Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-01
Mascot" at Olympic Park, a
ConvuIsingIy Funny operate
Grouch-Chaser.

If the hot weather or anything else
gives you a crouch any day this week
just nurse said crouch along all day
and then. when evening comes, take 1t
with you to Olynp pic Park and hear
the Olympic Park Opera Company
sing 1.-THE Mascot
It's a bet of thousand dollar yell
hole in it that your crouch gloom
/ sneaks away from you and is sue
ceeded by laugh Joy ten minutes after
the curtain goes up; for the Olympic
Park Company has crowded more real
comedy into The Mascot this week
than that tuneful and really comic
| opera of Edmund Audrans ever had
put in 1t before.
Always full of comedy, the Olympic
Park players this week have damned
1.-THE Mascot" to overlooking with it,
and every minute of the opera Is a
scream. And 1t is comedy of the right
sort, too. True, it is of the rough and
ready style, full of puns, gags" and
scend to the vulgar or suggestive
style that sometimes marks comedy
when 1t is played on broad lines, such
as the Olympic Park Company Is do
ing this week. Instead 1t is clean
and wholesome. Even the gloomiest
of the "glooms' would have to laugh
at the Olympic Park production this
week
THE Mascot promises to be true
to its name in it's effect on the park,
for the week started off last night
with tho largest opening-night crowd
of tho season, and 1t also brought the
return of that sterling favorites of 1911,
Miss Blanche Morrison who retained
all her old 1aurels and added sons
new ones in her initial performance
last night.
Miss Morrison cannot be called
petite. but she is a jolly little chunk
of humanity that knows how to act,
sing and dance, and she succeeded in
doing all three SO well last night that
she got in solid with the audience
right from the jump. The role of
Bettina did not give her as much OF
an opportunity as some of her later
roles will but she more than made
good.
The bulk Of the work of last nights
performance fell on the shoulders of
Jack Henderson, as Lorenzo XVII,
Prince Of Pion1biro, and Dan Young,
as Rocco, a farmer, who, after the
prince has taken his mascot away,
becomes the chamberlain to the
prince. Mr.. Henderson and Mr.
Young have made good in comedy
roles at the park before this season,
but never have they shown to such
advantage as last night.
Their work was excellent, and at
times they even had their stage fell
lows convulsed with laughter The
management had evidently told them
to go as far as they wanted in put
ting their own lines into the libretto
of the opera, and they did SO with
result that was highly appreciated
by the audience.
Arthur Burckly, who played Pippo,
a shepherd in love with Bettina.
seemed to absorb the comedy element
that is so strong in THE Mascot"
and injected q lot more ginger into
his work than usual. His tenor role
is generally a rather serious PROPOSE
ton, but he was genuinely funny last
night and helped out the work of
Henderson and Young to a marked
degree.
Miss Laura Jaffray was more than
acceptable as Princess Fiametta and
won repeated and deserved encores
for her rendition of I'm a Naughty
Little Girl" from 1.-THE Country Girl"
which she interpoiated in the second
act. Miss Jaffray is fast working her
way up to the position of one of the
leading favorites at the park this
season.
Another added vocal number that
made big hit came at the end of
the second act, when O. sextet COM
posed of Misses Morrison and Jaffray
and Messrs Burckly, George Poult-
ney, Overton Moyle and Charles
Fletcher sang the famous aria for
six voices from Lucia di Lammer-
moor" Even after curtain call had
been responded to on this number the
audience was not satisfied and want
ed more.
Still another attraction not on the
logue by Dan Young in the middle of
the first act, when, with the aid of
couple of candles and some funny
talk, he kept the audience in good
humor as they sat in almost stygian
darkness for ten minutes when some
thing went wrong with the electric
light plant at the park.
AS remarked in the opening para
graph, if you get a crouch this week
just take IL to Olympic Park and 1t
will be "good-by. Crouch" The surest
cure for the blues the writer knows
of is the comedy that the Olympic
Park Company is administering in
1.-THE Mascot"
And more of il is promised for next
week, when Johann Strauss three
act modern comic opera, Die Fielder
maus'' or THE Bat" is underlined
for production. with Miss Morrison
and all the other stars of the park
company in the cast. This Strauss
opera was recently produced by an
all-star cast at the Casino, New York,
under the name of 1.-The Merry
Countess and was a distinct hit.