Show TOLD OF TOE TilE MERRY IE RY WIDOW WIDO BY FRANKLIN FYLES V New York Oct Descriptively and not very ver critically I will tell tel you about the really realy salient things in the operetta ta of The Merry Widow the tile tragedy of Qt Sappho and Phaon the musical comedy of ot The Hoyden Hoden and the tile ex extravaganza r extravaganza of The Te Top o 0 the World which are noteworthy stage productions prod productions c tons within a week In this town The oddest thing ting in The Merry Widow is isa isa isa a sentimentally dramatic waltz walz The widow Is not as a merry mer as she pretends to be She Is a Transylvanian million heiress and she goes to Paris for fun but gets serious with wih the estrangement of ot her sweetheart There is no need ned to tell tel the story of ot this lovers Quarrel that at Its worst the theman th theman but only to note n te Is wort man vows hell hehl hel never say I 1 l love loe ve you shall That is to her lien and she vows he when at a abal the fond feud between them ball given gen by her they are coupled as bal dancers She is bent on enchanting to resist determined him while he Is whirl first they her allurement At in Hungarian sort of ma and stamp a Hung Hungian they waltz waits to the tune but soon walz effectual in all al the Franz that is most Lehar music that has been the malting making matIng In The Widow Europe of The Merry love affair mind you Is Ii not a triviality of song Bong and dance but one of acute I heartaches song and in the waltz walz the real rel lovers and ad nd pretended haters enact a deeply emotional scene The music is isa isa Isa I a sensuous circling melody and to it I ittle tle Widow Sonia Sofia and the Prince Pince Da D tte illo iilo simultaneously talk like hike high tragedy 10 and dance like hike Iko low comedy The Tile young woman be becomes becomes becomes comes a siren of voluptuous deviltry dein to make mako the distracted man say I love hove you So the audience gets an exposi exposition exposition tion ton of soulful passion along with a wonderful show of ot physical attack by bya a woman and resistance by a man I dont advise anyone anone to read Shakes Shak s peares Venus and Adonis Adonis but feel bound to say that it I expresses the feel feelIng feelIng feeling Ing of that conversational waltz walt by the widow and the prince The Th ingenuity of their gyratory and an the grace of their thel passionate pantomime would be offensive If I they were not beautiful and ad if they did not look as a though inspired by the melodic waltz which having been danced to at all al the summer hotels in the land will wl have a winter of prosperity in our ballrooms During three years ears The Te Merry Widow has thrived so exceedingly in Vienna VIenna its Is Berlin Paris and London that not a scrap of doubt was wa felt of Its Is equal vogue in New NewYork NewYork York Tork That feeling of ot certainty was betrayed by the assignment of the cost costliest costliest liest lest of the theatres to It for tor the re remainder remander remainder mander of ot the Just begun season and the employment of a starless company to perform it I There is no use guess guessIng gesIn guessing Ing In how high a royalty is paid for the use of the play nor the cost of gowning gowIng In the most modish possible manner Its Is hundred women but the only names In Inthe Inthe Inthe the cast that I could recall recal were those of Ethel Jackson Jackon and Donald Brian the principal lovers lover and R R E Graham Grham an old cuckold diplomat Yet Tet Colonel Savage has made mado up an entirely ca capable capable pable pablo company from his operatic forces mostly and ad expensive stars be Therein Therin lies comfort for those who dont like the starring system and greatly gaty Increased profit for the man manager manager manager ager for tor here the plays the thing Indeed and he may send out as a many companies as he cares to with none of ot them second to any other While The Merry Widow Is I away up In tn the scale of dramatic and mu musical musical musical art a the purist cant enjoy it I without rack to the consciences The ball bal that the Widow Sonia Santa gives is in ina Ina ina a garden grden and into a summer house an anold anold anold old diplomat sends his young oung wife vite with wih a gallant glant officer to cajole and wheedle him for political purposes but buton buton buton on peeping through a keyhole he sees and describes to the audience some mutually sincere endearments letting him kiss her dreadful dreadfully ly oh yes awfully the husband ex exclaims claims The last of the three acts represents a hilarious night at Maxims notorious Paris resort for tor rakish eaters drinkers drinker and dancers Candid tourists return from the French Fench city cl with wih word that Maxims deserve its is reputation for or frenzied and ornate gaiety the older men say sa it I is not less sordid and sodden a place of iniquity than Harry Har Hills once famous hall hal used to be here In New York Tork but in The Merry Widow it is represented resplendently with an orgie orge in full tul swing The excuse for this showing of Parisian depravity Is that the merry mer widow goes there to grab out her beloved prince from the sirens whom he has ha resorted to o for solace in his lovelorn despair Here a grisette leads in such a vicious