Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-12
Belasco.

Margaret Mayo took as serious a theme
as has been the UNDERMINING of any play
seen here in months and evolved as
laughable farce as has diverted Wash
ington ;heater audience in a long time
when she wrote Baby Nine" which
drove away care for as many persons as
could find seats in the Belasco Theater
last night.
For a wife. distressed by the desertion
of her husband following a quarrel, to
adopt baby from a founding asylum
and deceive him into believing it is his
own, to bring him back to the re-estab-
Hshment OF the home and to rear child
that is not his, would naturally suggest
the theme for a play of serious mien.
But when the husband returns before a
baby is obtained and a hasty borrowing
is made necessary; when second and
still third baby are borrowed to be
substituted for the first one that
must be returned to its real moth
CT, and the returned husband raw
ing with paternal happiness, innocently
interrupting the substitution, has to be
told her has been presented with twins
and later with triplets, one feels If
the climax of ridiculous situations has
been reached and simply has to roar at
the absurdIties. In keeping with the
paradoxical treatment of the theme. the
fun increases with the number of babies
and laughter becomes a habit Such
happens in Baby Mime
The laughter is provoked not by lines
that are clever or witty in themselves,
but by situations the very sequence OF
which is so natural that the play seems
not to exaggerate fact or strain credulity
Tor the sake of fun-and yet the fun is
inevitable.
Marguerite Clark, dainty coincidence
IL seems only natural to adopt a term
from light opera verbiage because of her
prominent connection with musical COM
edy-has lost none OF her sprightly dain-
uness and winning charm. And there is
evidence of more serious dramatic capa-
b-iities in her portrayal of the baby
Zoie Hardy.
Walter Jones, of the quartet upon which
the burden of the action rests. produces
laughs galore. His natural drollery is
enhanced by finished stage business that
approaches close to burlesque at times
and yet never oversteps the bounds. AS
Jimmy jerks, the boob Of two schem-
ing women. he is just the type that is
absurdly funny without appearing to try
to create laughter Ernest Glendenning
Keeps up the vivacity of the action
necessary To farce comedy, although
whatever dramatic talents he has are not
overstrained. Agnes DeLane gives COM
petent support in the rather colorless role
of Mrs. Jimmy. and the others in the
small company, with parts that would be
triling. We're they not necessary, are
quite equal to their demands.
1t was leap from the ridiculous and
the commonplace to the marvellous and
the imaginative when the orchestra struck
up the music for the first of the six
dances of the Russian dancers-M. Mikail
Mordkin, Mile. Lydia Lopoukowa and Mile
Bronislowa Papitzkaia. That the audience
caught the change in the spirit of the en-
tertainment was evidenced even in the
applause, for the measured and heavy
handclapping of the early evening gave
way to applause of the quick and lively
variety. The terpsichorean program fur
nished nothing that has not been shown
by the Russians here before; but the de-
light of their dancing seemed to lose
none of it's charm by repetition.