New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-22

in the terms Of drama. He must have
story with beginning, an end and
middle The thing must grow and
move and get some place as We watch
It, If il has the sweep Of drama IL will
cngross the attention, although II is
played on bare boards 60 the accom-
panimcnt of my Wife's Gone 20 the
Country"
"The Happy Ending" is true TO its
title, but 10 begins in gloom and wan
ders through a listless middle life
which is only relieved by setting, by
the music and by occasional telling
episodes which are almost wholly unre-
lated.
Take. for instance, the smashing
climax Of Scene 8, Act |. We have
learned that 10 is only the dead who
live. that folk in heaven talk slang
and make love and have good time
in general. One by one different per
sons from the dull world of the living
arrive, and then of a sudden comes
the news that "A whole regiment has
been annihilated in battle. In an
instant heaven Is filled with the rattle
OF drums and the roar Of music. Every
one groups together and shouts "Huz..
"a" for the oncoming soldiers, and
down comes a singularly effective cur
tain. Only the thing is just an incl
dent. The play concerns the fortunes
Of the Princess Elise, and the arrival
of the regiment has not a Jot to do
with her life or her death.
The fact that the authors OF Inc
Happy Ending discover that the dead
are not dead must needs bring the
piece into comparison with THE Blue
bird" The production of the new play
by Arthur Hopkins is far more beau
tiful than that Of the Maeterlinck play
which was seen in New York, but
further one cannot go. The Bluebird"
had an engrossing and well knit story.
The Happy Ending" has not.
Criticism cannot stop with the fact
that the new play is structurally weak.
Some faults must be laid at the door
OF the producer. In q play which
blends music and painting one should
expect TO find the spoken word justi-
fed and fortified by beautiful voices.
There is no beautiful voice in the play.
lrby Marshall, as Queen Helene, acted
well and spoke her lines with grace
and distinction. but at no time did any
body feel like telling the organ, the
lutte and all the rest OF the instru-
ments 10 be still Miss Peggy Mower,
late of THE BandboX," played her last
scene with great skill, but her per
Torrance was Indifferent in earlier
scenes. because of poor enunciation
and more or less general pallor.
Some Of the sliding scenes drawn
in and out in act two are in poor
taste. All in all, il must be admitted
that a little Heaven goes long way
even on a night which suggested the
horrors Of the pit. At the end Of the
second act one man said that he was
reconciled to living.
And then came a strange thing. We
never saw il before in the theatre
The play has a great last act. You
know the usual last act? The hero
and heroine stall about a bit and the
audience seizes its collective hat just
before the final hug. Well, IL was q
particularly fdgety audience which
watched the curtain rise for the ina
act at the Shubert. IL was hot and
the second act had bored it. Then
there came q picture OF great room
with high windows open to the sky
From the back of the stage descended 6
great stairway. Before the king stood
his fiddler and played to him. and as
the music hushed. down che stairs, from
the land Of the dead, carrie the Princess
Elise. We dropped our Bell-ans tablets
Playing with rare spirit, Margaret
Mower implored her kingiy father e
listen and heed the voices OF the dead
which called him. And then she swooned
and died. The sky behind the windows
frightened. 1t leaped from dark blue
to orange. The laughing folk Of the
hereafter were silhouetted against the
sky as they passed the window and
trooped down the great staircase.
The curtain came down and the audi
ence, hitherto impeccably neutral, de-
layed its departure 10 applaud again
and again. And this last act was
different and better than the rest not
because il was the most beautiful plct-
ure, but because the picture was linked
with dramatic action.