saturnalia as I have never be before before fore ore seen beautified on the stage which Is s the same sae as to say that The Merry Mer Widow is exquisite In theatrical han ban handicraft and at the same sr time wicked The dignity of the drama Is upheld against all the frivolity by the tile tragedy of Sappho and Phaon and it I is held away up One cannot approach an un undertaking undertaking dering of this commendable intent and good god accomplishment without a feeling of gratitude and respect Percy Mackaye Is the only contemporary American whose Averse tragedies reach the stage Mackaye has undertaken to adhere to o the form tonn of ot Greek tragedy telling his ils story stor for tor Instance in one scene for his three acts and his mel inci dents to proceed from fr fr the afternoon of one day through a starry night to the th of ot the next The gray bleak dawn d The place gy Is on that tnt promontory famous through c as the height from which Sappho flung funs herself to death d ath in the Aegean sea se The picture l 18 iH beautiful But the drama lacks that simplicity of theme and diction Jack which is the most salient quality ty tv of ot the writers wrier whom the earnest young joung American strives to emulate He shows the Greek poetess first view of Phaon here presented as a slave lae and her immediate passion for him pro proceeds proceeds swiftly with his capitulation to Ho her thence passes to his accidental killing IdIng of his child resulting In his re reunion r runIon reunion union with wih its is mother and his desertion of ot Sappho and hs con concludes eludes with her h r leap Into the sea This simple if hardly exalted tale Is com corn complicated with wih a mesh of or Irrelevant and commonplace detail and obscured by bv b ponderous verse The words are a dead weight that drag down an admired ac I tress from a high place which she has hR mounted to It I would be difficult to engage a company coman competent by b training to act this tragedy In the ex exalted exalted x alted manner necessary to uplift it i from commonplace It I requires vane varie varlet variety ty t and simplicity of elocution and tho th power to create and ond maintain a de demeanor demeanor demeanor meanor of aloofness Bertha has none of these qualities in the time ex extreme extreme degree here required of her nor norcia do cia any of her associates Indicate Indicate th i possession of them I V Mrs Kalich KaUch is a lovely figure as she energies wreathed wr In ropes of violets between two massive Doric Done Dorc pillars rising amidst the tangled branches of olive olve trees against the deep blue sky and deeper blue expanse of the Aegean sea sed which lashes against the shore throughout the play pia Sapho is a beau beautiful beautiful sight as embodied by Mrs Kalich Mr Mackaye gives to her as her first firt words those lines that have InIs come down through the tile ages from her to us us Al Alcaeus Alcaeus Alcaeus gazing at her weaving the vio violets violets yb lets into a chain says to her In the words of his ode still stil partially pre preserved preserved served pure Sappho I wish to fay ay somewhat but shame hinders me Whereupon answering in the words of her ode she says thou had desire of or f aught good or fair Shame would not have touched thine eyes e es But thou have spoken thereof openly It I would be Impossible without hav hay having having haying ing read Mr play to speak of it with wih complete authority It I is difficult to separate the shortcomings of or the actor and of the dramatist in a play with which one is not familiar It ItIs ItIs Itis Is surely the formers fault that much they the said could not be understood Yet TeL how can we be sure under such circumstances that what they had ha to say was wa worth the the saying They said it In heavy hevy blank verse vers made weight weightier ier len by almost uninterrupted adherence to the line lne and rarely il ii illumined i hummed by a gleam of imaginative idea Indeed I venture to say that In Inthe Inthe inthe the best of the romantic dramas of offar offar offar far less pretentious claims one may find as much of literature as In this massive masle composition by Mackaye The new musical comedy cored is The Hoyden Hoden and it might as well wehl wel be named Elsie Janis as Elsie Is all al the soul of it i ana much of the body Elsie as you know is a mimic next below Cecilia Cecia Loftus Lofus In ability to Imitate other players mannerisms She be began began gan under sixteen and the Gerry so society f society kept her out of New York till ti she was wa of legal state age Then she broke forth with wih startling portraitures of Sam Bernard Eddie Foy George Cohen Richard Cane Carle Cale Fay Pay Temple Templeton ton Ethel Barrymore Barmore and Anna Held She Is Is still stI under twenty in years ear and under ten teim in behavior In theatres theatre of the top grade flowers are not permit permitted ted to be passed over the footlights but an exception was made on the opening night of The Hoyden and five hundred dollars worth werth of posies at an inexpert estimate were handed over to Elsie Who paid for tor them How do I know But I can Inform you that she received them with wih childish glee running to and Ira fro at the stages edge to reach them clapping capping her hands pattering her feet feet and making