New-York tribune., 1921-11-30
Miss Uric Performs 4 Vivid
Monologue as an Appeal
ing Denai-V Vierge in Mr..
Belasco's ssKiki''
rHE CAST

In undertaking his study Of the char
acter of Kiki, the cocotte, Mr.. Belasco
confesses an understandable bewilder-
ment She is, he says in the play
bill at the Belasco, puzzle, the solu-
tion Of which he is pleased to leave to
an indulgent public. Though q "uni-
versal little creature" to be found al
most anywhere, from shop counter
to . gypsy's wagon. she is yet provoc-
ative Of speculation. What will be-
come of her he asks himself as the
curtain falls, with Kiki in the arms of
Victor Renal, Partisan impresario?
Is earnestness the keynote of her mood,
or jocularity? Will she grow up, or
has she grown up already? Where is
she now, and why? Was she telling
the truth when, With great embarrass-
ments she admitted her chastity in the
final scene, or was she feigning virtue
as she did catalepsy? Since the non-
plussed Mr. Belasco has had the char
acter between his thumb and forefnger
for many studious months, and since
his powers of scrutiny are unusual. it
is best, perhaps, to join him In his
perplexity and to leave Kiki among the
entertaining, if not important, myste-
ries of the womankind of the theater.
OF one of Kiki's attributes, however,
we all may be assured. She is cute.
She is cute for three solid hours at
the Belasco, performing most of the
beguiling capers of the more roughish
Of the kittens. Coy, CANINE. graceful
and not ,ignob'y feline, she jumps
through all the cute hoops 1t is
no faint tribute that one pays to
Miss Leonore Uric, therefore, when
one testifes that, beginning to be cute
at $3.50, she continued last evening to
remain so, with few intermissions,
until II. This, no doubt, is record
for endurance in cuteness, and Miss
IJiric is to be felicitated for her
achievement in q difficult cndeavor.
Her charm and her sultry beauty.
added to her histrionic sagacity, to
Mr.. Belasco's fascinating legerdcmain
and to the public appetite for such
things. made the evening happy tri-
umph for all of US.
Kiki enters the play (Which is adapt
ed by Mr.. Belasco from the French of
Andre Picard) as a vivid little chorus
girl who has determined alteration
for her manager (Mr, Sam B. Hardly.
She has worshiped him from the curb,
as, in the tall hat and fur coat Of his
calling, he makes his way to and from
his theater. Her persistence, her per-
sonality and her beauty distract him,
and, being divorced and lonely man
ager, he takes her to his rooms. Their
association, however, is without the
customary improprieties, and, SO, after
a while, it irks him. Kiki is evicted
in fine exhibition by Miss Uric Of
gutter pride and aristocracy, during
which she removes much of her cloth
ing In order to remain in propinquity
to her hero, she counterfeits cata-
lepsy, and great sport of farcical
kind is made thereafter as Kiki is car
ried to and fro about the apartment
in her spurious unconSciousness anG
rigidity. II was little reminiscent
OF the oldtime minstrel aftcrpieces.
Miss Ulric is very appealing, while
later, as in pretty pajamas she sits OF
the side Of Renas's bed and reports t,
him her clean philosophy and the stor.
of her life. Her love-making is ir
resistibly frank and child-like an
though lengthy and little repititious
it held US last evening, spellbound, a
they say. Mr.. Hardy, as the man il
the matter, was handsome and no
much affected and it pleased us to Sc
him at the end understanding Kiki
character. even if we and Mr.. Bclasc
did not.
ssDead Citvss W;11 Omen