Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-03-25
"The Governors Lady, Sends
Spectators from the New
ark Happy.
EMMETT CORRIGAN TAKES
THE AUDIENCE BY STORM
Play Shows How Love May
Conquer Even the Lust
for Power.

One rarely goes away from play
feeling so completely satisfied as from
"The Governors Lady" which began
a weeks engagement at the Newark
last night. It was a capacity house.
the occasion being a benefit for ST
Michaels Hospital. Many of New.
arks most prominent citizens, in
Guiding a number of distinguished
Catholic clergymen, were in the au
dience.
Alice Bradley, the author of the
play. and William Elliott and Davie
Belasco, under whose auspices it is
being presented, merited every bit OF
the encomium which was bestowed
in the form of frequent and generous
applause.
The stage setting was perfect. The
walls, doors, windows and furniture
in the first act. which represents the
drawing room in the luxurious palace
Of Daniel Slade, the hero of the play,
are of a solidity wholly foreign to thu
scenery one is accustomed to meet
with even in theatres of the first
rank.
The chef doeuvre of the stage man.
ayers art, however, was shown in tho
midnight scene laid in one of a string
of well-known restaurants in New
York. Everything here, including the
walters and scrubwoman and the
sound of the clanging'street cars, was
so faithfully produced that one in.
stinctively felt like giving an order
for wheat cakes or hash or bowl OF
half-and- half and crackers.
The play revolves about the ambi'
ton of Slade to become governor. He
has risen from a barefoot boy to be
the possessor of millions. He has a
sweet, good patient little wife, Mary
who finds it impossible to feel at
home amid the regal surroundings
which wealth has brought to them.
Katherine Strickland, daughter of a
senator, is made of different mettle.
She has but one -Napoleon-ano
but one dream-empire. And in Slade
she sees the possibility of realizins
both her hero and her dream. And
so when Slade suggests tina praetica>
bility of his securing divorce ana
proposes that Miss Strickland WELD
the sceptre in his household she re-
spends promptly.
when you can go to my father
free there shall be no barrier to the
fulfilment Of your wish.'
And this she says in spite of the
fact that her heart belongs wholly to
Robert Hayes, a young lawyer, whom
Slade has made great.
Hayes, who has Just refused to lend
4 =.
divorce, now learns with horror from
the lips of Miss Strickland that she
is going to be SHADES wife.
But behold! even ambition such as
that of Miss Strickland and Slade
falls like an unsubstantial fabric al
the touch of Cupid. In an interview
between Shades wife and Miss Strick,
land the wife's devotion opens the
eyes of the beautiful, ambitious girl;
she confesses the wrong she had in
tended doing AMI falls, happy, into
the arms of the young lawyer who
worships her
When Slade sees this he too, eX-
periences a change of heart. He rea-
Lies that, after all, there's none like
Mary for him and he tries to woo hen
back. But now she has bestridden
the high horse and refuses to listeL
to his entreaties. And If you won't
get the divorce now I will she de
clares. And that's fiat. She feels ag
grieved that, he to whom she had
given her undivided love so many
years, should have wanted to give
her up for a younger woman.
ha c n
restaurant spoken of before, where
the spectators learn from the CONVEX
sation of SHADES chauffeur and an
other that Mrs. Slade has obtained
her divorce. And Slade. the same con-
versation discloses, has succeeded in
obtaining his governorship
Mrs. Slade and her husband meet
again in the restaurant 1t is brought
about in a more natural manner than
the mere telling would seem to imply
And the upshot of it all is that Slade
| carries away his ex-wife to wed her
again.
1t might seem a bit too much like
"a god out of a machine" that the
happy denouement should be brought
about in this way. But, nevertheless,
the occurrence is worked out so clev-
erly that there seems to be at the
time no inconsistency in the meeting
of the two in such a place at such a
time And the impression the spec
tator carries away is one of complete
satisfaction.
Emmett Corrigan as Slade is the
embodiment of everything that the
role requires. 1t would be hard to
| imagine Slade other than he is por-
trayed by Mr. Corrigan. The same is
true of Miss Gladys Hanson as the
ambitious Katherine Strickland. She
is beautiful graceful, majestic, the
very personification of love and am
bition warning with each other within
the self-same heart.
| Miss Emma Dunn as SHADES wife
| is likewise absolutely ideal. Hell
simple, artless, homespun goodness
and sweetness draw the spectator
heart to her with bands of steel
And Milton Stills, as Lawyer Hayes
| too. merits better than to be passed
over in silence. In fact the entire
company is exceptionally good.