Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-10
Not Quite Innocent,

Not Quite Innocent
gy SssTse Fsssi5R gESsS9ur' fE
Horace Irving ............... Julian L Estrange
Tan Le e...,..................H Harold De Becker
Peter Mccormick .......... Hardee KiTsand
fstvn Ksnss Faulne n,,is Sorreii
zoItan Andgassy ,............ Kenneth Hunter
His EaceenSsgs gSp Sgsen Frank SemSo "COPPER"
,oPpso'ogue- The corridor Of g Mukden hotel
MuFden isio Act 'r TirhS house HSs of BelS Ne. %
Ssms s%aefpfS %a PryStG sF nnr 9Sf ASs aoom Ncs
Epilosue--The Mukden Hotel, 1912.
Innocent was doomed from the first The
lady. not necessarily the play. The au-
thor told us so in prolog that showed
how her victim was going to commit sui
eide after the play was over.
Innocents father wasn't bit ironic in
picking out her name. He merely feared
the worst He was n rakish old devil, the
first OF a large number destined to popu-
late Mr.. Broadhurst's play and to fill the
atmosphere with such remarks as pm
wrong clear through" I'm only man."
TIM weak and 1 know it." He told his
friends quite frankly that Z" The sins of
the fathers is the truest thing ever
written, but it's hell on the children"
So he decided to try the old amateur
convent game ana DTl0B MS 0auRnter uD
in ignorance OF all the physical lusts OF
the world-men, money and pretty
clothes. And, working on the supposition
that "only the contented woman is happy
and only the ignorant woman Is con-
tented he also left her ignorant of all
spiritual lusts of the world-courage. hope
and integrity. Then he finished matters
or by dying and leaving her in the guar
dianship of one of the weak and I-know-
IT. gentlemen.
So for one long act we had to watch
Innocent unconsclously seducing the man,
and for two more we had to hear about
money and opera and clothes and gam
bling and all the nasty machinery of that
land OF unhappy parasites, male and fe-
male, which we flatter by conceding II a
half-world. Ultimately Innocent left her
ruined ex-guardian for anybody with the
price Of six-course supper, and the ex-
guardian went way back to Mukden for
that suicide in the prolog.
Are we to take this all seriously? Are
we to believe in all this drip about ma
ture's greatest gift-beauty," which means
the ruin Of everybody around it? And If
we do. are we to ask Mr.. Pasztor. who
wrote Innocent" and Mr.. Broadhurst,
who translated It, just how we can rid the
world of these diseased ones who don't
take to suicide or childless old age?
Or are we just to enjoy ourselves, to
null over that second act of Innocent's
awakening as we might Stanton Colts
Adolescence" or n bit OF Kraft Ebbing?
But that presents difficulty. Even the
best OF sociologic sewage pals, while
"Innocent's' selection moves along at a
dramatic snairs pace. There is not even
punch in It.
This, in spite of the fact that some very
good players spent their energies on the
piece at the Garrick. Pauline Frederick
wore beautiful gowns and really gave
innocent quite an air of cold reality. |
George Probert toyed with one of the
degenerate gentlemen of the piece until
al,
specimen OF caddishness. Lank John Mil
tern wasted considerable effort on the |
guardian, and Julian LEstrange, Hardee |
kirkland and Frank Kemble Cooper did |
their excellent bests. But all to very little |
avail. Brickmaking is much the same |
as in Pharaoh's day.
Gilbert g Sullivan En- Route
Gilbert & Sullivan, plus De Wolf Hop |
per, are not TO pass Philadelphia by. That |
excellent company, which has shed such |
cheering rays of light and laughter over
our musical stage these three or four
years. is Ia take unto itself the vasty
spaces OF the Metropolitan Opera House
for the second and third weeks of March.
They will present not only their familiar
"Mikado," "Pinafore" and "Pirates." but
the "Iolanthe" of last season and 1.-THE
Yeoman OF the Guard" "Trial by jury
and "rhe Soreerer." all "new" to Phila-
delphia in these days of rags and tangoes
Irving Berlin and Harry b. Smith are
all right in their way. But so are the
men who made Japan famous. II
News Notes
Lawrence d'orsay simply won't stay in
musical comedy. He is trying to put that
Earl OF Pawtueket stuff over again in
a new play produced in New York Mon
Cay night. 1.-THE Rented Earr' has very
good ancestry. Salisbury Field. part au-
thor OF Twin Beds" wrote it, and 1t
seems reminiscent OF many comedies in
which member OF the House of Lords
haw-hawed himself into the affections OF
an American miss. Mr.. Fields has the
ingenuity 20 introduce a villain who rents
out the earl to climbers" without the
earl knowing it. But the reviewer of the
Times seems TO have hit the essential
weakness OF the farce when ne says:
Whenever Mr.. dOrsay is speaking there
Is entertainment, but The Rented Earl
is not a monologue."
Charles Ram Kennedy. who wrote '"rhs
Servant IN the House." is looking for
ward 10 a spring production OF his newest
piece. s'The Rib Of the Man" II combines
the novelty OF 3 military aviator hero
with another discussion OF modern man
ana woman
Hack from three years OF 'The For
tune Hunter and "Get-Rick- Quick Wal
ilngford" IN Australia. Fred Niblo and
hls Hifa. Josephine Cohan, are 70 ap-
year presently In a play under the man
assment OF Aessrs. cohsn and Harris.
Musical Comedy Axioms
curved lines ars best
Fslnnea always know the new dances.
q Couples always waltz out OF the
4vn hana-clans eonsl one encore
~ musical comedies are the best
4Infs rhe Merry Widow"
~ handsome young men are poor.
trt HzGe RIGA uneies.
stakeu identity covers 4 multitude
l4HHy situations. Harvard Lampoon.