The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-08-15
THEA TRTCALS IN LONDON
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

corker else a two hundredth perform
ance wouldn't be on for tonight.
found 1t TO be a comic opera in man
ner with the old. old plot OF a real and
bogus king playing hide-and-seek, or
tag-you're-i set to music that was
sung well by physically fine chorus
in snowy attire. I liked the young
women for being Of the stately type,
the soldiers for being big beefy fellows.
That they moved slowly and none too
gracefully, was an agreeable change,
once in way, from the timber hveh-
ness or our eXtravaganZas. But the six
ante comedians and soubrettes might
have spoken ChOctaw for all 1 could
make out of their jokes in London par
lance on London topics spoken rapidly
with London pronunciation. The At
lantlc had never seemed so wide nor
our English cousins so far removed.
For the same reasons, another mus
zeal piece Of long duration here, "Our
Miss Gibbs" viii have to be wOrded
and spoken differently to get into
American ears. It had drowsed me al
most to sleep when something sounded
Familiarity American. Was I dreaming
Of home, sweet home? 1 awoke to the
consciousness that Gertie Millar, whom
we had in THE Girls Of Gottenberg"
on one side Of Broadway, last winter,
when Bessie Mccoy was in Three
Twins" on the other side had kept her
threat to sing and dance 1.-THE Yama
Man ] don't know who made that
variant Of Ned HaTrigan's old negrOism,
1.-THE BOsie Man." but Bessie was first
to perform it in a way to boost the
show in which it was the best thing.
Gertie told Bessie that she would take
II back with her to London. despite all
international copyright laws; and now
with it she gives speed to the otherwise
slow-going our Miss Gibbs" And, as
the tune is played by LOndon's hotel
restaurant and theatre OrcheStras, the
grab was a big one.
II. Beerbohm Tree made a revival of
1.-THE School for Scandal" At the hun
dredth performance, which I saw. it was
Sir Herbert Tree who enacted Sir Peter
Teazle. King Edward had knighted
him two weeks before, but with the
prOvisO that he discard the BeerbOhm
portion of his name. You have never
seen more than thTee-qUaTters of the
Sheridan comedy on the stage, nor
probably read il in its entirety. As
presented heretofore within half a cen
fury, q first scene contains the only
meeting of the scandal mongers at Lady
SneerWen's house, with Sir Peter and
Lady TeaZle as visitors. As Sheridan
wrote the play. there are two spells OF
gossip at Lady SneeTvelPs, and between
them a scene of pickering by Sir Peter
and Teazle at their home.
Excelsior and readjUstment here and
further along make the play more expe-
ditiOus; and they serve, also to increase
the relative importance Of Sir Peter and
his teasing bride and to decrease that
of the two Surfaces, That was done,
no doubt because a succession of stage
celebrities acted as the quarreling hus-
band and wife, while less was done
with contrasting brothers.
It is unjust to say that Sir Herbert
Tree had any other than an artistic
purpose in giving THE School for Scan
dial" at its fun length from s O'clock
to 1920; yet an American argued to
me that, knowing his Sir Peter could
nowhere else equal that Of preceding
actors, he sought to win a success by
lettering the opportunities Of others in
the cast. The late John Gilbert was
Americas ideal Sir Peter. and Tree
fOTegOes the impossible effort at the
petulant Feasibility of Gilbert, or the
English Phelps, and doesn't character
lie the husband as old enough to be
decrepit or a dOtard, but as a welI-kept
gentleman of fifty. With such an Amer
lean Lady Teazle i'm mind, 1 couldn't
make myself admire a weak young
English actress in the part.
Sheridan meant Joseph and Charles
Surface to be paramount with their con-