Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-28

| NJ Barrie. Management Charles Frohman,
Gavin Dishart. .............. Dallas Anderson
to,o LORD Riptogli North Mortin Sends Sands
Meude Adams
Telice. her maid. d............,.. Elise Glarene
Thomas @hsmmond. chief elder : 20
| Bob Dow w....................J NJ. McFsrlane
Micah, Micah p9w .ii...'''' GIadys Siiien Sser
Apdrew MesiTieSfsr. elder II. Psyton Carter
ssrseant ssstya TGsh baviSsoin SlasFi wiard Barton
Joe CrulSahnnk. atheist. ist.......,...,.;..G. C. Gay
MIsnnie Iaa MeSsssT MSsia Mgh S9sas1 ss
| Act T-Caddam Wood on a moonlight eve
9ottas aPE IN Apr sssne e Maoss snpen &9 I'll
| -.--lnner hall at Rintoul Castle. Act lV-The
| Manse garden.
1.-THE Little Minister is queer old
thing-there's no denying it
What splendid start that would have
made The kind of thing n critic thinks
up over supper when he knows just the
| sort of old-fRshioned play he is going 20
see. And after that intimate and blase
| start would have come short little sophis-
ticated glance down the vistas of early
Barrie sentimentality listing OF the
"asides'; a recapltulation Of few of the
impossbly rapid exits and entrances by
which the story gets over the high places
eNen-yes, undoubtedly short but au-
thorltative reflection on Barrie's pathetic
and convenient view of that l. w. w of
other days, the revolving weavers who
burned their looms the casual industrial
revolution upon which the playwright
reared the eternal and magnificent super
structure of Babbe's and Gavln's sentl-
mental and comic adventures. And of
course, a liberal lot of admissions Of how
much quaint humor" and human detail"
Barrie succeeded in larding into his play
for it's savory salvation. Also some words
of praise for the "deectable personality"
by which Miss Adams raised the whole en-.
tertainment to plain where such critical
carpings as the foregoing become mon
strous
A pretty notion. a quaint review--al.
most as pretty and as quaint as Barrie
himself. But, alas! how impossible 20
write. THE Little Minister" not only
humor, sentiment and intrigue, but Miss
Adams accomplished a masterpiece of
presentation that dwarfs any other angle
of attack
Babbie may have been Everything n
woman ought not to be"-in the eyes of
Il minister Miss Adams is everything a
star and a personality" ought not to
be--in the eyes of a manager. She Is
everything that the average manager Is
not. She is a producer, a stage manager.
an electrician. She ends by giving us the
most perfectly Keyed production of senti-
mental and humorous romance that 1t has
heen my good fortune to see.
To begin with, a cast Herself at the
head, arch, lovely whimsical, gracious,
capricious, in n word that most precious
of histrOnic possessions. a personality"
Not Billie Burkian one-sded attractive
ness, but rich personal resources nodded
by art And the molding process in going
on steadily from year to year, improving
the finished product
The most important element to consider
in that progress is, of course, the thing in
which she excels as pioneer-stage produc-
ton. and part of that Is selecting and dis
clplining other players as she disciplines
herself.
Some of her company are glorious
standbys, r. Peyton Carter, Fred. Tyler,
Morton Seten and doubtless a good many
more. The rest-Dallas Anderson, ]. NJ. |
McFarlane, Martin Sands, Wallace Jack
son, ono &C. Gay" whom we may suspect
of doubling as Mr., Tyler, Ada Boshell,
David Terrence. almost the entire cast,
in fact-have been welded into an en-
semble that suggests at moments the sim
pie perfection of the Irish Players and |
that is always the perfect vehicle for sem |
tlmental and humorous romance.
The rarest of Miss Adams extra-mur |
achievements is the stage management of |!
the whole thing, business sets and |
lights Her deep night skies, the warm |
direct light of the calciums in the bal |
comics, her abolition of the stupid old !
"foots," the reticence of design in houses .
and trees, all make her able to mount .
that most difficult of plays, one which |
demands eXteriors-what horrors that
word has raised up and exteriors at
night. With the footlights tempered by
the calcium, she gives us n sIngularly fine
and dgnified interior worthy of rs name
as the hall at Rntou Castle.
But don't let's permit Miss Adams to be-
come too satisfied with herself She has a
crime to answer for 1t isn't the minor
of using amber moonlight
because II is warmer and altogether pret-
tier than blue-green, or keeping II so
bright that holding up a little tin lantern
10 read by is something akin TO that oper-
alton which some one mistook for gliding
he lily" Such quibbles would be only
our way of showing Miss Adams that we
are Just as far in front of the theatrical
as she is Miss Adams real
rhine OF last night was beginning an S:l5
at s:35, II is no excuse to
'eply, Wasn't 1t worth it?" X. NJ.