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Show ail-LAKER PENS OPERA Wmauerbach "The Firefly'9 Is a Big Success ' fe TRENTINI THE STAR Jilj-ge Monroe Is "Vurry, Vurry Nice" in "The 85un Dodgers"; New York Likes "The Jt Drums of Oude," Which Appeared 3p Here This Season. ?". $X By Vanderheyden Fy'es $ .Vetr York, Dec. M. 1012. rid INDISCRETION OF TRUTH" A MH ly.drama In four ncin. By J. ey Manners. (Harris Hi cater.) "(tout 'fSc Stirling. Bart............. ji;." '. Frank I. Cooper 7 Darroll , Walter Hampden Jtj FHIIam Grcvlllo... lOtw h pj Henry Mortimer tforeton Alexander Frank .t't- .rweedlo Richard Purdon 4TH , William lLvllIe 'i tlrllng Nina Herbert folk Wins Violet Kemblc Cooper :itd fclorldsc Anno Meredith .rlT idnor Muriel Starr lTft! ?ell Mvh. George Whiffen Jf fti $UX DODGERS" A fanfar of 'tiStJi ty In two, acts Book by Edgar 03bg r Lyrics and music by E. Ray ,.1 and A. Baldwin Sloanc. ( Broad - 1 0 ib Xutlelsh Bessie Wynn or ftft norla O'Day. .George W. Monroe if iti asklns Harry Fisher &bB Ann Tacker V Wl h Knight Harold Crane t'OJSi tabbs.....".. Nat Fields hrta mter Denman Maley nfo, cter ..... . rJcrry Hurt ght Nan Brennan Ir-- Tjrncr Maud Gray ' m, ' Lamb Harry Clarke ilfle" .James C. Broesc Huldoon Juinea Dyco river Fred Duffy "H?"1 FIREFLY" A comic opera in acts. Book and lyrics by Otto niira bach. Music by Rudolf FYinil. taiii theater.) a ndare Vera, de Rosa S a Ruby Norton ricV t Sammy Loe & e. Vantlare Audrey Mapl avers Craie Campbell V toton Melville Stewart m- leaby Vandarc Wo J3 t Katherlno Stewart Roy Atwell n uaz Henry Vogel ....Emma Trentinl '"M t columbo Irene Casslnl it'ii ': George Williams rctji s MAN" A comedy jn three acts. Iguatus Thomas. (Harris the- m IIMr. Helen Hancock -mmf' Frances Bourkc r, Tom Graven jnvootl .Katharine Browne Decker MmmY) Helen O rr Dal y ricy Minetto Baretto Eawley ..Clifford Bruce !0 William Sampson BBpKld Picrson Orlando Daly UmmV Dc Witt C. Jennings IjpBLennard Chrysta Hcrnc Charles Sturgcs -mmwfk Robert B. Kegerreis Bwpon .... v..Scdloy Brown. Jr. iSTASTERS OF ISPAHAN" n fantasy in ono act. By lax. .Maurice TUvey Sydney Paxton Walter Crclghton ....Walter Kingston! Valentino Penna CharlGS Francis ....Elizabeth Rlsdon i AND THE JACOBIN" A two acta. By Booth Tarklns-nedy Tarklns-nedy theater.) wcync Elizabeth Risdon MSflync F. J. Randell . . vlllc Era. Iconard Boyne snHf Maurice Elvey I ""I Walter JCIngsford IIS OF OUDE" A melodrama ct- Ry AuKtln Strong. (Co-etcr.) (Co-etcr.) ector McGregor E. J. Ratcliffc Alan Hartley ". Jack Standing ..John Thomson servant ..W. S. Phlllljs rva'it H. H. McCollum Clayton Eleanor Scott 'L'Estrelie )RDER thoroushly to enjoy he Indiscretion of Truth." hfls to fo but one thing ) the hands of time back cert' ?y ycara' To mo that Is ,it ? 8ay than rto- what an wing position It -puts one '?ot yet thirty? Tho "new" . e?:cellcnt example of the bat I ?,Irama wo sometimes read 'B. w ?er read about; and almost' - J" Hartlcy Manners has, i ono to wilWo Collins's jii) and Wife." once so jl'titl ?lar: and In form and lan-Kitt lan-Kitt 'a ? 'e11 as in the matter, he Ld If 10 old Etylo of flow- ictU? , Vy ITow near,' 11 reaom-older reaom-older versions of the novel .'oDcJ ?ed bo prominent a part on and American stages in gggl !v I cannot say. The lato ';$H fashioned ono called eto" and traversed tho 3g ?n It, but the best known k3 l y the novelist himself, iS advice and co-operation of JJ-S ; Bancroft, and it will over iME1, hl8trlonIe history as tho Slne C!ara Morris Into mBl,a and sensational fame, WPvC AuUE,tl" Daly's scu-tflK-Hirl..lhat.cr- 'ri, London 5' Si SnW' .'"c'uded. besides -nmn7 ,ady Bancroft, who Cot? mIcs to thomsdvos, Bf, as the beloved suurdian. K7Yi!, ,ruc, of mc not to Svel 5 ni,,ail'c rcad so fa'"- Kl 'LmP H1,1' yo." won't toll it I,, il" t.at I have Kno o J1 noRBlWe thero Is ."n'nfprmed and that HKicli ma? 0lr mothers WSStiBlw,1'0, twdorncsB con-Ht-well ,,B.,rl ,nfl,ned Anne Krutliy 7tluant ' title. Anno ,JJcr Indiscretion Is Bv,nv . Jn" lrneHL a hand- K-"CdJ ,r and caid he would Hilnntii n. wealthy widow B t nV, a,,,l"tcad of turn- Wmm o nd-f a, f,r with a note had B'ic,Ue': .of Truth's. HBi he Hi,,8nd ., your wifo" PmthlK h?.nB S'nillarly. ma?riCn,Td ,n Scotland, B pf appear to f0t' tho Special