The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-14
New Theatre Opening Brings
 TriUial Detects to Light

fectiye in design. The groupings were often eloquent With meaning and aI- ways admirable for clear-cut simpIfc- ity. The cast--containing many so- called stars In roles of the briefest was probably as good as could be gathered for Shakespearean tragedy There remain Miss Narlowe and Mir. Sothern to be considered. Presuma biy they are to blame for the insufferab ble slowness of the performance. Some- where in the text Antony says he feels 1 full of lead" and certainly Sothern acted as though he might be. The role Is not good one. but an actor of he- roic method might make it effective. Sothern seemed almost as utterly swamped beneath as he was by the theatre; though In the scene with Eros he offered commendable substitute Tor fire and oratory
 Miss Marlowe did far better in a part Tar better. Her rich, poetic beauty: her grace and variety of gesture; her glo. rious voice; all exercised their custom ary spell. Yet she has not the person. anty Tor Cleopatra. Her passion was Juliets. her languor an Olivia's, and her tempests perilously like the petty fury of the Shrew But withal Miss Marlowe has never failed to invest q role with qualities of unquestionabie e'eathesst and Sne did not so Tail now. Most Americans, including some of the brainy. desire to lose headaches at the theatre by a cessation of thought, not to get them by problem atieal thinking; and that is good for Frank Daniels. Also for other stage foolers. II name the dumpty- doodle comedian because he comes out now in new extravangza. Isn't 1t queer that so many starred comedians in song and dance plays can't sing or dance :? Yet they contrive to amuse. and that's enough. Born drollery is their en- dowment. Daniels 'is funny at sight
 with his big head on a pumpkin body and short sticks for legs. He Is de- void of mfmetic ability. No matter for that. He is the pivot of centrifugal fun in ''The Belle of Brittany"
 On the first night of that show, almost-not quite--let Daniels fool me with an old trick played with new auuacity. He and bright soubrette, Elsie Ryan, started a dialogue perti- nent to the plays plot. He at once dtgressed into Jests and anecdotes with the manner of gagging and guying that is to say. impromptu talking; and Elsie pretended to be upset by his in- terpolation of unrehearsed lines and omission of cues. She hid some gig gles behind her hands, tried in vain to repress her merriment. and finally fled from the scene in confusion. It was done cleverly. But there came into my memory, from thirty years ago. the common practice of Birch Bernard and Backus, the middle and end men of the now forgotten san Francisco minstrels They would be- have as though tickled half to death by jokes among themselves, and the gullible audiences laughed without knowing why. Recently, in the al- ready by-gone Weber Field shows Lil- Han Russell and DeWolf Hopper work ed that same game to the delight of the rounders, who fancied that they were on the inside of the jocosity.
 "The Belle of Brittany is one more of those musical farces that are made in London by a collaborating half dozen humorists. rhymesters, melodists and stage crafters in a nicer. heater. poiiter manner than that of the cor responding American product. It hasn't a petticoat that doesn't reach down, when unfiopped to the wearer's ankles. Its half hundred girls in Brit tany costumes look like demure Qua keresses The only indecorous out break is an Apache waltz-not an In- dian dance. but the now weH-known gyrating hug of Paris depravity For | that exploit, a glrl uoHS Ter Ahouese peasant frock, dons a black decollete gown that threatens to fall away all together from the contrasting white of her body. If that were New Yorks first Apache dance, the spectators would go wild, and as 1t is they ap- plaud it more than any other thing in the whole show.
 That would be a pitty but for the quieter general enjoyment of the many acted songs. London beats New York at that sort of thing. As play ''The Belle of Brittany is of no con sequence at all; but at every feasible point the action passes into tuneful and Illustrative ballad. The girls are barking dogs with hands paving, but ting goats with heads colliding. racing horses with foot prancing and warb- ling birds with fluttering arms for wings; and with the charm of femi- ninity to help out, these pleasantries are very agreeable. All this is done in the theatre once Ausgustin Daly's. and in such superiority to his ventures