Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-10-15
4 War PIayIef
Wins Applause
at the Lyric
Good Bills at Loew's and at
Keeney's-Some Pictures
Well Worth While.

Preparedness for war is the theme
of an excellent playlet featuring the
bill at the Lyric Theater, in Market
street, for the last three days of the
weei, The sketch carries the title,
Tomorrow; Maybe" and is presented
by the Dobson- Mitchell Players,
incuding William Dobson, James
Mitchell, Harry JONES' Edward Har-
rington and Edna Fuller.
Sharing honors with the Dobson-
Mitchell Players is Hal Stephens and
company, in a scenic extract of rip
Van Wrinkle" Mr.. Stephens is as
sisted by Dolore Fernendz. The
scenes taken by Mr. Stephens is Rips
Journey to the mountain with the
gnome, when he drinks the liquor that
causes his sleep of twenty years, and
then his awakening and return to his
old home. The scenes were excel
Iently produced, and Mr.. Stephens, in
The character of old rip" won the
heart of the audience. The act is
played in three scenes, each of which
shows careful attention to every de-
tail. Following his presentation of
the scenes from rip Van Winkle,"
Mr.. Stephens gave the audience sew
eral minutes of good laughs by his IN
terpretation of an old negro who has
got religion" attending the race
track for the first time in thirty years
to see his "black rapscalion" ride his
first mount as a jockey. The charac-
terization was far above the ordinary,
as was all of the acting of Mr.. Ste
phens.
In the war sketch the scene is laid
in the home of United States Senator
Clifford. The senator is strongly op-
posed to increased appropriations for
the army and navy. His contention is
that at the first call to arms "one
hundred thousand farmers would de-
sert their plowshares to take up the
sword" All reasoning to the point
that an unframed, improperly armed
force would be swept aside like chaff
before much smaller, well-trained
army, fails to move him. The senator
falls asleep in his chair and dreams of
the catastrophe that his stand has
brought to the United States. He sees
the army of small country land and
capture Washington. He hears his
name cursed by every soldier ana,
finally, his only son, member of the
militia, dies from wounds, resulting
from the failure of the guards to
check the enemy, because of lack of
ammunition.
He awakens, calling for his boy,
who runs into the room just as big
financier enters to tell the senator
that the Lusitania has been torpe-
doed, and asks the senator what he Is
going to do.
The curtain drops as the senator
shouts:
do! l am going to vote for the
army and navy appropriation bill"
That the act struck q responsive
chord in the audience was demon
strated by the applause accorded the
well-enacted skit.
Another big act that loses consider
able prestige because of the introduc-
tion of vulgarity is Ned Nestor and
His Sweethearts." 1t is too bad that
the opportunity for big success of
q well-constructed and staged musi-
cal act is lost because the author or
somebody can't see that the majority
of vaudeville patrons of today do not
want anything off color to creep into
the act.
Mr. Nestor has staged his act well,
and Miss Florence Bennett, his lead
ing woman, as we'll as the eight men,
bers of the chorus, have good singing
voices, but the act failed to win the
applause due because the taint of vul-
garity has been permitted to enter
the act. This could easily be elm
mated, and if done would make the
act just 100 per cent better.
Other acts that go to make up
bill well worth seeing are: Gordon
and Dean, colored comedians; Cecil
Danham, singing comedienne; Feiber
and Fisher, piano entertainers, and
Bell and Caron, acrobatic dancers and
novelty entertainers.
Motion pictures of the Holy Name
IN this city will be shown at
the theater next Monday, Tuesday
49,. Wednesday.