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Show fiT YOBK, May JS. JU12. "Robin Hoods" has como "of age" triumphantly! No '"ction o the season, has bceu greeted with i or unbounded ontluis-tecinald ontluis-tecinald dc Kovou 'a of his twenty ono year !hls earliest and groat.-A groat.-A distinguished nu-fstive nu-fstive of an important s Metropolitan Opera nbled to hoar stars of j and of the Covcnt tbo Boston Opera, in unfamiliar atmosphere and thev remained to ) their applause. Trup, Eo had come so detor-ploased, detor-ploased, that a perforce perfor-ce adniirablo would forth Eomethincr like mdrb, such as "Oh, i, were greeted with the sound of the first e B. Frothinpham, the of the Bostoniaus ro-was ro-was recoived with Miasm for an Ellen alvitn; and the fact J Hall neither looked fjnoa to look it was 1 for .iubilntion. rpho earlier days was cast "den, thus making her ico in th0 character of ". But she took pre-'t pre-'t to look old! In f nee tho suggested that the "tyyears was, to her, f of twelve or fourteen old-woman makc-ui. comely features; her t off her form admir-wnty admir-wnty feet and ankles pvell attended to. 0 librettist's jibes at 01 Damo Durden passed -oa their verv inap- 10 deliRht tile STTay of Bext JM b0 tho twenty-birthday twenty-birthday 0f "Rolnu s Reginald do Ko-opera Ko-opera and first notable remained his !?':. 'Ihc libretto was ttUwt from the pon of who has written more than any other dead or inborn. Bo- tho atmosphero and. in tone, roman- humorous, it iB Jhe melodious mid mil- ffi ,l.eliRntful t real-it real-it ulT1 Wro fc,r AKood Bipgers as well j 'omcdians; in thi8 aJuntccl to grand t- a'l Henr3- (.'lav & V5 reronniit.; an'd a,l w lh' -losephino til J- a'-Donal(l, S byvocal-5f55C,OUB byvocal-5f55C,OUB Maria", the lfel 3f"fcr gC h fir ClnmH!1 llpP' of ? Wan ly kuow that l' ! tho Win- look : af !ihlcl;j?.Vor wa' ' DJU by Clement Low- is Waller. Tho sentimental verses first appeared at a luncheon in London, when Mrs. Kendal produced pro-duced them and read them aloud, admitting her pride iu the fact that Mr. Scott had dedicated thorn to her. But when sho had finished the Countess of Warwick unfolded a pnper on which Mr. Scott had dedicated the self-same poem to her fair self. Before tho luuchcon was over two-thirds of tho women had put in the same evidence of chival-ric chival-ric admiration. WALTER HYDE, Basil Ruys-daol Ruys-daol and Carl Gantvoort, as Robin .Hood, Will Scarlet and Little John, hold the vocal triumph tri-umph very high indood, exceptionally excep-tionally higb; and Tvhilo thero is no dangor of a.u auditor bursting a blood vessel laughing at the Sheriff of Nottingham and Guy of Gisborne of Edwin Stevens and Sidney Bracy, thev are funny enough to serve. And Mr. Froth-ingham's Froth-ingham's Priar Tack is still droll enough to be an entertainment in itself. When Mr. Do Koven and Mr. Smith undertook to duplicate tho success of "Robin Hood" with 'Rob Roy," a particularly pet iest was popular. "I sat right alongside a thiof in tho horse car today," said a rural visitor. "Go long," said his companion: ".how could you tell? ""Confessed it himself," ho answered: "Said ho right, out to the man with him. 'I'm going to rob Roy tonight to-night I hope It will bo as good as robbin' Hood.' " AT a. point in the first act, on tho occasion of this week's elaborate revival of the Gilbert & Sullivan opera of "Patience," when only Marie Doro and Do Wolf Hoppe-r were on thc stage, an electric bulb behind the scenes blew out, causing a mild report. "Tho gag is obvious," said Hopper: Hop-per: "but this is Gilbert!" And . in that gay impromptu may bo found the Teason why the annual Gilbert & Sullivan revival of Mr. Brady aud tho Shuberts, bogin-ning bogin-ning With "Tho Mikado" iu 1910, aro rare doliprhtB of mirth and music, to which one looks forward happiry throughout the turkoy-trotting winter months. They havo gained the reputation of giving us the exact: test of the best frivolous libretti over . written writ-ten and of employing Hingcrs trained to an cfllciency at least appreciably ap-preciably worthy of scores, that remained unmatched for an inventive inven-tive and musicianly expression of humor and of melody. COMING- third in thin delightful delight-ful aeries, "Patience" is tbc first of tho operottas to, giyo ouo an impression of a ?Pe of one of tho famous co Inborn ora over thc other; but that o cot in easily explained away. A Mho ugh "11 M. H. Pmaforo" (ISS) caricatured car-icatured at least one ; PbHc hKurn of (hp day. and "Tho MiK.ulo U8S5) caught tho cra'.o for cver.