The Washington herald., 1915-11-14
Georges Second Effort

New York. Nov. 13.-Two of the quick
est and most pronounced successes
<among the half hundred attractions al
ready offered to the New York public
this season had their first hearings last
week. The first of them, "Hobson's
Choice" in which Molly Pearson, the
original Bunty in this country, duplicat-
ed her success in the role, has been
forced by the demand for seats TO move
from the diminutive Princess Theater to
the more commodious Comedy. where II
Is likely to last out the season.
The other success, a farce called Fair
and Warmer" opened the long-closed
doors of the Eltinge, and Is certain TO
give that theater a profitable tenant for
long time to come. 1t Is from the pen
of Avery Hopwood and successfully
lodges both vulgarity and a resort to
any of the old devices Of farce. Its sit
uations are risky in the highest degree
and It shows much cleverness on the part
of both author and actors that they are
kept free from offense. A French author
and French actors would have reveled in
developing their shocking possibilities.
Equal cleverness is shown in the absence
of closets, screens and mistaken identi-
ties which most farce-writers consider
Indispensable aids to their rum
Intoxication Made Funny.
As a rule, the stage drunken man is
more revolving than laughable and the
drunken woman impossible unless she
is made to teach a moral lesson as a
horrible example. Here we have John
Cumberland and dainty Madge Kennedy
engaging in an orgy Of drink which. far
from being repulsive, is one most inspir-
ing TO almost innocent laughter-almost
innocent, because any one entirely inno-
cent of alcoholic processes would hardly
grasp ell that there is to laugh at In this
scene and the others dependent on it.
The plot is merely a skeleton on which
10 hang the situations and clever lines
that inspire the very good acting.
That Fair and Warmer" is well play
ed is shown by the fact that the less i'm
portant parts are played by such artists
as Janet Beecher, Olive May, Hamilton
ReveIle and Ralph Morgan. With very
small cast, the Selwyns, who produced
the piece, evidently did not consider the
question of salaries in securing the peo-
pile they wanted. The result is finished
performance of farce, because the act
ors do not feel the necessity of trying
for small Individual triumphs at the ex-
pense yof general effect.
A Dire Importation.
Word has been coming from London
stantial success in THE Angel in the
House" a satirical comedy by Eden |
PhiIlpotts and Basil NJ. Hastings. It was
also reported that several Americans
were bidding for the right to produce
the play in this country. Arnold DAILY |
secured the prize. In his curtain speech |
at the first of the few performances the
play is likely to have, he explained to
brilliant audience that the production |
~ IN "a
Of various rumors that some one else |
was backing him. He went SO far as to
explain that he had secured the ieces-
sary capital-said to be SO00-by playing /
fourteen weeks in vaudeville and by act
ing for the moving picture camera.
Arnold DAILY does many eccentric
things. This speech was one; producing
this play with any idea that it would
succeed in America was another; but
perhaps the most eccentric OF all was
his concepSon of the leading character.
After tedious first act, which is de-
voted almost entirely to building up for
Mr.. Days first entrance, We find him at
tempting to portray an aesthetic young
man of Il with a passion for eugenics.
futurist art and meddling and muddling
in other peoples affairs. THE Angel in
the House gets its title from his dying
mothers description of this moIlycoddle
in the letter she writes committing him
to the care of the old English baronet
at whose country place the action takes
pIace. The others in residence are
chaperon. played we'll by
Hilda Spong, and two young, engaged
couples, whose dislike the newcomer In
ours by trying to resort their marriage
intentions according to his eugenic ideas.
They get even by Narrowing him on
nearby island in company with the
chaperon, who saves him from influenza
by the loan of her flannel petticoat HIS