The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-23

was absolutely the worst production that
has been offered London theatregoers for
years. The last was incompetent the
book was supremely silly, the plot was
absurdly farcical and died an unnatural
death at the end of the first act. the
music was spirtless. and the staging"
lighting effects" etc, etc, were crude
and mechanical wayburn really came
an awful eropper and practically every
critic in London jumped on to him with
both feet
OF course a lot of this criticism was
due TO the fact that English audiences
have tastes entirely different to Ameri-
can. George Edwardes and Robert
Courtneidge understand them and never
put anything but soft, pale cool colors
on the stages. Wayburn, from all ap-
pearances. has been hard bitten by post
impressionism and his color effects and
lighting in his second act gave the audi
ence a terrible jolt
The pit and gallery nrst-nighters have
been getting out of hand for some time
past and they let themselves go with a
vengeance. They howled and hooted and
booed and stamped till the old playhouse
shook. De Courville tried to make a
speech and it was only after his wife,
Shirley Kellogg had begged a hearing for
him that he had his opportunity. In
tsead of improving it he made matters
infinitely worse by starting to abuse the
audience, who soon came down upon him
like a ton of bricks.
De Courville and Wayburn sat up most
of Saturday and Sunday nights with iced
bandages on their heads and completely
remodeled the show from the fall of the
first curtain. No wit runs fairly smooth
ly, but tits not pulling business and fur
ther changes are rapidly being made. IN
deed, De Courville tells me that he is
converting it into a revue and that
Lewis Muir, composer of waiting fFor
the Robert e. Lee" and other ragtime
songs, is hard at work recasting the
music.
Muir, who opens in a single turn at the
Hippodrome on the 18th, is certainly going
to be busy man this winter. In addi-
ton to his first aid help at the Prince of
Wales he is to compose the bulk of the
music for the new Hippodrome "revue"
which is to make its bow about Christmas
time. In the revenue, Shirley Kellogg
viii make her reappearance at the Hip
podrome, where she made such a big sue
cess in "Hullo. Ragtime," and h.thel
Levy, that American live wire, who has
become recognized as far and away the
best artistic of her kind in England to-
day, will also be in the cast Lew Hearn
fiiiN obtilld are ipl 10 appear ana VIII be
greatly missed They are now on the
road with "Hullo. Ragtime," playing the
principal provincial cities.
Hicks in Provinces
Seymour Hicks and his wife, Ellaline
Terries, are also in the privinces with
Broadway Jones'" We do not hear much
about it in London but I am told THAI
they are both anxious to get good Lon
don house and try their luck once more.
Hicks and his wife have been out of the
limelight for many months now, the head
of the firm. in common with many other
theatrical managers, having suffered se-
yeIe financial reverses some years ago.
Although Hicks has an idea that he is cut
out for legitimate character work, there
can be no doubt in anyone else's mind
that musical comedy is his forte and that
the sooner he returns to it the better for
his pocketbook
There has been considerable criticism
of Sir Herbert Tree because of his smash
ing of conventions by putting Joseph
and His Brethren on at His Maiesty's.
1t is of great interest, therefore, to hear
him give an interviewer his views on the
subject of religious plays and the mis-
sion of the stage in that direction.
You want to know the future of the
stage? he asked We'll, | will tell you
IN one word. 1t is freedom. Freedom of
thought-not the freedom which is the
greatest tyranny the world knows-the
freedom to kill your neighbor's char
acter in public
II do not know" he continued, what
the public will demand next year. even
next month; but 1 am quite certain of
this, that if the public want religious
plays they will have them. For is it not
absurd, as the clergyman said, in this
co-ealled twentieth century, to think that
any ban save the most powerful of all
the ban of public opinion can be set upon
the demands of humanity? The church
in the dark past tried hard to ban science
it tried equally hard to ban democracy;
today it will no longer ban the stage
How fatuous they must be who think that
the stage will be deferential to a dwind-
ling minority of Hehraists, and irrespon-
sive to the clamorous commands of ad-
vancing humanity. No; one shrugs the
shoulder at such grotesque absurdity. But
how foolish, how Suicidal it is to oppose
plays which tend to make religion real
which inculcate noble principles, and
which are on the side of beauty and
TRUTH while the other thing (the thing
of detrimental fippancy) passes without
discussion and is lauded to the skies
by the guardians of the public taste"
Although bigots cannot master the
stage, they can intimidate managers; they
can make men nervous about providing
good plays which have a religious inter-
est. / cannot, for the life of me, under
stand why all refined people, religious and
serious people, do not most gratefully
welcome any play, so long as it is rever-
emily and beautifully treated, which ex-
hibits the noblest faculties of mans soul
in action"