The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-09


 at least in easy epigrams''
 As l remember it. you could sec more of 'Trilby's' feet in the old production, yet if there could be any more of any thing than Phyllis Nelson Terry's fret, barred absolutely, I can hardly iraag zine it; but then since I've seen Gertrude Hoff- man and isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis bare feet spell nothing to me.
 like the Trilby of my youth because it was so stimulating to the imagination. Now, tired by night, instead of by day, like 1t because it is restful and con- servative then 1t was warning. now it is consolation. Do you get the idea?
 And yet how du Maurier himself would rejoice in the gorgeousness of the setting and the 'all-star cast today" and the scenic effects of his immortal vie de Boheme. Here, indeed does this entrance ing romance of youth and love In the Quartier Latin of Paris and its ideal set ting The famous characters are realized in the flesh and blood. Wilton Lackaye, Rose Coglan as Madame Vinard; George Mcfarland with his wonderful basso voice as The Laird;" dear, dear old Burr Mcintosh as Taffy, the alorab ble Brandon Tynan as the romantic Little Billie, and Leo Dtrichstein, the most popular actor in New York today. judg- ing from the tremendous applause ue re- ceived as he mounted the table in the studio and offered his clever little toast to his friends-dear old Zou-zou," how they all loved him, with his attractive little -lala-la,' as the finale of every sentence. And Taylor Holmes as Gpcko, while Cecil King as the Rev. Thomas Bagot was so mealy nsouthed that you knew he could foreclose a mortgage on an orphan who he had just run down with his motor car and make the orphan think he believed foreclosure to be rious actl
 And Phyllis Nelson Terry as Trilhy.
 How describe her; what say of her mere words?
 She's the most marvellous specimen physically, I've ever laid my eyes on Magnificently endowed by nature with great histrionic gifts, with beauty, the physique of an Olympian goddess, this young actress scarcely out of the cradle when du Maurer wrote .'rrilby," en- bodies all the characteristics thar he at tributed to his heroine and she makes the pretty grisette living, breathing, ideal of what the author pictured her when he said:
 Suddenly there came a loud knuol1le rapping at the outer door of the studio, and a portentous voice of great volume and that might have belonged to any sex (even an angels) uttered the British milkmans yodel Milk belowi And be- lore any one GOulu say 1sHtftZ. SAIdilSt figure appeared, framed by the gloom of the little ante-champer. It was the figure of very tall and fully developed female
 beneath her short striped petti- coat were visible her bare white ankles and insteps, and slim, straight, rosy heels, clean-eut and smooth as the bacl< of a razor-lovely slender feet, neither large TOT small, all made up of delicate lengths and subtly modulated curves, short. Chick, hpAxr 1,air n,ad h.Aa laxf young face; full, broad cheeks-she W ould have made a singularly handsome 5-y'
 Phyllis Neilson-Terry may be too big i; she may be too tall; she may be too heavy (somebody said she looked like the "bsef trusD but 1 have never laid my eyes on anything more beautiful, more refined or more tremendously magnetic than this young English girl who is so terribly alive like Wordsworth's phrase, 'she feels her life in every lmb''-who is destined to tread those sublime artistic heights in the good steps of her illustrious aunt, Ellen Terry to whom she bears a striking re- semblance, ever her voice having the same siivery notes of Ellen Terrys which will haunt our memory for many a day.
 There are many little tricks of speech irtonations, gestures that are like Ellen Terrys, too, but there is something more; there is a deeper note in her personality, something that suggests the capacity for profounder emotion-great acting.
 This is evident when you see her off the stage, as l did. sitting at a table next to her at the Ritz one day at luncheon, when her little mannerisms were very mo- ticeablo and her beauty more apparent than ''on'' the stage.
 Of course, when Virginia Harmed played Trilby she couldn't sing the part. The simple Ben Bolt' had to be heard from the wings, but Phyllis Neilson-Terry, you know, was educated for grand opera, and hei voice is exquisite, and when she ap- pears before the red velvet curtains and MT. Lackaye has taken his place in the orchestra down in front, and she raises her beautiful head and the golden notes flow from her slender throat, an extraor- dinary scene is produced, one that can never be forgotten.
 Miss Terrys singing is the last touch necessary to complete a perfect stage 1ls fusion and make this revival the great est triumph the stage has been able to boast of for years.
 When she has finished Ben Bolt'' and the applause, deafening, wild tumultuous keeps on and on. she steps back and she bows and bows and bows and Svengali with his wonderful makeup" also faces the audience and bows and bows and bows, Miss Terry again fastens her eyea upon the hypnotist and again with tna strange fixed stare at his baton and b gins to sing. the illusion is quite complete This time she sings the big ara, My soli, from Felicien David's La I'erle de Brazel," and it awakens such an ova- tion that even the untrained ear catches the power, the beauty and the feeling of her wonderful vocalization.
 Paderewski and Madame occupied a box the evening I saw "Trilby' and after , Miss Terry's rendition of the "Mysoli'' MT. Paderewski actually stood up in .he box and applauded her so insistently that the | audience was divided in it's applause be- tween the great pianist and Miss Terry and MT. Lackaye.
 l Judging from the size of the audience l the evening I went to see 'Trilby'' it looks to me as if there was going to be Trilby | revival good and strong.
 1 Years ago when it was a craze it was | good deal of a pestilence we thought, 1 not so much because everything from | carpets to chewing gum was named for | 1t, but because people went about the | streets singing Ben Bolt' without either knowing the words or the tune. Now, of course, when everybody tries to s;rg the catchy airs, I don't care sso much when l this happens, and it has in New York, be- | cause if people must sing, i'd rather hear them sing Ben Bolt' than T Didn't Raise My Boy top Be a Jitney Driver,' or