I benefit of fiction wrliers, the cxis-! cxis-! tence of the letters constitutes a marriage. Also tho friendly messenger mes-senger announces himself as Truth's husband, for no better reason, so fat-as fat-as I can xec, than to increase tho complications. tt0 Truth creeps buck to her guardian with a broken heart, two husbunds and her soul still Illy white. The play then proceeds pro-ceeds to unmarry her. In tho case of tho athlete, through an attack of hcart-fallurc brought on by overexertion over-exertion In wife-choking, ho having decided that he will Indulge in a lit-tlo lit-tlo Indiscretion or his own. But just for that he drops dead, leaving Truth free to marry her guardian; perhaps becauso Frank Kemblc Cooper Is tho best actor In the cast and therefore should bo rewarded with an unchok-ablo unchok-ablo wife. As tho brilliant, cruel athlete ath-lete a role beloved of actora In earlier ear-lier days Walter Hampden is clever and accomplished enough to save an obsolfito conception from twentieth century ridicule, which is saying much. Miss Ann Meredith, aa the unbelievable- Truth, hardlv comes off o well; but oho still is bettor than tho part. Indeed, that may bo said of the ontiro companj', which Includes Mrs. Thomas Whlffcn greeted with affectionate and prolonged applause Miss Muriel Starr, Miss Violet Kem-blo Kem-blo Cooper, Henry Mortimer and "Dan" Collycr. fi EORGE W. MONROE is tho hefty pivot around whom "Tho Sun Dodgers" swirls in a glittering, glrly whirl. And what a. hugo dumpling dump-ling of jollity ho is! Not that lie haa brought us anything new. Indeed, the first-night audience, which literally lit-erally howled with delight over him. would probably have resented any Innovation. The moro familiar tho stunt, tho louder their approbation. The first time Monroo tripped over his feel, laughter like a cheer of welcome swept the house. Ills first flannel-mouthed assurance that somebosy or something was "vurry. yurry nice." was embraced like a long-lost child. Applause that might have burst spontaneously on a final nolo from Ysaye greeted the beloved admission waited for till the second sec-ond act "Well, be that as It mar: I say, be that as it may." Tho red-headed Irish woman's large fan still Insisted on popping up and hitting hor in tho face; and her ample skirts would fly out when she whirled about in hilarious excitement. ex-citement. She stepped Into a fiacre, drawn by a weary horse whoso fea-lures fea-lures fell when he got a slant at tho bulk of his "fare," and tho carriage car-riage turned over. She ventured into the country and a Bull-Moosetto now frightened her into mistaking her for a bull; Bho bought an automobile auto-mobile and Jfc stopped breathing for all lime. "You call that thing a runabout?" bellowed the wealthy Mrs. Honoria O'Day. "Well. It ran about a block and then stopped." TTARRT FISHER Impersonates tho fat schemer who nas sold hor tho machine, which, Indeed, went so well when he was "demonstrating" that it threw both Mrs. O'Day and himself out. "It. wag necessary to climb a treo or go up an alley," he explained; "and there w3 no alley." Tf DGAR SMITH, who has written L more genuinely funny librettos than any three men of tho period, seems to have forgotten to put a plot In "The Sun Dodgers." for which E. Bay Goctz and A- Baldwin Bald-win Sloano have written many songs. Of course, a story may havo been out in and got snowed under by tho heavy fall of spangles; and then, too, It may be thero but invisible to us because of tho break-neck speed at which we are carried along, llko tho milestones on tho route of the Twenty-hour Limited. The ginger of the show Is due in equal parts to tho spirited chorus "business" devised de-vised by "Ned" Wayburn and to the ready, graceful, tireless' way In which tho girls carry out his orders. Thero are twenty "numbers" and the chorus change their costumes for quite a half of them. Nor is the production any less extravagant in the matter of scenery, the uproar beginning at a "beefsteak" in a cellar, cel-lar, proceding to tho exterior of the Sun Dodgers' club and winding up the first half of the evening on tho lawn of a country club; whllo the second act begins on the nlaza of an Imaginary city and continues on an exterior and interior of