relaxation in the efferVeScent comedy,
stageworn and trite as it is. The mil
lennium probably will have come and
gone before playwrights will have
abandoned the man = in the room
where-he- shouldnt-b be frameup, and it
| is probable that it will be just as
funny then as it Is now.
The Burbank company shows great
adaptability and every part is excel
lently played. Miss Alice Lowell Tay-
Tor is dazzling, almost spectacular, In
her mOdiSh new gowns, Miss Mango
buffet is bewitchingly girly-girly in
her usual ingenUe role, Harry Stock
| bridge is a fascinating "candy-legs,"
barring the lisp, and John Burton, ap-
pearing in a character lead as an &C.
centric old man, passes out an album
dance of laughs over the footlights.
Byron Beasley is strangely cast as a
poet who reads love verse in a deter
mined sort of way, but Mr.. Beasley
is such a good actor that he seems to
be but slightly hampered by an ill
fitting role. William Desmond, low
able, swashbuckling, mellifluous Bill,
is there with bells on in the role of a
fascinating young military captain.
| Harry Mestayer, as a well managed
husband, had many good funmaking
opportunities and made the most of
them. Every performance in which
| Mr.. Mestayer appears adds to the con-
! victiOn that he is most accomplished
| and versatile character actor
Miss Mary Hall did not appear until
nearly the end of the first act, but
! from then on she dominated the play.
| Miss Hall seemed to enjoy the piece.
after the tragic intensity of ''Zira, -
and in the little Wycherly and Con-
greve homily at the last she gave a
graceful and charming finishing touch
| to the rather badly contrived closing
scene.
1t would not be difficult to pick
! flaws in the piece. A market gardener
| from Pomona who sat next to me
| deficient in dramatic technique-but
what's the use? The audience liked IT
everybody said it was a good show
and 1 liked it myself.
| A laugh every minute with giggles
in between rippled over the audience
at the Grand last night, proving that
| pened in Nordland'' was as efficacious
| as ever. The piece is a tumble of
| jingling absurditieS, custom-made
puns and mechanical jokes, strung on
thin plot, but it is of the stuff that
successful musical comedies are made
and it pleased the crowd last night
| immensely.
1t is evident that ''Muggins" Davies
has a very warm place in the hearts
of the Grand patrons. Every time she
| appeared there were eXStatic COM
ments of delight. isn't she cute!"
and isn't she the sweetest thing"
were the frequently expressed feelings
! of several women who sat we'll down
toward the front. The little soubrette
has a distinctive charm that gives her
place all her own.
What the chorus girls lacked in
| grace they made up with ginger, as
they frolicked through their dances
and sang their songs. They wore a
variety of beautiful costumes and
made a charming background for the
| different songs of the principals, all of
whom were satisfactory in their parts
| One of the prettiest features of the
performance was the "Absinthe Frap-
Pc" sung by Walter de Leon.
1--WE Are King" Walker Whiteside's
successful romantic comedy, was pre-
scented at the Peoples theater yester-
| day afternoon with Edmund Carroll
| in the dual roles created by Mr.. White
side. Mr.. Carroll was member of the
original company which produced this
play several years ago in the east and
he gives forceful and satisfying in
depreciation of it's leading role His
support is good particularly effective
and charming being the Princess Olivia
of Miss Maude Shaw, young woman
of highly pleasing personality and an
| actress of experience and accomplish
mentS.
1--WE Are King is a comedy version
of 1.-THE Prisoner of Zenda" in so far as
its plot depends upon close resem-
| blance found to exist between the
reigning king of Hamburg, a mythical
German principality and a newspaper
correspondent. The resemblance, how
ever, does not extend beyond this basic
idea. In 1--WE Are King the news
paper man is discovered to be the
rightful heir to the throne and mar-ies
the fair princess instead of being com
PEELED to step aside that she may full
fill her duty to her people, This is
brought about, too, ingeniously and
without any great strain upon the
probabilities.