New Britain herald., 1915-11-13
"IN OLD KENTUCKY"
 CHARMING AS EVER
Miss Louise Murray Makes an Ideal Madge-SCores at Lyceum

We never see "1n Old Kentucky. With its wonderful old Colonel and Madge' the flower of the mountains. without being reminded of this story:-
 "An old gentleman crossing on transatlantic liner was in the card room. Every time anyone said any, ! thlng ne would always interpose with ! Down in nah country,'-until finally 1 one young fellow blurted out, Well, old man, where is your country?' To "llicn the old gentleman replied: well, sah, ah come from whar tn horses are so fast they make Gods cnalned lightning look like a para 1 lytic,
 An whar the women are so beau- tl1ul they make Venus de Milo resem- ble homely caricature,
 An whar the whiskey is so good that Dissipation is a Virtue By gad, sah, ah come from Ken lucky, sah!"
 And that is what you must feel to- ward the OF Blue Grass State when once you have seen "In Old Ken lucky" which opened at the Lyceum last night and which will be shown again tonight
 
 ing the rounds of the nation for some twenty odd years, it never loses any of its charms. The character of "Madge," portrayed last night by Miss Louise Murray, will always remain one of the sweetest ever shown on the stage. No present day character with the possible exception of Peg" in Peg O. My Heart" has ever equalled 1t in this type of drama. And Miss Murray, although this is the first sea- son she has ever essayed the char acter of the pretty little mountain miss, covers herself with glory. There have been some great contemporary actresses who played Madge Brierly, among them Miss Elsa Ryan, but none of these had any more qualifications than Miss Murray displayed last night. She is pretty, she is winsome, she has 8 wonderful southern dialect, and she can ride @ horse. What more could one ask for in a part of this kind? And yet this little actress has more,-she has the captivating smile of youth, and the temperament of a Laurette Taylor.
 As Colonel Sandusky Doolittle, Joseph Sullivan did not measure up to expectations. In his younger days he may have made great "Joe Lorey," the moonshiner in love with Madge; but as a real Kentucky Colonel MT. Sullivan falls far short. He may be a bit too heavy, his dialect may not be just right; anyway, he is not the Kentucky Colonel of fiction, real life. or drama. Harold Russell is very good as Joe Lorey, the part MT. Sul- livan used to play. And when it comes to portraying a real old "befo' de war darkey" who could improve on Paul Hamlin? No one we could mention with the possible exception of Lew Dockstader and Lew would surely burlesque the character, although he fared fairly we'll in "Dan," his one much on the same line as 'Neb," played by MT. Hamlin in "Old Ken lucky"
 Madge, the Old Colonel, and Neb I Those are the three characters that stand out in this play of the blue grass region. The others, with the exception of Joe and the villain, Hol- ton. could almost be dispensed with if the equasion of love did not enter. l Playing opposite Miss Murray, Bert Thompson as Frank Layson, a young Kentuckian, was good. Conrad Can't zen carried the villains part well. Grace Fine and Marion Langdon also deserve mention. The plot is well known to all theatergoers. And those "colored boys" When they started dancing and playing "Dixie," well. if they had been in the South there sure would have been some applauding; because the dark town contingent would have been in the gallery, and the white folks would shore start shufflin'" " their feet on the ground floor. My! How those boys can "cut de buck" an de pigeon wing" 'Dey shore is some hands," All in all, the barn yard scene was enough to make any real southerner homesick. And Queen Bess,-Lord bless her,-we had almost forgotten her. We wish that she and her supporting cast could be here till Thanksgiving. Then we'd have some thing to be thankful for, despite long delays caused by stage hands.