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Show pAROPERA IS TUNEFUL ILeMan With Three Wives" So Risque in Its Viennese Form That It Is Transformed lj for American Taste. By Vanderheyden Fyles '& New rorlr. Feb. S. 1913. vnr sBCRETAlir ; A corned y K the French of Francis Bjk" Coamo Gordon Lennox. Bf (,ur "".....Charles Cherry ..Frank Kcmhlo-Copper BmCW"' Ferdinand Gottschall: JBft51 . Claude Gllllngwator SB ""ii'iu" , ...Wilson Hummel jpflne A G Alidrows Pg;iVve'tVrre ..Harry "eddlnp BE'"15 Conrad Cantzon BBWV7,V''' Mac Mncomber P n-flVvlllo Mario Doro hJ"'CT Mrs. Thomas Whiffon 1rf:T,'niarvllo ...Annie Esmond BEj&in-cnarwn KJUy Brow1 j--"';;;4;;;;;... . Edith wyckoff iBr 'J BkUASWITH THREE VVF,S" BS In Uwse acts. Music by JBffbin book by JuHiis Bauer; L. Idiutation by Agnes Morgan. wter and Harold Altridge. jBineld's theater) l&Lv ..." JacIt McCoy iRfS"". Robert Ilalnr Walter Smith "l "" Robert G. Pitkin Dorothy Webb jKnVferd Leslie Kenyon Kifeir Stowart Balnl i5S Arthur Gearv Kathcrlno Salnpolls ?BF Harold A. Robe Iflf . James Billings Marah Vivian iKcSlr'. c,e,c11 &e,n jK, Alice Trork. "7.'.' Clinrlottc Greenwood jffv." ' f Sidney Grant BKr 'V.,'. Kophye Barnard Marguerite 'La Plerio BC' 111,1 Jeanne Dolly Castles Cleo Mayfleld JH"' Prank Hart Imk MERCHANT OF VENICE" WnJia ShakesDfiare. (Harris thc- SBitfVcnk Elwyn Eaton jK. Gordon Burhy K," Eric Blind flEj, Edward Maokay JX. Ernst Howan TK Charles Howson jSUi Nicholas Joy lohn E. Kellerd VXi George Gut EfetGobbo John "Vvrav Ktt4 Harry C.ilver Btar... Raymond Hoyden Erlynnc SKY, Amelia Gardner iHobcl Mcrson BB, Mavgarol Campbell p DIAMOND DINNER" A com-BBTwict.br com-BBTwict.br Bayard Vclller. (Union Bfc Inez ' Buck BBJ&t-Ktor Mason. . . .Mitchell Lewis Eric Matin Eluttin Phllio White ABjiWllfon Frank Kirk wcus Carbon Fell lllnli Caryl Gillln SUPEItlOR "MISS PJ3LLTJN-BBUcsmcdr PJ3LLTJN-BBUcsmcdr in three acts, bv Syd-tydt. Syd-tydt. (Empire theater.) mfe Raymond W. Lockwond Mwl Fellcnder Giles Low Mnltr ...Florcnco E. Wollerson vesltr Madeline King PA Pellender Rlcca GniRka Dwr Ptllcnflor ...Ardcllo Cleaves BPjFRATION'' A play In one BBu!uUne de Soint-Polnct. adap-BHBlwrJmtr adap-BHBlwrJmtr Delano. (Empire tho- BlS" William Stlcf P W31Iard Webster M:"'" Maud Hollnor PJ9"'" Else Howard Mjfttr much "of the theater" Ib D';Tii) New Secretary," a, I;' 5ttratntal comedy in which Bfif, Hui Doro and Charlea &&eny mako their first ap-HJf ap-HJf 41 co-stars. A "sightly" BBjMareljr. The comedy comes where it had a long and Mp"1 ran. a year ago, with tPHtrrench favorites. Yvonne BBS. A,nJr Brule, In tho i The lattor wao the JBTUr?M pPl. which char-Jil, char-Jil, ifr8forrcd to tho t;tatr K 1,?," R,t,ca. stories by Mme. M!?h ,1 ltK French charm mtitx . n translation into 6 w)ot know bl tle rub- . Snu'n i . 7ery Pr08alc tltlo for Kti iv i;nd appropriate name thor-"Lft coeur W"l I-.E?iono nn iniiminatlnfr ,",noj:vw'lln Is doubtless MA.hi3rlr-S, Wmself Identined hQ Dto of MmtT'8 Galllc fl,ivr in light H'V D0R fi,rs as the Lla,1Khtcr C -i wealthy WMind wi?10" ,couplc (Annie MKonVm,". Hu.!mel). She fct.t "?.awy. But her pav-JLSMIWV"0 pav-JLSMIWV"0 "nlly decides be 55? widower, partly illllo ,on. But hur 1-II- on. new 8ccrotury, tlm !fWrlSl'.Th4 younK f0,,r WhH. llch rptell "lovi. Stfnch m nt leaat, still 'ihffi from1 V10ns'1 11 ,,M Stei,ilvi he.r r,tlhnr to soil. KPui"hrif nrp 'lunrrel be- r.rfy'a , lnkl I'P'uitlfiilly 8 strns nrrnp. as the