-thiiiL' cver.-thiiiL' .Tapaucso and gave now lin-nolus lin-nolus to it. neither ddled upon itB passing pertinency for Us .ip-peal. .ip-peal. This is not. WiH r,! with "Patience" (J8S1), which i more noarlv burlcsMUO - r , others and which. therefore, PW00P8 down witb Homowhat blunted, weapons upon a Kcuera-tion Kcuera-tion nS lougcr concerned utli acuto ucsthoticiHm, or with t o c -contricitlcs of Oscar V j1 c h his minor pont days. Howoyor, inas-much inas-much as Sir William Gilbert him-Sf him-Sf admitted that tho idea of making "Patience" a natiro on Lsthoticism and its chief upob itlo was an afterthought (the a Tiorts wore to havo been nui curates and tho "twenty lovesick Sons" "ladiea of the parish"). wo would be surprised indeed did not a considerable portion of tho humor outlive its earlier appreciation. apprecia-tion. And what most up-to-date libretto of the season could bear comparison with this linger from the days of Wilde and lilies, of Mrs. Langrty's cold bluo eyes, aud of Lillian Russell's girlhood'? AND yet, this time it is Sir Arthur Ar-thur Sullivan, who, weathering weath-ering the storms of timp, stands more firmly on his pedestal than his collaborator: collabora-tor: ago cannot wither nor custom cus-tom stale the. infinite variety , of his genius. Alice Brady, Christine Ncilson and Viola. Gillette, as tho foremost lovo-sick maidens, and Kugcup Cowles, George. Macfar-lanc Macfar-lanc and Arthur Aldridgc, as tho more prominent dragoons, sing the musk- admirably: trio orchestra accomplishes ac-complishes brilliant, work under the direction of Clarence Roger-son: Roger-son: in short, the chorus and concerted con-certed m cm bora are the best points in the presentation. Mario Doro, looking quite hor loveliest, siugs tho title role with a plaintive, well trained voice, though with little lit-tle strength; Kva Davenport gives us a conventionally adequate Lady .lane, and Do Wolf Hopper, if ha nil v (he i lnl Hunthornc, delivers de-livers the Gilbe'tian wit with a clearness of dictirn and wealth of voice which cannot be welcomed too onthusia'ticallv. Cvrjl Hi'oU. !n agreeable and accomplished ac-complished actor in light onmody, was thc complete failure of the evening, being so totally unable to makp his songs henrd let alone to give them musical meaning as tn render such a classic as "A Magnet Hung in a Hardware Shop." uothinor but a stupid interlude. in-terlude. After lie has retired from tli cast for 1 cannot believe he would not be as anxious to conserve con-serve bis own reputation by withdrawing, with-drawing, as the performance would benefit by such a move "Patience"' "Pa-tience"' will take its olace as one of the notable entertainments of the season. W SOMERSET MAUGHAM may bo counted among thc newer personages in the ranks of leading dramatists: he has como upon ns within the last few years --happily for us and prosperously for himself with "Jack Hrnw, " ".Smith," "Ladv Frederick." "Mrs. Dot" and "Penelope." "Tho Explorer, " rcvenlpd a night or two ago, introduces him for tho first time as a dealer in serious themes. Yet if enjoys the same advantage as the earlier plays, which were vouched for bv John Drew. Ethel Barry more. " Billio Burke and Marie Tempest, in com-iug com-iug fo us under the authoritativo wing of a leading star. Lewis Waller Wal-ler thus assumes his third role in America; while the cast, is made additionally notable In- such names as those of Grace Ln'ne, his loading load-ing actress, iu "Beauc.airc; " Oon-stanco Oon-stanco Collier. Suzanne Sheldon and Charles Cherry. Tu short, "The Explorer," is produced with every advantage of ability amongst it's actors and intelligence and taste in presentation. MR. WALLER, comes forward as about the most heroic, dazzling, self-effacing hero known since Ouida ceased to write. Indeed, In-deed, to quite .believe in him one wouM have to be one of thoso mid-Victorian ladies, in crinoline and a waterfall, who became faint at the aroma of the tube-rose- Ho is an English explorer who feels