The Washington herald., 1913-04-13
NATIONAL HAS
ORIENTAL STORY
Eva Tanguay to Use Belaseo
Stage for Her Cyclonic
Demonstrations.
By JULIA CHANDLER MANI.

More than a year ago, while THE
Garden of Allah" was still tenanting the
Century Theater, New York, and before
the Liebler Company had made any an
nouncements as to when their remark
able stage spectacle would be presented
to theatergoers of other cities, there
came to me a letter from a villager
down in South Carolina requesting me
to apprise him of the date Of its Wash
ington engagement when it should come
ono matter il the time be two years
distant''), declaring that he never had
seen a play IN all his life. and never
expected TO See another, but that he in
tended to see this far-famed romance
of the Arabian desert IL 1t took the last
cent in his Jeans.
/ cite the incident because 1t is typical
of the sentiment which has spread to
the furtherest corners of the land con-
corning the Liebler Company's produc-
ton of Robert Hichen's book, dramatized
by the author and Mary Anderson Navor-
70, which will open a weeks engagement
in the New National Theater tomorrow
night.
Aside from its absorbing story-which
is a study in the psychology of human
nature--the scenic grandeurs, the meas
ureless desert, the real garden of Allah,
with its actual caravans of camels,
donkeys, spirited Arabian steeds, dogs,
goats, and asses, stretching across the
sandy wastes OF that great, boundless
yellow sea reaching to the fading hori-
zon, is worth walking a hundred miles
on foot to see.
The announcement of Dorothy Dom
nelly in the leading feminine role, and
Lawson Butt as leading man, adds much
to public expectation, particularly to
those who were fortunate enough to see
Miss Donnelly's realistic portrayal of the
pitiable creature known to stage life as
Madam Y, a characterization which will
be emphatically remembered here be-
cause there has been none In any Wash
ington theater more Sirile.
Miss Donnelly was educated in a con-
vent and served her apprenticeship in
the stock company of her brother. Henry
" Donnelly, at the Murray Hill Theater,
New York She was with Robert Ede-
son in 1902 in Soldiers of Fortune" The
next year she created the part Of Kath-
leen- Houlihan, in W. B. Yetas' quaint
Irish allegory. She won great success
in the title role of Shaw's Candida"
and then appeared in a string of pro-
auctions of more or less Importance until
her gripping. portrayal Of Madam Y, in
which she was last seen here.
Lawson Butt, who PLAYS opposite Miss
Donnelly in THE Garden of Allah" is
an English actor, who had his training
in Sir Beerbohm Trees company in Lon
don. He has played a wide range of
parts from Bill Sykes. in ''Oliver Twist"
10 leading roles in the classics of the
English stage Mr.. Butt was brought
to this country by W. A. Brady to be
leading man for Grace George.
Dramatic critics have at various times
made a brave attempt to diagnose the
success Of Eva Tanguay, only to come
to the illogical conclusion that Miss
Tanguays act is just Miss Tanguays
act and there's an end of the matter"
] have never heard a single claim that
she is q genius, or even the possesSor
of extraordinary ability, despite which
fact she has climbed to the enviable
position of the most popular Coincidence
of the American stage. New York raves
about her. Hundreds of folk stand as
near the stage entrance of the theater as
they can get just for a glimpse of her,
and j dare say not one of them knows
the reason why. Left to solve the
problem, L should say that it is the sim
gular Tanguay personality which captf
Yates. She never gives one so much as
the fraction of a secord to analyze the
why's and wherefores of her entertain
ment, so busy does she keep her au-
ditors following her cyclonic behavior on
the stage. She effervesces all over the
place. and one is kept so busy watching
her that one forgets to ask whether her
act is worth while or not.
Nobody ever claimed for Miss Tanguay
a golden voice-in fact there are those
who are just mean enough to say that
she cannot sing at all-yet ever since
she first startled the public with her
harum-scarum rendition of the 81 Don't
Care" song (Which is known wherever
the name of Eva Tanguay is known her
unique and impossible-to-ccpy methods
of entertaining an audience have made
her so valuable an asset to managers
that her weekly stipend has risen to the
figure of $3.50 and generous percentage
of the gross proceeds, upon which the
electrical Eva manages by strict econ
omy to exist, thank you.
Miss Tanguay comes to the Belasco
Theater this week for a five-night en-
gagament. with daily matinees, begin
ming Tuesday afternoon, heading her own
vaudeville company, consisting of eight
acts. She will sing the songs which
made her famous; but that isn't all,
lOr III MISS ldHSudy we dIe u see tflls
week another Salome.
We have had the interpretations of the
Biblical character as presented by Mary
Garden, Ruth st. Denis, La Syplhe, and
Gertrude Hoffman, and now we are to
have another in a young woman whom
our previous thoughts were associated
with nothing of the sort. Reports de-
clare that Miss Tanguay's translation
of this picturesque Biblical story into
photographic art is the most distinctive
and realistic Of them all.
After the Mask and Wig Club gets
all through with the production of
Maid in Germany which will hold the
stage of the Belasco Theater tomorrow
night, we'll just meander over toward
Lafayette Square and take a little peek