The Washington herald., 1911-11-12
AT NEW YORK THEATERS

New York, Nov. 1.-THE week has been
full of surprises. Usually, when holi-
day intervenes, the theatrical producers
make a bid for the time and money Of
those who are willing to stay up late In
anticipation OF a long rest on the NOR
row. This week, however. election day
eve passed with but two dramatic pre-
miers, both Of which were made note
worthy by their idiosyncrasies. In one
instance, THE Red Widow" which
| opened at the Astor, garnered all laurels
! in the musical comedy field by exploiting
real, definite, concrete plot, while The
Woman from the Sea-" at the Lyric, a
mystifed all save a few bald university
professors. who led the applause.
"The Red Widow"
Paeans of Joy echoed and re-echoed
| through our main thoroughfare when the
fecund Harry B. Smith produced musi-
cal comedy libretto with a plot so clearly
outlined that neither diagrams nor dark
lanterns were needed to disclose 1t. Now
however, the advent of The Red Widow
/, , at the Astor has completely overshad-
owed the efforts of Mr.. Smith, and the
art of his contemporaries. Claiming Pol
lock and Reynold Wolf, is enshrined in
Broadways indolent heart Future octo-
genarian theater patrons will date their
dramatic chronologies from the time
Hitchcock played in The Red Widow.
So we'll have the authors labored with
the book and lyrics Of THE Red Widow"
that, save for an occasional reminder
from the rather mediocre score of J.
Gebest, it might well be mistaken for
broad and laughable farce The story is
woven about the strange adventures Of
an American in Europe, Mr.. Cicero Han
nibal Butts, corset manufacturer from
9onkers. The estimable Mr.. Butts,
role played by Hitchcock. meets the Red
Widow in London, where their common
destination st. Petersburg, and the
thoughtfulness of Mrs. Butts, who de-
cides to stay at her Piccadilly hotel,
makes it possible for Mr.. Butts and his
new-found friend to indulge in a laison,
though, as Mr.. Butts puts II, the game
is scarcely worth the scandal"
In st. Petersburg. Butts finds that his
travelling companion is a Nihilist, much
sought after by the imperial police. A
dinner scene with the chief of the Cars
secret service brings matters to a ell
max, and the arrival Of the real Mrs.
Butts and her immediate arrest provide
situations of both humor and dramatic
interest.
In the last act, a scene at the Cars
Winter Palace, this intricate tangle is
successfully laughed away and the audi
ence goes home feeling that they have
not only seen a novelty in the line of
musical comedy. but witnessed a show
that will mark its advent with an ex-
tended run.
Hitchcock gallops through the scenes
and situations with all the wealth of
facial contortions and vocal eccentrici-
ties that have made him famous on the
stage of America. Sophie Barnard, as
the Red Widow. played the part with
mystery enhanced by two snake-like
eyes that looked capable Of setting fire
to the palace of the Car or the infam-
mable heart of the corset manufacturer
with equal ease
"The Lady from the Sea-"
The Drama Players, a repertoire Or
ganization, which is to have its home
in Chicago, has tarried on its journey to
the Windy City long enough to give
New Yorkers a taste of their talent and
the weird psychology of Henrik Ibsen
The play, The Lady from the Sea-"
at the Lyric, is said to be Ibsen's
first psychological drama, and is crude
enough to bear out the assertion.
The plot is talky rather than active,
and centers about maiden whose we'd
ding ceremony consists Of throwing a
ring into the sea, under the direction
of her mariner lover. This individual
is gifted with a hasty temper and a
hypnotic influence. The first he displays
by sticking a knifeinto the captain of
his ship and the second in haunting his
sweetheart after he left the country.
The sweetheart by the way, marries a
doctor, and puts in her time wondering
where her flsh-eyed' lover is, when he will
return, and what he will do when he does
return. Finally he solves the problem by
putting in an appearance and exerting
that mystifying control to such an extent
that the doctors wife, his former sweet
heart, calmly tells the doctor that she
must leave him and their child.
The doctor gives her her freedom, and
the woman, finding herself unbound, dis
covers, through some curious twist of
the playwright's inventive genius, that
the sailors spell is broken and that she
no longer loves him, but is content to
travel the unexciting matrimonial route
prescribed by the physician. Curtain on
the mariner muttering curses in the
wings, and the doctor and his erratic
wife in a domestic clutch at left CEN
ter.
Miss Reicher played Ellida, the much
loved maiden; Donald Robertson, Dr.
Wangel, and Edward Emery, the mes
meTlC sailor, bdlleSIeQ. between IneSe
three and the author, the nightly audi
ences of inquisitive rough-necks and
complacent highbrows get more mystih-
cation for their entrance fee than at any
other theater in town. ..
G'The Price,
THE Price," at the Hudsos Theater.
deals with ante-nuptial infidelity and
post-marital discovery in a gloomy though
well-conceived manner that may interest
the morbid sociologist. but viii scarcely
hold an audience whose sole and avowed
object is amusement. The play is George
Broadhurst's best dramatic production
from the standpoint Of the critic, but it
deals with a subject, which, through
prudery. is considered risque, and mar
rates story without 6 convincing finale
Miss Helen Ware takes the role Of
Ethel Toscani. the daughter OF an Ital-
ian father and an American mother, who
has drifted through the easy ways OF
Bohemia to the distinction OF mistress
to an artist DR.. Bristol, an exacting
and self-complacent physician. is intro
duced to the pair through q At iof III