it his dulv to crush out South African slave-trading. He appears first, however, crowded into n morning coat that barely allows his breath aud that gives him something some-thing of tho chesty grandeur of Kyrlc Bellew. Ho loves Mis Col-lior Col-lior with a welling, damned up pasion. She, however, thinks onXv for tho family honor, tliough it lias roor mainstays in her forging father and her weakling brother. The former falls into disgrace, whereupon Mr. Exploror bogs Miss Collier to become his wife. She will not accept so great a sacrifice; sacri-fice; but she would bo eternally grateful to him if he would tako brother into tho most dangerous darknesses of dark and dangerous Africa, where the boy might reinstate rein-state the family honor on the platform plat-form from which it wobbled. This is a good deal to ask; there aro times whon marriage is not tho worst alternative. This proves one of thorn. In tho second act, in some dreadful dread-ful holo in Africa that is quite as awful as canvas and a splash or two of ill-placed paint could make it, brother turns out to be n frightful fright-ful rotter, lie carries on liko the dickons with thc native women and thou, when wearied of them, shoots 'om off. Then, too, ho is a coward; he wants to eat when everyono is starving; to drink when the desert is as dry as Hartford on the Sabbath; Sab-bath; to shake all over whon everyono every-ono is as norvous as he can bo anyway. any-way. So Mr. Waller sends him out into tho wings to die a "hero's death,' ' and thns retrieve the fam-, fam-, ily honor. In tho third act everybody every-body is dancing; though they talk about turkey trbtting, nobody actually act-ually does auythiivc so undignified. Miss Collier shows her grief for hor slaughtered brother and her father, who has expired unseen, by coming to the dancet iu a beanti-ful beanti-ful and becoming white lace gown, with which she wears tho loveliest pale pink slippers and stockings. Of course, tho orplorcr is charged with cowardice in sending tho dead boy on tho perilous mission instead of" undertaking it himsolf ; and again, of course ho maintains si-lenco si-lenco in the face of every accusation. accusa-tion. At first Miss Collier bolieves in him, then she doubts him. and. finally, after wasting a good half of an ovening, she trusts him once more. Tho enrtain falls on matrimonial matri-monial prospects. TWO things about "The Er-plorer" Er-plorer" are not quite clear. One is. how did such a "well-made," "well-made," superficial, very English drama over get past John Drew? Tho other is, why should Lewis Waller produce it here? It onjoyod a very brief life in London, whore Its appeal should have been far greater than in this country. I have heard, however, reliably and reasonably, that Mr. Waller likes tho play himself and so heartily approves of his own performance in it that ho refuses to accept tho London verdict as final. In tho khaki uniform of the second act ho looks very handsome; ha always speaks with richer voice and better diction .than 98 per cent of the actors now visible on our stago; and ho haa tho tochniquo and authority au-thority to control every scene he figures in. But his stylo is hotter suited to Shakespeare and tho romantics and, thercforo, in a mod, cm play, givos an improssion of superficiality and artificiality that leaves the heart untouched in these days of "Bunty Pulls the Strings" and of such Rachel Crothers comedies come-dies as "A Man's World" and "Thc Three of Us." Many of Mr. Maugham's lines are witty in his well-known way; the cast as a whole, and tho women in especial, do everything for the papier-mache characters that could bo hopod; and the wholo affair is carried off with a respect for discretion and good taste that cannot bo too warmly welcomed on our stage. As a newcomer new-comer Mr. Waller hns made his presence keenly and most agroe-ably agroe-ably and beneficially felt Iub own performance in "Tho Garden of Allah" was ono of the most not-ablo not-ablo histrionic achievements of the season; his presentation of "A. Butterfly But-terfly on tho Wheel," in which he did not act, has boon one of tho most positive fina-ncial successes of tho ftew York winter, and his ap- Soaranco in the comody of "M. leaucaire" was a mild and unex-pected unex-pected "hit." |