an "automat "auto-mat cafe." Ambling through all this arc Bes- Me Wynn. Nan Brennan, Ann Tras-ker, Tras-ker, Maude Gray, Harry Clark. Harold Har-old Crane. Nat Eleldti and Denman Malcy, doing their familiar "spo-claltlc3." "spo-claltlc3." Indeed. If this latest example ex-ample of tho "Lew Fields show" talis to be as popular as soma of Ita predecessors, the lack of novelty will be to blame. Now pongs and dances and Dorsonalltles could easily be Introduced; In-troduced; much doubtless will havo been dono before these lines arc r.?arr.Lew ir'elfls Is a genlun In building- up- an entertainment. ho knows, the plot may bo unearthed un-earthed and brought to light! It, sterns to he about a club of voung rounders, Including audi New Yorkers York-ers as 1. M. Studo. Y. DcWukc Tav-io Tav-io r and A. Goodi Lamb, and girls from the several Broadway (healers. (he-alers. The society, whii-h meets at night. I ni,cml)crs being sworn to shun daylight, pi-ojjosos to buy some ground on Long Island and build a sunless clty"--procc:dluRs that offer of-fer no difficulties to the trusty master mas-ter of a calcium moon. George Monroe, as the rich aunt of ono of Hie young bucks. Is Induced to finance fi-nance the selu'inc. declaring siiC wm build a town that will "boat Lillian Russell bagoa vIlhiKc to a frasxb-." And tills III.. rllmi,l A.,,.t Lr.-,. does, though the ground eIk- buvs .has some drawbacks, such tis liio fact that "when the tide Is out, the lake is at tho bottom of ine garden; but when ii,0 tide is in, the garden is at the bottom of tho lake." "pEOPLE who admire the kind Of x vivacity that radiates so freely from Madame Einmn Trentinl and they aro very numerous should bb delighted with "The Firefly." Tho first audience that heard it In New ork all but raised the roof with Its demonstrations of admiration. Indeed. In-deed. I may say. estimating Jfnoder-. Jfnoder-. ately, that I heard the operetta over three limes In the evening, so Insistent In-sistent was the applause- And as . for Madame Trontlnl's Neapolitan street aong. "Glanlna." I cannot guess now many times that was repeated, it was thoroughly Italian In spirit, though Rudolf Frimi's elaborately' scored music was generally Viennese In manner. Musical critics tell mo tho score was exceptionally admirable especially espe-cially those who heard it from tho Tar rear of. tho theater or from across tho street. I sat In the second row and, more than anything olse, it sounded to mo llko a. bad blow-out In a boiler factory. An Increased orchestra worked as steadily as dav laborers; Gaelano Mcrola, looking all I his name Implies, fairly Jumped up and down in his enthusiastic and successful suc-cessful efforts to lash his musicians on to greater fury; and above tho din, Madame Trentinl held her own quite unabashed. emitting Valkyrlan shrieks that were outdone only when the siren on a mimic vacht signaled its departure. All of which Is simply my coarse, unsympathetic way of saying that a great success was achieved; a new light opera haa come to stay for many months. rytTO HAUDRBACH has written a rational "book" for "The Firefly." Fire-fly." Tho character that Miss Audrey Maple. Miss Katherlno Stewart. Roy Atwoll. Melville Stewart and Craig Campbell disport themselves about is a llttlo Italian singer In tho streets of New York. For some reason that I did not catch, but was doubtless qulto according to Hoyle, a couple of characters wanted to smuggle her , onto a yacht bound for Bermuda. TJio numerous party aboard all deep-sea singers of tho first quality included a alnglng teacher who was assembling a boy choir. So all Madamo Trcntlni had to do was to put on trousers, sing and scuttle aboard. In tho second act. in Bermuda, Ber-muda, the old instructor and a young tenor in white flannels loved hor with a lyric passion, an ailment that grows more acute when she abandoned aban-doned her disguise for feminine garb. But she could sing "Glanlna" in any dress; and as that was the audience's ceaseless desire, the ' change, made llttlo difference. Indeed, In-deed, sho even sang It when the curtain cur-tain was down, the enthusiasm at tho end of the second act being so great that, bowing and surrounded by floral tributes, Madame Trentinl gavo a signal to the excitable Slgnor