The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-21

New York, comes to the Jefferson on March S.
 It has been many years since a comic opera met with such marked and popular favor as has "rhe Gay Musicians" In New York city, on hot summer nights, when people gasped for a breath of air "The Gay Musician" drew vast crowds, so potent were its charms and so mag netic the company singing it.
 In Philadelphia and Baltimore "The Gay Musicians again drew crowded houses, and 1t recently broke all records in the Hollis Street theatre, in Boston, where it opened the season of that noted theatre and played to capacity at every performance.
 Snobs are always fair sport for the humorist and satirist The man or wom- on who apes the manners and customs of a class to which he or she does not belong and to which he or she has no real right to aspire, is always amusing even when sometimes disgusting. In Jack Straw" the comedy which John Drew will present at the Jefferson theatre on March 4 W. Somerset Vaughan, the newest of the British dramatists, has drawn particu- larly clever picture of that most obnox- ious of all snobs-the social snob. fam fly of parvenus wants to get into the smart set and makes itself extremely ridiculous in it's efforts in that direction. MT. Vaughan evidently knows the peo- pie he Is writing about and consequently he makes his characters real and convinc- ing. He has given MT Drew an especially good part, of the best he has had in long time. but he hasn't forgotten the others in the cast either. They all have good parts and each one makes the most of the opportunities afforded him. As result the performance is one of the most entertaining that is likely to be seen here this winter.
 "The Blue Mouse" the reignng laugh ing success in New York, where 1t is now being presented nightly to crowded houses, will shortly be presented here by 6 special company organized by the Messrs. Shubert and rehearsed by the author.
 Edgar L. Davenport, who is supporting John Drew this season in Jack Straw" is brother of the late Fanny Davenport, who was the leading woman of Augustin Dalys stock company when Mir. Drew first joined that organization in the early '70's. MT. Davenport is son of the famous actor. E. L. Davenport, the con temporary and associate of Edwin. Booth and Lawrence Barrett
 Lew Dockstader the minstrel, although a man well along in the forties, appears to be about 30 years. He Is a dapper, we'll groomed man, who throws off years like a duck sheds water. The other day he was introduced to an old gentleman who looked at him keenly and said: You're not Lew Dockstader; you may be his son, but you're not the minstrel man. l know it."
 One of the big hits of Lew Dockstader's minstrels this season is an African scene, in which band of cannibals is shown. This stage setting is a veritable wonder of beauty, while the costumes are up- roariously funny. They were designed by Gene Carr, the we'll known cartoonist of the Evening World of New York. The music of the scene is of a soft swingy kind that appeals to music lovers, at the same time pleasing the popular fancy.
 Miss Edna Wallace Hopper, in Conan & Harris much talked of production of George M. Cohan's latest musical com