The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-18
THE DRAMA 1N
 NEW YORK.
tBy Louis Le Brun.)

T
 moth stage of the New York Hippo drome the famous Gilbert and Sullivan comic operat has all the charm or novelty, and is entitled to rank as one lof the big events of the tReatrlcai year. To carry out the Hippodrome policy of two performances daily, an lalternating cast has been engaged, ! largely from grand opera companies. I Most of the singers have been re- cruited from the Metropolitan, Cen l tury and Boston opera houses, ana | this excellent array of principals IS lsupported by a chorus of 400 voices Mr. Arthur Voegtlin looked after the marine and scenic effects of the pro- Iduction, and, far as landsnan may judge, has achieved close ap- Iproach to nautical verislnlltude.s 1a A 2 2 good old Hip tank supplies the sad and solemn sea of real water on (which the Pinafore, with it's. tuneful I and froIicsome crew, rides at anchor. And bIarSt me eyes if she does not look like bona dde ship that could, if necessary, sail far and free over the raging pillows of the vastyS deep The Pinafore closely resembles the pictures of men-o'-war in a history Of 1 the conflict of 1812-just such craft as
 were commanded by Perry when he imet the enemy and they were his'n. In fact, it's exactly that sort of a Iship the Pinafore was intended to rep Iresent, since, in order to provide great Ter scenic effects and more elaborate icostumes the period of action has been
 set back to the fore-quarter of the nineteenth century, instead of the last
 quarter, as in previous productions. | It was thirty-six years ago that SIT William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir fArthur Sullivan, librettist and musical iconposer produced The Sorcerer, flight operas which were to be the pro- l iduct of their immortal partnership.z ssH M S. Pinafofe'' which has been given such 8 spectacular revival at tthe Hippodrone, was their second production and was followed by The l Pirates of Penzance,' = Patience, ''ss'. The fAdikado,'' and seven other light op-
 er,@a series which. for real humor, flashing wit, keen satire and genuine l poeticaI and musical merit. have no rivals in the history of the Htetrature comic opera has all the charm of ] ship was ended by the death of Sir l Arthur Seymour Sullivan in 1900, but l the devotees of Gilbert and Sullivan opera, are as numerous and enthu-s siastic as in the days when the world l was first charmed by sGilbert's. Hbret- l tos and Sullivan's tunefu1 songs.
 Tn the Hippodrome production. some of the Zine Gilbertian flavor to use a phrase that has been made Ito work overtin e-has been lost or. dinmed, but the magnificent tout en :. senable more than afones for that de- hciency. What with the spectacular features the change in costume and stage setting, and the greatly increas- led chorus, this sailing of the Pinafore seems almost like a maiden voyage. The changes, however, are in keeping with the Gilbert and Sullivan spirit, and, while one occasionally forgets | that this is the good old Pinafore, one l knows that Gilbert and Sullivan were 1 the builders of the craft.
 rTr1- a three-masted suuare-rigged frigate with plenty Of deck groom and frown- ing gum ports The Hip tank has been transformed by William J. Wil- son. who looked after the staging of the opera, into very realistic repre- sentation of Portsmouth harbor. Tn 1 their quaint fat-bottom boats the quaint poke-bonneted and be-shawled. bumcoat ladies row round the ship and carry on a, hourishing trade in sweets and seeats'' with the gallant tars. Taken by and large and up one side and down the other, The Hippo l drone's production of .sH. M. s. Pin afore's is entitled to be printed in red letters on the years dramatic calen- dar.
 As a business thoroughfare, Twen- j~ty-third street is gradually but sure l 1y losing it's reputation, and another
 Gibbon might find material for real T I iTwenty-third Street. In the most I dclxle street of world of change, l however, one institution has remain ed fixed and immutable- It is the Eden Musee, which recently ce1ebrat- led it's thirtieth birthday Three de- I cades is a long period for any New York amusement enterprise to sur vive. Of New York's multitudinous pIayhouses, the Grand Opera Honse,
 Wa1lack's and the Academy of Music are the most prominent of the very few that were in existence when the Eden Musee was opened, and all of T these. with the sole exception of Wal lacks, have undergone many chan Il ges in the type of amusement provfd- sl ed for their patrons. It is probable that more visitors to New York in
 the last thirty years have bought ad-
 mission tickets to the Musee than to any other amusement place, with the possible exception of the Hippodrome.
 extent yielded to circumstances and
 public demand in the class of enter | tainmenf offered, and has added vau-
 devi1Ie features and later motion ! pictures the old world in wax feat
 ures that made the Eden. Musee fa-
 II nous are still retained. The first r patrons of the Eden Musee felt their
 hair stand on end as they viewed the Chamber of Horrors, and that
 fearsonne spectacle is still on view.
 InG same IS true or the RuierS o1
 the Wor1d,'' although there have nat
 | urally been many changes in that group. Of the heads of the govern ments of the world who were shown in wax when the Musee was thrown open in 1884 only two survive-Em- peror Francis Joseph of Austria and King Charles of Roumania. Among the notables who sat for wax scuIp-
 lures for the Musee were Jay Gould
 Cornelius Vanderbilt. Jas. G. Blaine
 I c1-T-- -F--s EyS-I-- =
 numerous others. The Musee has al
 so been pioneer in many fields, in
 cluding the cinen1atograph. Some six
 teen years ago the Musee created g
 sensation by producing "The Passion
 Play" in motion pictures. The film
 was 2, 200 feet in lenEth-not remark