Merola and sang tho song again. Oh, theso opera audiences I CRITICAL comment on Augustus Thomas's latest play seems superfluous su-perfluous performances of it were discontinued- at the end of its flrst week. This might not have been necessary nec-essary if the popular author had agreed to report at the Harris theater the-ater every evening and at matinees, and, at tho end of each act. appear before tho curtain and explain the meaning of what had Just been shown-For shown-For "Mero Man" is moro words. Mr. Thomas may havo had some rational and consistent idea i ri his head when ho began to write it, but If he did, his pux-poEc became lost in the general gen-eral confusion. Evidently he sot out to satirize the movement for equal suffrage, but soon ho felt tho call to preach to us on tho Now York law and on the "servant" problem, only to veer off presently to an exposition ex-position of horoscope reading, and tho revelations of astrology; which subjects, sub-jects, In good time but for no evident evi-dent reason, were dropped in favor of another discussion of tho stato law regulating prosecution of employers owing female "help" more than $50. Is Mr. Thomas In training to present himself as the American Bernard ' Shaw? Late In tho second act, when "Mere Alan had become as murky and as meaningless qb pea soup, a thunderstorm thunder-storm brought the curtain down. But that it did not clear tho atmosphoro was evident when the third act Initiated Ini-tiated us Into a denser fog than ever. Still we did find ourselves e. while, whon Mr Thoma-s, with true manliness manli-ness got back to waman'H Inefficiency and ' proved his case" by having an Adamless household thrown Into terror ter-ror by tho darkness and the possible violence consequent on a strike at the gas works of the town. "What a dif-Terence dif-Terence iri tho house a few mpn make," stutters tho Thomaslan female fe-male of the species. Miss Chrystal ,et ? t'10, chief playor In a capable. TSHntSi,on8foca8t' which Includes young Sedley Brown, son of Miss Henrietta Crosman and her first huo-nand huo-nand and grandson of Mrs. Sol Smith The quality of the play, athbughnot b subsequent confusion, la struck with tho flrst scene. The locale io linkers that Hudson river town Tf"1?1 IlT?rk lves to laugh9 at! hLtl1befirlnn,nt'' 1?cf?rc the household house-hold and some guests havo gono Into dinner two servants hold a Tons conversation. con-versation. One is In an evCn?nc gown bc-Ionglng to her mtetresl The 2isSr'JnthP I yPrUe,u ,wo.rkl"tf cfrcs? assures the audience she has hrr iviil gown underneath. She accuses hi maid of having stolen a pair of lonr gloves from hor bureau.' The mistress mis-tress annears with the cIwm in L SS AwThi? wu,t V '"?mlf to know IVs iBh,e ,,aro VUe mons her th ncs The lady says the gloves aro hor 5 The servant Anally sava "Oh i milY h!X'1 sloVcs If' you like" and switches from the room. MAURICE KLVEY is a.mbitious. Jnd actor8 ?.!i,EnB8h stago manager nnn auoi who camo over to ihi country a few months ago , charge of tho company organized and font o hw us "Funnv's jiirflL P "y ' the latest Bernard Shaw comedy. The ToWVvbCCaT fk.1" nl' ' New toiK a0 j,rr, Livov the opportunity to preparo a matinee of wo Sis dramaa. with himself In tho leading r,?Je of. each nd members of tho "Fanny" forces Ailing the other parts? One of the, pieces, "The Poetasters of Ispahan' has been acted In England. Eng-land. 1 believe. It If? a vcrnr fantasv by Clifford Bnx of about tlV poetic j value of a London Christmas pantomime. panto-mime. Mr. Elyev, with n good voice, adm rable diction and a srnueful art nf lllunlratlvo gesture, plavs n Public Lettcr-M-rller "of the town of rspa-hnn rspa-hnn In tho time of tho youth or tho world. To him come four Hiiltors for the band of SUvorrnoon, tho beautiful beau-tiful daughter of a rich merchant. The srirl htm been ofcrcd to tlo man pohsr-ssrd of at IcaM, ton pieces nf dher, who can wrltn tbi worthleft poe-in to her lovcllncif All try; 1ml EMMA LTJCJY GATES. Who ia to bo tho star figure in tho big IsTow Year's concert at tlio tabernaclo January 1, 19ia. After hor Salt Lako, tho Public Letter-Writer, having so-cured so-cured sufficient money from them, muddles their efforts and writes a poem of his own that wins the