Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-12
THE GENIUS IS
AMERRY SATIRE
De MILE COMEDY PUT ON BY
BELASC0 COMPANY
SHAMs OF ART WORLD GET UNa
GLoVED HANDLING
Woman cyeler Loops the Loop in
Safety Amid Breathless Silence
at the Los Angeles
Theater
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE

The merriest play in town this week
is 1.-The Genius" William and Cecil
De Miles satire on things artistic, crit
ical and human, which the Belasco
stock company has revived. The pre-
posterous and yet perfectly plausible
story of how a rich young man lent his
name to the productions of painter
a sculptor and musician, to their
amazing financial enrichment, kept
large audience good-natured last night.
How he finally partly emerged from
the web of dupliclty his bargain had
spun it takes three acts to tell. Posing
as a genius, he at length fairly proves
himself one. He has to be to carry 1t
off successfully. The select coterie who
dote on art, including particularly de-
lectable critic, are tricked TO the
queens taste. When told the truth
they refuse to believe themselves de-
ceived, setting 1t all down to the ar
tistic temperament" So 1.-The genius"
makes the best of it by inducing the
girl he does not love, but is engaged to
marry, to renounce him 'for the sake
of his art" She does so, and WedS the
critic, which one imagines is double
revenge Meanwhile the cause of it all
model, and considers, with much jus
tice, that his artistic education is only
beginning.
Everybody in sight gets his share of
satire-artist, business man and So
ciety bud no less than aspiring medi-
Ocrity and its credulous disciples.
There are ludicrous situations a plenty,
of which the players make the most.
Lewis s. Stone is the chap who finally
convinced Of his ppnil1S
which is plainly not artistic but dip
lomatic His work Is the best | have
recently seen him do. Frank T.. Camp,
Richard Vivian and William Yerance
are the triumvirate who win an anony
nous fame by his proxy. The last
named especially gives an excellent i'm
personation. Howard Scott Is a quite
regal and contemptuous critic-far
more formidable than William Winter.
Mr.. Ruggles is the would-be artist,
with his studied stutter and mawkish
shyness. Mr.. Applebee fills the role of
a mystifed business man. Miss Ma
Crane is the model, showing us an un-
usual type but one which we are glad
to believe may be as real as her more
boisterous stage cousin. Miss Earring
ton has a good comedy part and plays
it well. Other roles are acceptably
filed by Miss Taylor, Miss Gardner.
Miss Williams and Miss Lewis.
THE Genius" Is the sort of play to
regale an idle evening very agreeably.
1t is excellent fun, with an undercur-
rent Of pungent truth. If the personal
equation is worth anything let me ad-
nit that I found myself laughing nat
urally for the first time in many
weeks of dutiful following of the foot
lights.
The first full dress and scenic re-
hearsal for "Woodlandr will be held at
the Grand today.
Manager John H. Blackwood and
Captain Jones of the Belasco theater
are in San Francisco on a business
trip.
For some thirty seconds a woman
dares death by riding a bicycle at full
speed down and around a circular
track. For an instant her path is
above her and her head and body seem
strainng to pull the machine from it's
destined goal. Next minute we see
her arrive in safety, and 1t is all over
Her name is Carlotta and she is the
feature attraction Of the Los Angeles
theater bill.
There are several other good acts
at the Los Angeles this week. if none
quite so hazardous. Tom Linton and
seven well constructed Amazons of the
jungle present tropical oddity." It's
somewhat abortive story concerns a
missionary who went to convert the
cannibals and was himself transformed
into a cannibal chief. Tom is mildly
comical. There is no innate reason for
making him a missionary. AS a mat
ter of fact he isn't one, at least to the
apprehension of anyone who has seen
the genuine article. But he represents
the idea of Gilbert when he wrote the
Bah ballads. And he reminds US, with
occasionally unnecessary viruence of
how much the world has altered since
that day. His chorus of dusky bellies
are very charming, and dance fetch
ingly.
The Rusticana trio are some more of
those strolling Italian minstres of
whom one never quite tires in vaude-
vile. They sing and play on violin
and guitar, with good effect. w. C.
Hoefler and an assistant trife with
wheels of various kinds, with Incl
dental comedy. Gertrude Everett af-
~ Z"