New-York tribune., 1918-05-18
Drama
Many Stars Seen in Red
Cross Revival of
Out There
By Heywood Broun

"A number of our best players took
part IN the Red Cross production of
ous There" at the Century Theatre
last night and most Of them succeeded
ADMIRABLY in forgetting that they were
stars. This may fairly be set down
as an unusual wartime sacrifice. The
performance was not as finished in
Team work as the original production,
put several of the stars were able to
improve individually upon the original
performances, although the first cast
OF Out There" was a strong one. Nota-
PIE among the newcomers were Beryl
mercer, N George Arliss and George
Strictly speaking. Cohan's part did
s .ioC exist IN the original production,
1or 1or the New Zealander, who formerly
Iaay in the cot at the extreme right Of
me me ward, has now become doughboy
conan played the part easily and
gracefully, and without attempting to
score hard made his bit telling in the
extreme. Miss Mercer, who was go
good in "The Lodger" and later in
The Old Lady Shows Her Medals. y
was delightful as the mother Of
,hunted Annie. Miss Ware, who played
rrlncess Lizzie, and Miss Mercer were
particularly. skilful in covering up a
1allure to lower the first curtain on
Slme. The act should end as the tip
ping, old woman takes a drink of gin
but the man who tends the curtain be-
came Interested and forgot to lower it.
MISS Wares method of marking time
was simplicity itself. "Have another
she said, and Miss Mercer did. and
tnen another. It began to look as If
the two characters would be compelled
TO mix bronxes to create diversion
Du1 after moment or so the curtain
came down. This slip, which was en-
ttertalnlng rather than otherwise, was
me only noticeable blunder in an
otnerwlse smooth performance.
George Arliss brought new method
70 the Interpretation of the role of the
doctor. Frank Kemble Cooper, who
created the role, gave a good perform
ance, put he was satisfied merely to
make the doctor brisk, pleasant, bust
nessllke sort of person. Arliss was all
that, but he made much of an under
current of gentleness, and he helped
L,aurette Taylor immensely by creating
the proper atmosphere for the telling
pit OF action at the end Of the second
act. Her lullaby over the wounded SOL
dier never went better than it did last
night, and good many people in the
big audience cried for Miss Taylor first
and then applauded her. She gave a
capital performance, though we must
take exception to some of her work in
the second act. This Las begun to drag
1t is not the fault Of the all-star cast
The process of slowing up occurred
during the original run of the piece, as
we observed from comparing the first
performance and then the sixtieth or
thereabouts. The direction of Mr.,
Manners is chiefly at fault, but Miss
Taylor also takes too much time on one
or two unessential bits of action. She
ought, for instance, 10 make the beds
much faster, but, then, women all over
the world seem to be engaged in a con-
splracy to maintain that household du-
ties actually are arduous. Perhaps
Miss Taylor is merely member of that
lodge.
MISS Ware, although good, is not
the equal Of Lynn Fontanne in a cock
ney.s role, and O. P. Heggie and H. B.
Warner also fall short of Leonard
Nude and Lewis Edgard. Warner
overacted the tolling scene where 'Erb
marches away to join the colors.
Chauncey Olcott was a good Irishman.
He may not have played quite as we'll
as Kerrigan did, which is. no slur, for
Kerrigan gave a truly remarkable per-
formance as the man who hated or
anges and liked chocolate peppermints.
But Olcott did have one striking
advantage. He sang. So did George
Cohan, and also George MacFarlane.
James T. Powers and James X. Hackett