prize. Sydney Paxton. Walter Crclghton. n alter Kingston--. Charles Francis, wilcntinc Penna and. ospcclallv, Miss Elisabeth Rlsdon as Silvermoon. gave Mr. Elvey good assistance; but the Incident is really praiseworthy only for the good scenic effect, along the poster-like lines of Relnhardt's "Sumurun. Black curtains drape tho fttage except for two gothlc-shapcd silts that serve as entrance wavs and through which a strange greenish-blue light thrown on whllo curtains cur-tains gives an Imaginative suggestion sugges-tion of Oriental night. For the rest, tho rugs that cover the floor and also the Letter-Writer's dais, and two or three lamps of colored glass and wrought metal, complete a helpful "atmosphere'' for poetry. Mr. Elvey's scenic scheme for tho second play of his matinee hardly comes oif ho happily, yet tbe picture was the best part of the piece. ' 1 'Il'G programme charges Booth Tarklngton with tho authorship of "Beauty and the Jacobin," though I am loath to believe so accomplished a writer could turn out a. piece of work so deadly dull. Still, none of Mr. Tarklngton's plavs has shown anything llko the graceful art ho practices as a novelist.- The aceno of "Beauty and the Jacobin" is In a lodging house at Boulogne In which throe Royalists are hiding from officers offi-cers of the terrorists, preparatory to a flight to England. A Jacobin loader load-er finally overtakes thern; but after having prepared them for the worst, with a fiendish pleasure in their agitation, agi-tation, he lets them go in safety. Two long, dull, undramatlc acts aro consumed in getting to this point; while uono of the four considerable characters is made interesting enough by either the author or the actors Miss Rlsdon. Miss Eva Leonard Boync, Mr. Elvey and Mr. F. J. Randell Ran-dell to make one give a hnner about their fate; that Is, unless they could have been beheaded instantly and thus saved us a very tiresome hour and a half- The scene, however, was very good, convincingly antique furniture and stalely old candlesticks, candle-sticks, and a rather good arrangement-of arrangement-of lights, conveying a much bettor sonse of "atmosphere" than anything In the written play, TP NOUGIT thrills are wedged into the twenty minutes that 'The Drums of Oudc" consumes in performance to vitalize an ordinary four-act play. Tho vivid little drama Is by Austin Strong and Is advertised a3 David Bolosco's first contribution to vaudeville, vaude-ville, though the fact Is, his production produc-tion of "Madame Butterfly" dignified the vaudeville stagu for many months when It was now. Tho plcturesque- Provo, Ogden and Locau concerts, Miss Gates will leavo for Europe, where she opens a concert tour January 20 in Glasgow. ncss and tho lenso suspenso attained by Bolasco. by the familiar Belasco method, are moro admirable than "The Drums of Onde" Itself, which la really little more than a rehash of tho old, old Dion Bouccicault melodrama melo-drama of "Jessie Brown." The sccno is tho grim tower of a palace In northern north-ern India., occupied as tho headsquar-teru headsquar-teru of a. British regiment of Scotch Highlanders. It Is at tho time of tho Sepoy uprising In 1857. All officers of-ficers and men are absent from tho stronghold excepting a captain and a lieutenant and a young widow, who Is the rtanceo of the former and sister sis-ter of the latter Theso characters are Intrusted to E. J. Ralcllffe, Jack Standing and Miss Eleanor Scott L'Estrelie. respectively. Tho weird cries and the ominous incessant drums of the Sepoys strike terror on' the moonlit night. The natives aro determined to secure tho Britishers' powder, which is stored under the tower. The end is at hand. But rather than lot the ammunition fall into the enemy's hands and to give themselves up to Tndlan barbarities, tlio two men and the woman determine deter-mine to blow up the magazine. They light a fuse, but as It splutters tho girl makes out the notes of the Scotch bagpipes through the Sepoy . din. She strains her ears to make sure. At last there Is no doubt. Stamping out the burning fuse, she cries aloud that rescue Is ur- hand. And even so. dear reader, docs tho melodrama end. In London "Tho Drums of Oudc" was used as a curtain raiser; hero wp get It as a. hair raiser. |