rnS7mf or nk fc d 5 r?,,rhT l,nn,I-v lhlnk LSutL -'1.1 hnvo n!,fl then lrJ ?00,, loc,l ontflV?W exceptlon-J?1. exceptlon-J?1. TTmi?' ha,f dozen of .ff? CliSj. rn ,,k KrnhIo-SlR-JtH 2, ""nwator, to Doro and Charles Cherry are a pair oi Ktars cowpletoly surrounded by ' actors. But tiu'ii. tlioro is their looks. They roul.I not make a hnmlxomer pair of oVns .lf.,tllov" had bco written by Ricliard Mardlnsr Davla and drawn by uana Gibson. rj,TTERE muut be tlme.i whn , ... l?v:x"'''- I-elinr wishes lie had' not ! ten,, 11 iiott of "The Merry Widow. ' Indeed, a. rocent aatlre rom Vienna, treating obviously of Luluir, made a very funny plav out of Die trials or n waltz-kinf,-. All of whirli is apropos of tho Now York premiere oT "The Man With Three ! U IvoK, the third Lehur opf ra to be ' suns ihif? Hcavon. "Eva" and "The I Lpuju of Luxembourg" huvo stolen I silently away: but the latest would I poem lo back up tho superstition about luck In the number throe. Yet ' l-ohar must linten asaln to the crv: . ,e," u.rcUy 1ut not another 'Merry Widow':" To which he mlRht replv: I Gilbert and Sullivan never wrote 'a ' second 'Mikado.' hut thev turnnd out ', nothing that wan not worth while." And If Mr. Lobar Ik too modest to I talklhat way. 1 will step right up and I sayU for lilm. I don't believe Lehar i could be tuneful if lie tried. There Is nothing ho fresh and seductive in the latest piece as half u dovson number num-ber in the romance of the widow and Prince Danilo. On the other hand, there Is nothing' in It that Is not nuiHlclanly and graceful, and aprccably conceived. So that a ood enoush reason to hear It. T EIIAR'S' trouble has been with A-' his librettists. x0t that I am prepaivd to claim his "Merry Widow" Wid-ow" score was bettor because of tho inspiration of such a romantic, interesting in-teresting and often comic "book" as few composer. have been blessed with. But all the aubsequent Lehar librettos have been such poor stuff Jiat no score could hope to survive them. "Gypsy Love" proved this; for here the music was unquestionably unquestiona-bly as beautiful us the "Widow" play. And when "Gypsy Love" vn done In London, with a new book. It was a great success. The difficulty : under which Lehar labors. Insofar as his American prosperity is concerned, lies in the inorul standard of the Viennese Vi-ennese operetta stage. Most of his "books" havo been. I believe, very rlsijue. Clean 'cm up, and nothing much Is left. That f-eonis to be the trouble with "The Man With Three Wives." What was evidently a pretty pret-ty frank faren about a. Cook's tourist conductor, with a wife in Vienna, another In Paris and a third in England, Eng-land, hap become rather colorless and muddling, to spare American blushes Like the English version of "Camllle." in which Marguerite and Armand were, "engaged," tho American Ameri-can adaptation of Julius Bauer's farco makes the man only "betrothed" "be-trothed" lo the French and English wives. VTBXT to the Lehar music, of which happily there Is much, the best features of his latest piece are Charlotte Greenwood and a ballet, bal-let, Mls3 Greenwood Is a very tall, thin young woman, with abnormally long arms and legs, who makes fun of her unslghtllneas, flinging these these members about in tho most absurd -way. and laughing genially at her own appearance, The ballet, dressod In the traditional tarlantan skirts, Is- led by Mile. Dazle, danced in a rose garden beneath a calcium moon and accompanied by music from Tschaikowsky. JOHN E. KELLERD lias accomplished accom-plished something of a record, having acted ITamlot for more con-secutlvo con-secutlvo performances In New York than any actor since 18C4, when Edwin Ed-win Booth gave hln famous ono hundred nights of "Hamlet." Mr. Kellerd reached within ten or fifteen of that number. Then ho put on "Tho Merchant of Venice," The sound merits of his Shylock have already al-ready been celebrated In this place. 