Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-01-23
ebaw's Comedy About Matri-
mony More Amusing on the
Stage Than on the Page
NOT AN UNPLEASANT ONE
,Irmanness of the Piece Brought Out.
Good Acting by Sheppard
as Tarleton


The infallibe popularity of Bernard Shaw
30, one more testimonial at the Little Thea
,re last night 1t took six or seven years to
hr,np "Niisalllance" to America-it, has
taken lust about that many years for every
sbaw play prior to "Fanny's First to make
,bo dramatic crossing" which passenger
Steamers used to do IN six or seven days
nut now that "Misaliance' is overland u
Heot over big" last right-Broadway VIII
20 douht take n chance and discover that II
:" onite ne interesting as Getting Married
and a good deal more amusing than MAJOR
Barbara
LAST nights performance proved some
ching else Anybody who had read the play
knew Il was about six times more worth
hearing than any other piece likely to deco
rate our season. But no mere reader coulu
have guessed that the slightly unpleasant
taste of It on the printed page would evan
egce completely on the stage. That Is the
keenness of Shaw's dramatic knowledge and
the fullness of his skill. Young overbred
vvhelps that go into Mysteries; fathers that
unconsciously propose to their sons glrls'
married men that take up violently with un-
known Polish lady acrobats In thelr own
homes: Young ladies who beg their fiances
friends to chase them through the bracken
and kiss them; poor devils of clerks who get
rniserably foled in attempts to assassinate
The men who ruined their mothers--all these
things don't occur to the reader as exactly
enliyening 10 and behold In the hesh ana
blood of the playhouse these persons and the
things thew do take on the divine indulgence
of the flesh and the diviner pathos, Vigor
and righteousness of the spirit
That Is the thing that stands out OF
"MsalIiance"; not the wit or the ingenuity
Of the situation, but the humanness OF the
people IL was here that Shaw first began
a. that O
he has developed more and more In each
succeeding play. John Tarleton, of Tarle-
toms Underwear, with his free libraries his
trick of telephoning or wiring to announce
his approach; his ''superabundance or Vi
tality-rcad Pepys" his superabundance
of language-read Shaw; his commerce
in ideas and mysticism; all his robust and
precious absurdity; he and tho rest of them
are rich characters rich yet neither para
doxical nor overcomplex. And the intellec-
tual exaltation of it takes the simple form
of such passage as this
Lord Summerhays-Do you not pray as COM
mo. Lima SsoHh tthe acrobatl-common people do not
Lord Summerhays-You never ask for any
thing?
Lord sqmmsrhaysmTheSJp Why DO % you pray, S5r,
TarIeton twaikIng about)GTruc Fine, Good:
Beautiful. Ali this damned materalsm; what
me l haven't, Cut me up and you cant AN n9d Il l.;
Cut up steam engine and you can ma the
steam. But. by George. II makes tho engine
go. Say what you Will, Summcrhays the divine
spark Is fact.
Lord Summerhays-Have I denied it?
Tarleton-Our whole civilization is a denial OF
It. Read Walt whitman
1t would not be exact to say that the
performance last night did a great deal to
aid either the humanness or the occasional
exaltation. Only Mr.. Sheppard as Tartle-
ton got exactly what was in his part and got
It all the time; his was an extremely good
mpersonaton, full and fluid and rich with
richness that the rest lacked Mr.. Whit
ney came nearest to it with his little clerk,
but he toppled over backward a trihe into
the grotesque. Miss Papocy played the
acrobat easily, but without fire Miss Baer
as Hypatia was good to look upon and to
hear except when she fell into kittenish
archness and missed the hard passion of the
girl. Mr.. Latmer did well by Bunny, but
suffered from makeup, as did Mr. Fox. The
rest were decidedly bad. As for the single
setting, it was ugly cramped and imposslbly
old fashioned.
And yet-for all the halting performance
the rare amusement of "Misalliance. the
ultimate humanness of it, stood out trlum-
phanty So far as this play is concerned
the Tartletonan admonitlon must be: Don't
read Shaw. See him. X. NJ.