Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-21

priety in it's makeup II is
difficult not to meet it on its own
ground. ard say. Your kindness COM
mends YOU and Your righteousness pro-
tects yor Be enrolled is one OF the Sue
cesscs of the season. If virtue couid
thus he rewarded by word so-caiieo
dramatic criticism would be worth while
But the praise which the public refuses
TO indorse is valueless save as scrap
book decoration. The new piece, Sham,
has all that should make up an ideal
evenings entertainment except one thing
alone dramatic incident. Its heroine IS
blown about on the winds of adversely as
lightly as a thistledown. Were 1t not for
her charming personality ner troubles
would not be worth listening to. From
THE Christian Pilgrim in which Miss
Crosman appeared last season. TO this
production, is a long journey; yet the two
pieces though widely different in theme.
are alike in their neglect of the usual
requisites Of plot and incident The task
of authorship is not performed beyond
providing the star with some pretIS
speec. -es and some rather trivial oppOr-
tunities for tears.
are great Its authors should have studied
Tie Richest Girl. No better illustration
could ne offered of what painstaking skill
can do in evolving plot from slight ma
,erial with feminine witchery as its inspi-
ration. In enc case an actress of estab-
lished eminence has play of imponder-
able significance; in the other play
whose every scene is an example of skilled
Il
ity is as yet but family impressed on the
popular mind. The results seem to indi-
cate that il is easier for play to carry
a sta" than for a star to carry play.
The Richest Girl is not a work Of
genius in the sense that implies magnifi-
cent Inspiration. Like many French
comedies, it affords pleasure by showing
how much can be gotten from a very
simple idea. 1t is smart in lines, but
painstakirg in structure. So skillful a
weaving and Interviewing of motives, the
more difficult to handle because they
are lightly whimsical, can be accomplish
ed only when experiences is allied with
patience. Yet there are no loose ends.
1t is an instance of the art that conceals
art.
The return engagement of 1.-THE World
and His Wife" did not secure popular
recognition beyond that accorded the
attractions measured by the ordinary
standards CT success. The play deserved
more. 1t ranks in literary style and dra-
matte completeness though not in Iofti-
ness of theme with The Servant in the
House" 1t is a play of consistent mo-
tives and memorable logic. Having laid
down its proposition, which is that ca
lImny is Il deadly and insidious thing, il
proceeds with demonstration that is
the more impressive because it is COM
pieted without any effort to devise eX-
ceptional and ingenious situations which
might enlist sympathy for the characters
In this particular story, apart from their
simple quality as types of the every
Gay world 1t is tragedy in which the
humiliation of honest pride and the de-
sruction of ideals constitute a more ter
role ordeal Than death itself. Instead
o. going TO the eternal domestic prob
lem Tor its plot, 1t represents high-mind-
cd people struggling in vain against the
Very atmosphere of cynical suspicion
which the dramatists have done so much
10 foster The action and speech of the
play are so smooth and natural that il
is difficult to realize that the hand of
All adapter has interviewed. But a COM
parison OF the work with translation of
the original az once reveals the fact tba,
Mr.. Nirdlingsrs work is not only errec
tive, but essential
Report goes forth that the most inf1u-
entail of booking agencies in New York
has declared INN III,
L. an important move. although so far as
Washington is interested il comes rathe..
Ia in the season. An interview with
Charles Frohman contains the fofIoWin.
statement:
A play that is primarily a fine drama
and secondarIiy represents an un. orr iI,lat,.
sale or life Justines II production on tne
score OF ats ,in- drama. But play that
Is primarily suggestive and only second
ariiy dramatic can never justify its pro-
duceion' under any circumsj ances'
This expresses what reviewers have been
II! Ing ia say In columns OF print Bu
when critical protest results merely in
ctowdinS tneater with people eager TO
he shoe ked, 10 whom shall We turn for
authoritative guidance: Who shall make
hu5l decision as 10 what is primarily and
what is only secondariIy suggestive" Pos
sib!\. the police
PHILANDER JOHNSON.
JOSEPH + SHEEH AN-Joscph F.
S:steaan, the grand opera leno" at Chase's
tisis week, ~ st!ll Il young man, but il
seems an age a-o ~ HIM when barking
back 10 the Time ne was a c'crk in a New
York country store He had Il fine tenor
Voc then and was member of sew, raj
local vocal o.ean,za ions and aIs1 tenor
OF the church choir. He secured a posi-
non about the time he rca he'd his ma :
lorty In one OF those transforming comic
opera companies in which the principals
sinS the chorus music us welt there be
Ing no chorus. one costume sufficed for
many parts. In such companies there are
often singers who are sliding down the
vocal and human scale, and one such
took fancy 10 the Draw and brash Jo-
seph. and taught him much of operate
tradition, of acting. of the thousand and
one things that 30 TO make success on
the stage. Next young Sheehan wander
ed into New York and helped fill up the
front row of chorus tenors in a Broadway
presence. or 'front.'" and his naturally
fine strong tenor attracted managerial
observation. Then came his engagement
for principal parts with the Castle Square
Opera Company, then under the direction
of that newcomer. Henry w. Savage. for
merly a merchant. and who accidentally
embarked In the operate business. His
chief aid was Dan Hennessy, now one
Of the bright lights of the Vaudeville AS
lot iTra tod ShAat IN