Joyful ejaculations The audiences spirits rose with hers h rs and the floral part of the performance went well weI But Elsie is a big girl now and I wonder how much longer It I will wi be before her Juvenile j exuberance will wi be regarded as adult aul assurance However Elsie Janis Jants ani seems to have hae discerned the need that she shall be become become become come an actress atress In this musical play pIa transferred for her from the French she Is the tomboy tombo sister of an English girl In betrothal trouble and goes ad adventurously adventurously adventurously to wicked Dieppe to save her from sorrow sorow It I is a curious truth that the best mimics of ot good actors are apt to be bad ba tors Cecilia Cecia Loftus is worth to 1000 a week in 1 vaude vaudeville yule ville le and not half hal as a much in drama drama Elsie maintains her amusing value by having her mimicry put Into a com comedy comedy edy ed in which she rings pings and dances also and she freshens her masculine delineations by wearing a boys jaunt aunty jaunts suit s lt for tor them and making new selections selections tons of passages to speak The Te ingenuity of some of the de do devices e vices for extravaganza foolery is shown in a new double sextet that ex excited excited excited cited such an uproar on the first night of The Top o 0 the World lorld as nothing of the sort had ha since the pretty maid maidens maidens maidens ens and gentle strangers of Floro Florodora Florodora dora dor started the fad tad of six strolling and singing couples But it I was wa not the feminine halves of tho the half dozen pairs pir that made mado the ado ao though they were dainty danty little sprites and grace graceful graceful ful In their glee They The were wore childish childishly t ly dressed kiddies who sang a lively Juvenile ditty hitty and carried large hoops through which they Jumped nimbly In their dance Then at no apparent sigal signal on to the stage stag dashed dashe Tip Collo CoUo BeeBee Sunny Jim Im Snow Boy and Frost Fost King It seems proper to cul cull from the program the names name of the six beauties of the tIme latest sextet sensation lest posterity wrest from them their honors as real rea originals as some have tried to do with such Florodora as the young oung wo women women women men who are now Lady Idy Ashburton of the British peerage and Mrs Mr Fred Fed Gebhard aunt by marriage cf of Mrs frs Reginald Vanderbilt These new las fas fascinators blinked If I they wink at atthe atthe atthe the front row of rounder too They were six collies coUes as lovely lovel as dogs could be with wih huge bows on their collars colars and panting open mouths that suggested show girls most dental smiles mies They lined up in front each close chose cose to his dancing partner and the girls kicked over their heads heds and frisked about them them Then with wih an accord that would I t V V SV S V fl s be creditable to the best rehearsed bal bat ballet ballet let let the six dogs lay down so that the girls might dance a new figure amongst them like a Scotch sword reel reel It I was the absence of visible di direction direction for their movements that gave gae especial charm chann to the collies coles Only once did one anticipate a cue so im lm impatient patient patent was he to sit It up with paws p ws ex ox extended tended tende When en the audience insisted on onan onan onan an encore the dogs took it running from one side of the stage to the time other making high leaps through the hoops held by their partners This song was one of the oddities In the written by Mark MarkE ark arkE E Swan in frank frk imitation of The TIme Babes in and The Wizard Izard of Oz and It has come to the tile same New York ork theatre that enjoyed enjo ed Its Is greatest prosperity with wih those infantile plays We have for a heroine a little girl who has wandered to the time north pole In search of Santa Claus Glaus work workshop workshop workshop shop which looks much like hike the time toy land of earlier earler days and has lute marching toys to s and dancing dolls dols like it i And this wanderer resembling the little litte girl who was blown away by a Kansas cyclone to the wonderful land hand landof landof of Oz meets a couple of chaps who are areas areas areas as good to her and ani as nimble of ot feet reet and wit wi as a were the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow of that little maids adventures adventure One of of these Is the Candy Kid in constant fear that his red and white striped person peron may ma melt to a fluid and flow ow away awa while the time other is a who naturally dances and bobs about They are ae In fact a vaudeville team tem named Bailey and Austin who work together with wih delightful unity unit whether they go mad madin in dances or in humorous ditties It I was to hear her more of a song ong that had reached the informatory line lne that the commotion in the ocean was the time cat catfish ct catfish fish having kittens that the audience refused to let them go from the stage They came back many times to bow Then one bobbed his head in from here and everywhere eer where The sharpest eyes were fooled tooled by what seemed his marvelous agility to rush from one en entrance entrance entrance trance to another so s quickly for the back drop shook as though he |