New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-14
THE Lassoo," comedy in four acts
oy Victor Mapes. At the Lyeeum
By Ralph Block

There are things that even Victor
Mapes ought not to be allowed to do
One of them is to talk through the trst
two acts of four-act comedy. IL is
true that a charitably inclined audience
surrendered its rights TO the co.author
of "The Boomerang" and sat through
the entire four acts Of THE Lassoo
at the Lyceum Theatre last night with
out q protects, but it was an audience
that was looking patiently Tor Few
CLEANS of the genuine hre. and even
devoted enough to applaud without
reservation whenever here and there
the flash appeared.
"The Lassoo" is called companion
piece" to The Boomerang" but u VIII
have to do a good deal more than llnger
in the highly colored shadows OF that
pleasant play if it is 10 resist the RS
| ing demand of managers and waiting
playwrights for theatres on brosdway'
| Possibly there are still left enough
people in the world who Will want 70
make comparisons between them, and
for their benefit it might be said that
where The Boomerang was a COM
monplace bit presented In heavenly
fashion, "The Lassoo' is almost dead
weight upon a good-sized cast not sum-
GENTLY we'll balanced to carry even a
prize play.
IL is commonplace enough to say that
failing comedy may survive as resus-
citated farce, and yet the method We
tor Mapes has followed IN tins lstest
comedy is so much the method OF mucn
modern farce that the invitation to
repeat IL cannot be ignored. Given q
-,
writing a play with a prospective lead
ing lady to help, and the young authors
pretty wife dancing at private the
atricals with a neighboring young
plutocrat, the one element for dramatic
property that appears ready to hand Is
jealousy. Well and good, declares Mr.
Mapes, guessed right the hrst time.
That question settled, the intelligent
audience sits back TO await the con-
Act Of Misunderstanding between these
entertaining characters. But that Is
where Mr.. Mapes plays his sly Joke
on the audience. There is no conflict
at least for some two acts. 1t is true
that there are tepid hints OF IT, but
hardly enough to bring good hush
to any face on the stage, and Mr..
Mapes's young people hold hands at
will without creating anything more
than ripple of anger. II can't 90 on
that way long, however, and in the
third act things begin to move more
briskly. The play is put on. after all
the managers have turned IL down. The
dramatist backs it with his own money
and stars the leading lady. Things
begin to look up. The young woman
VINO is his wife piles up d. few more
bills, and then-the crash. The play
fails, the debts loom up, husband tries
to sell the house, and his wife
aroused at last-goes home TO rather
and, with the actress in the background
as a target, sues for divorce. She does,
however, return in the last act, where
the rising young dramatist is disclosed
in a film factory turning out enter
tainment for the multitude. AM.
Boiled down, the trouble with the
Iassoo" is that it doesn't pan out. 1t
arouses expectations Of trouble that
are never satisfied. Not, however, that
there aren't compensations. Shelley Hull
remains a perfectly good stage author,
perhaps tribe too Byronic at mo-
ments, but fairly interesting most OF
the way through. Phoebe Foster does
the easy things easily, but some OF the
hard ones appear out OF her reach'
Taking the play from the first curtain
to the last everybody was merely acting
last night, because the material wasn't
nresent for anything else-every one,
f must be added, except Beatrice
Moves, who played the leading lady SO
genuinely and conyincingly that even
an audience familiar with leading
ladies was won to applause. -.
If the managers had dealt WIN
Victor Mapes as he had them deal WIN
the Young drsmatist OF his play mueh
trouble would have been saved every
where. Because young Harold Brown
never could get any Of them to listen
fter the SECOND act.