Show 1 The Royal Mounted Analyzed BY FRANKLIN FYLES New York Tork April 10 Five plays mak ng thousands of or dollars dollar apiece allece every week in this town for their th lr authors ac tors and managers present problems religious political or something else ethical Indeed our dramatists have become so purposeful in their themes that the public expects something more mere m re than thair merely sentimental matter in Ineve every eve serious new play The simple story of ot sexual love with hatefully Jealous rivalries and complications of land fond misunderstandings seems to have Become obsolete Nevertheless that primary primitive kind of or stage fiction lic fic Oon tion in The Royal Mounted brought into a Broadway theatre to stop a gap In Lent looks likely lIkel to stay there till tm summer r closes the theatrical season This is the only output of or new mat matter matter matter ter to write about and so I have the apace to interest you in it if it I can canAre canAre canAre Are you ou an incipient and aspirant dra dramatist matist Have you memoranda of ot plots persons and episodes for tor adventurous rovers lovers Then dont throw your our notes Sway awa i but choose an unfamiliar place in which to locate the stuff sturt and so give a semblance of or novelty to it The Th British government of asa alada lada a maintains a cavalry police pollee force in the northwest and to that wild service HerI e im impoverished impoverished impoverished younger sons and banished scapegraces of the English aristocracy are sent flent The hero of ot The Royal Koval Mounted is one of or those patrolmen on horseback But he Is Irish instead of English Why Thy Because he Is too t o blar hla blarneying hline ne ing a lover loveI too audacious a wooer too buncome a bravo to recommend himself to popularity popular It without a brogue to use in talking about himself him You may be familiar with the winsome Irish cheek of Chauncey Olcott Andrew Mack Mach and Fiske OHara but have to be he as old as RS I am to recall the sentimental po potency poi tency of ot Erins accent as voiced by byDlon Dion Well Cyril Scott whom whom hom you have seen if Jf ever at all In n musical comedy or more mOIe recently l c In InThe InThe The Prince Chap Is now a young Irish gentleman gentl of ot the Canadian cavalry police in The Mounted I wonder if Ir this Lieutenant Victor was horn hornas hornas as ns English in the minds of oC his lib authors add id become Irish until in his development as a over in the snowy wilderness 1 Ild of or Canada he to kiss 1 the heart like a blarney stone of every person In the theatre if he was to be a stage pet petTry petTry Try Tn to fix a few plot points in your our mind Cyril Scott jaunty jaunt in the uni un 1 form torm of or the Canadian military police policeman policeman policeman man is sent to detect and arrest a murderer in the primeval region of ot British Columbia He meets the guilty mans sister who is sweetened delic deliciously delicIously deliciously by Clara a young ac actress actress actress I tress from who knows where Have you ou guessed the complication Yes Tes it comes of the stress of heart and strain of ot soul in who lows loves the girl much muc but regards his duty to arrest her brother more mon At the third acts climax he must decide between his love and his duty dut By this time has won the audiences heart as well as the girl Rosas and we both hops hope ll pt and fear tear that for his sweethearts sake he will let the culprit go He wont though for he a British officer In whom dereliction would be treason Although it will make Rose hate him he ought to and will take her helP brother away to bo bl hanged The audience nce is sorry Borry yet et approving and sprinkles some tears fn en n his hi sacrifice of or love loe to to duty This is the same paine thing over again and we should r that Invariably the tine hero h ro shifts suddenly from duty to love lave Io vt gives joy to his hip sweetheart and brings disgrace io to o him himself himself self We Ve be surprised there therefore therefore therefore fore when takes the hand handcuffs handcuffs cuffs cutts off Rosas brothers wrists to let him go free and puts them on his own to be taken back to headquarters for and punishment Our ap approval approval approval of his adherence to duty Is per perfunctory perfunctorY perfunctory but our delight at his sur surrender surrender surrender render to love Is h spontaneous and on of the opening night we made so much noise about It that the British officer and Irish gentleman was royal mounted for a winning run This play of ot The Royal Mounted 1 comes from the drama factory of I Pe e Mille Brothers Mother ho took toot over the business of ot the late Henry Henr C CDe CDe De Dc Mille with all its plant of Went talent experience and reputation and now the firm has six plays pIa in operation n while the brothers are actors also and the mother is for tor other authors An active family They have provided for Cyril Scott the material with which to thrive For those t reasons reason it is worth worthwhile worthwhile worthwhile while to consider The Roy Royal U Mount Mounted ed as a hitting shot hot at the average of or theatrical demand As I cat at in the midst of or applauding ind and indal saw al w their cynicism f bic t way to tn en enthusiasm