Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-07
Grace La Rue Charms
in Costume Recital


Grace La Rue. formerly Featured" IN
musical comedy and 'headlined" IN vaude-
vile, has transferred her charms OF per-
son and impersonation to the concert
pla form and has added vocal assets
superior TO the capacities of tone-coiorine
and Interpretation known in her previoua
meters
In a recital at the Little Theatre last
night Miss La Rue showed Just what
! fine results follow rigorous schooling
, when II Is animated by an unswervine
ambition, grounded in conscientious prac-
tice and inspired by intelligent ideals.
1t Is fine object lesson for American
girls
Miss La Rue is following the path Of
musical aspiration trod by Alice Nielsen.
! Marguerite Sylvia and Marcela Craft.
| and II she has not come so near the
roseate horizon of achieved ideals It is
because she has been travelling on the
way much shorter time. on the evil
dence OF her art, as displayed in a re-
cital that was very intimate in mood and
unique In motif and carrying out. she
has passed several OF the roadposts OF
success and she Will undoubtedly go far,
much farther.
The singers voice Is n soprano, more
serviceable in dramatic than in lyric pas
sages, though I'm brief arioso bits" in
several OF her songs she indicated lyric
capacity that cRn-and doubtless will-be
developed. she has n keen sense OF the
melodio line: the volume was ample for
the restricted spaces of the auditorium in
which she sang, and probably would ill
larger places to the satisfaction of au-
dlences.
Miss La Rue has the power to project
the drama OF the song to her hearers
through her voice IL is emotlonally capa-
bic of varied, expressive and convincing
feeling. She supplements and "points''
her vocal dramatzing by plastic gestures
and mobile expression; her histrionic ern-
phasis is curiously artificial, but by the
same token, curiously effective in an
adaptation of Delsarte and Dacroze to
song rather than forth-right acting in any
real sense. Enhanced by appropriate cos
tumes-she wore four creations" which
excited feminine "ahs' and dazzled mas.
cullne eyes-and by well-devlsed lighting
her program had every advantage of at
mosphere and environment.
The program itself was mastery in
selection and arrangement. 1t had unity
of idea and the mood was not shattered
by enforced, encores. Twenty-Five num-
bers were divided into Morning" Aft
ernoon," Evening and Night" Each
had at least one lyric to set the mood.
followed by others in key. II. L. Bur-
leigh and Elsa Maxwell were represented
by several songs apiece, the negro COM
poser's Hour Glass" and THE Grey
Wolf" attaining distinction as art songs
equal to that of any foreign contempo-
rary writing lieder or chansons, and the
latter's "The Singer" furnishing the vo-
callst chance for an affecting interpreta-
tion and n particularly smooth mezza-
voce finale. oddly the best example of
folk music was not by Burleigh, but was
Alexander Rodgers Adam" a lifting
conceit worthy the imagination of Uncle
Remus. Neil McCay's "a Hundred Years
from Now" and Ernest Balls That's
How the Shannon Flows" proved credit
able to American composition
Aid Of the dance was invoked to SUM
mon novelty to the concluding group and
leave agreeable final impression OF
the proceedings. Chadwicks "Danza"
opened, then came tango and ragtime
Irving Berlin's name did not appear on
the program, but surely his spirit was
anear to approve the subimated synco-
patton to which Miss La Rue danced so
trippingly and "raggingly." w. r. M.