enthusiasm and amI especially as asI I listened to the thank ou sp sr t hes of or Scott and ani andone anione one of oC the De D Mlles after ater that third act I told myself hat the of men and women arc are small boys and girls in a theatre for there they were engrossed in a situa situation situation tion the absurdity of or which should have h e prevented it from being a stage excitant excitant excitant ant for intelligent people Just analyze it Rosa was assaulted by a bestial suitor while walking with him when he thought she was without defense but her suspicious brother fol followed followed lowed them and witnessing the crime crimo I shot the criminal to t death deah Whar next would have happened Why the slayer would have returned to camp with his hi rescued sister described his deed and had it approved Instead Li tead he hid the scoundrels carcass kept mum main about the worthy killing and behaved like a sneaking murderer Then again when learned these the B particulars of ot the homicide he size it up as a n praiseworthy detente def ra of f a girls honor any an jury would pronounce Jus Justifiable justifiable justifiable but altogether unreasonably assumed that the brother neck would be stretched instead of his hands grasped cordially when he lie was brought to justice This would seem to show that a play pIa may ma be rancid old in its motives mothes and rotten ridiculous in rea reasonability yet et be ed greedily If only the stale stuff be freshened with new and palatable circumstances Do De DeMille D Mille Brothers Mother kr w their the l business I Twenty centuries old Is The Liba Libation Libation Libation tion of Aeschylus yet et not till now lOW has it had a stage performance in America nor I think in English any anywhere anywhere where Other Greek tragedies based on the legend of assas assassination assassination assassination by his queen and her death punishment by her son have been pre preferred preferred preferred by students for representation and one of them was brought out beau beautifully beautifully beautifully here by b Mrs Patrick Campbell only to be disregarded by the paying public The Libation was acted at a matinee by graduated graduate J stu students students students dents of the Academy of Dramatic Arts with small force Coree of authority but it was a fine tine exhibition of Greek theatrical theat theatrical theatrical art by Professor Prore or Charles ger partly through his research and partly through his surmise for the details of or Grecian acting are no better known now than the pronunciation by bythe bythe bythe the Greeks of their language In one matter however modernized deliberately It is certain that the chorus portions of the Greek tragedies were spoken or sung by men and boys boyson on a platform lower than the front of the stage and higher than the audience audi audience ence nce ers chorus actors were girls who chanted the exclamations I interrogations and descriptive d answers tin do the main stage in the absence of or orthe the principals and they the were a ballet too for they moved and posed In grace graceful graceful ful rut pantomimic groups Motion pictures should have been made of these figures in classic draperies for decorative pur purposes purposes purposes poses I IThe The practice of ot putting songs and dances into melodramas as well as comedies and farces has been noticed in this correspondence and now in inthe Inthe inthe the final weeks at the rival two opera houses by the repetition of at works new this season the disposition to fo put melo melodrama melodrama melodrama drama into grand opera is emphasized Musicians used to think that librettos for the best scores ought t not nol to be ob obtrusively obtrusively ob obtrusively equal in interest with the music and not until the great works of oC Wagner Vagner did stories and their person personages personages personages ages take rank with the songs and their singers Subsequently the liter literature literature literature of ot fiction and the more romantic of plays were drawn upon by the op operatic operatic operatic composers But not until the presentation of ot and Melisande and La Tos Toe Tosca Tosca ca as librettos for grand operas have we been reminded that the original meaning of the word wor melodrama was wW The play is symbolic and mystic with Its plot of gore but the piece written for Sarah Bernhardt and used here by Fanny Fann Davenport differs from the writings of our Kremers and in graces of or speech and clothes not In purpose or literal potency and to see familiar assault of Tosca with her killing of him depicted d by a aman aman aman man who utters his baseness In a low bass and a woman who emits her fright in a high soprano seems funny to a person peron more theatrical in taste than musical Within thirty rods of Broadway on ona ona ona a side street are five theatres with plays plas so prosperous that the bills been changed since 1908 1903 began A sixth has a strong vogue with vaudeville vau vaudeville vaudeville deville at dramatic prices Only the seventh although big and handsome Is given up to week visits of or tourists with plays plas of or the lower lover grade The block containing these seven theatres is crowded from to by people on its sidewalk and by b carriages on its pavement Saturday is modish as well as popular in to stage amuse amusements amusements amusements ments As I watched the gathering in of the Saturday night audiences on n this block I saw that the usually almost spotlessly white faces of ot the throngs were mingled with an uncommon num number number number ber of colored ones from negro n gro black tp t octoroon yellow These tinted persons per persons persons sons went Into that seventh theatre where traveling companies perform and not all of or them arrived on foot or orin orin in III trolley cars for several taxicabs brought others finely fine dressed and a abig abig abig big automobile delivered three pairs of dusky belles and beaux too elaborate elaborately ly Iy garbed for anything else than a box party part Negroes going into a New York thea theatre theatre tre by b the main entrance betokens a negro company on the stage for at all other times the colored element Is kept at the top of the house and the rea reason reason reason son why it was permitted to permeate the there and then was that the Smart Set was to play The Black Politician A similar breakage of the rule is observable at the theatre in upper Broadway where Williams and Walker are on the stage In Bandanna Land Lando It Is a peculiarity of ot both these negro extravaganzas that the principal comedian is a mulatto who has haR to blacken his face with burnt cork corl corland and enlarge his mouth with red paint to make mak himself look to be of full blooded and comical African descent As I desired to make mak a close study in color I bought a seat in the second row directly behind the orchestra leaders chair The leader who w o came to that chair was a negro with no Caucasian blend while the tho tooters and scrapers were the regular band of ot the theatre It is usual to carry along a musical director with extravaganzas else the singing and dancing would go wrong and the local I leader sits aside playing a fiddle and relinquishing the baton to the visiting leader But this time the white man was absent and the black man instead of oC wielding a baton played a piano plana to keep the orchestra together and only I In cases of necessity waved his hands hander i it covertly t overtly to restore tempo to the white players They had refused to work f funder under a negro boss unless he leave out all tokens of authority II Old In form though new in some of Its filling is 18 The T e Black Politician and 2nd its pulling puUing power is centered In InS InS inS S H Dudley a clever humorist in negro characterization ha yet doing noth nothing nothIng nothing ing singular enough to warrant de description description description The rhe noteworthy things were the chorus boys and girls who Had been trained to eliminate their racial peculiarities and behave just like white folks in similar stage stag a employment employ employment employment ment The opening sight as a usual sual with such plays was a chorus and march utterly meaningless as to its indistinguishable indistinguishable indistinguishable words but serving as 3 a showdown of its femininity There were two dozen slim girls natty in n short frocks Crocks and from the center of the they must have looked white born Not one was anything like a or even a mulatto even from Crom my m near view there appeared to be bemore bemore bemore more than quadroons and that impression come altogether from lack of or color for a free use of powder and rouge had faded fa ed the hues of oC chocolate or coffee to cream but from the fact that the faces though prettiness was scarce and beauty ab absent absent absent sent showed no flat fiat noses thick lips lipsI I or other betrayals of ot Afrie origin I If It now this had been a problem drama Instead of ot an antic farce the mingling of of or black and brown men with yellow ellow and white women might have been meant to teach something I wont guess what but maybe mabe Dudley Dadley author of the play playas as well as its main comedian intended to be ethnological by giving to the candidate for mayor maor of ot Marco Ga a wife who looked lo ked right for an allwhite and quite correct matron in that Smart Set from Crom which this Smart Set took its name The rhe opposing politician had no accent complexion features or 01 mannerism to indicate negro blood it was fairly supposable that the canvass was be between between between tween champions of the two tw races the blacks winning and when at the plays end the beaten nominee gave his daughter with lily Illy skin and but buttercup buttercup buttercup hair to Dudley Dudle the comedy black man in marriage was it unreasonable unreasonable unreasonable to ascribe to Dudley Dudle the author authora a purpose of ot showing without orally oran teaching a lesson le son In amalgamation But the use Better regard The Black Politician las no more than thana a clever imitation by negroes of or the thel white kind of ot extravaganza that Co Cohan Cohan Cohan han makes New York has no resident theatrical company and I 1 know of ot a recent attempt to one until it was all allover allover allover over All I can do Is to quote Josh Darnett whose failure led probably a hundred jokers to call him Gosh Darn it I have a voice he said and Ive tried always and all al ways w yS to make something out of ot it I have exhorted at camp meetings recited on the Sun Sunday |