1-Tls company Is adequate and. In tho cane of Amelia Gardnor, who plays Portia, Is more than passingly Intelligent. New scenery has been painted from models designed for Pvichard ManKfleld. but, according to Mr. Kellerd, involving moro expense than tho dead actor cared to put Into .his rovlvol, and, therefore, nevor used. XF there were any need of answering answer-ing such a euperfluous question as to which of tho wilderness df plays produced In Now York, thus far this season has had tho most success, suc-cess, the reply would be, "Within tho Law." Which is not tho same thing as saying It Is tho best play according accord-ing to artistic, ethical or any other standard than that of tho Almighty Dollar; a fact, however, that Is not to be treated superciliously In tho manner of tho highbrow, for Bayard Velllcr haB shown no mean amount of inventiveness and skill In giving tho public what it wants. All of which is just to say that anything by Ihe author of such a popular piece lo bound to attract attention. "Tho Diamond Dinner" is only ono act long. Not that Its brevity is its fault. U Is jtiHt an Inconsequential little vaudeville sketch that nobody could take tho trouble to hammer ut for Vellier's name. How he mua. laugh! Until a few months ago In short, until "Within the Law" ho used to grind out a succession of plavlets, some successful and some not"; and all were dismissed with tho same linn of stereotyped commendation commenda-tion by the vaudeville reporter. unnHE Diamond Dinner" Is qulto a la mode. A dictagraph and n fascinating female thief. Diamonds, Dia-monds, too; and a dotqctlvc. Four jewelers have invited, as their guest of honor at a formal dinner, a thief who has been robbing them systematically. syste-matically. Also, they have Invited a police-inspector, with his dinky little lit-tle dictagraph. Honored guest n.i tho detective 1". however, he in bidden bid-den to a hiding place, rather than to the festive board. More honored in tho breach than In the obytirvancc. fio to speak. The unknown guest turns out to bo o. woman. Of course, a charming and clover woman. Clever, Indeed; for Just when tho Jewrlefs and the detect lv. who has sprung Into evidence with a mere revolver In his hand, think they have got her cinched, she makes an easy getaway, and with the valuables of the merchants, not to mention a good, fat wad belonging to tho policeman po-liceman himself. How? Why. very sin.plo. She merely threatens lo Mow up the whole lot of them, producing, pro-ducing, as evidence of pood faith, a terrifying bomb, as casually as a show girl might extract a powder-puff powder-puff from her bodice. That'H how h makes tho men glvo up. Tho likeness like-ness might be carried further. But no matter. What the Broadway managor, of a. certain school, calls "the punch," comes when my Lady Crook. Bnfclv on her way and about to be lost, to us by the falling cur-tnln. cur-tnln. turns at the door and hurls tho I bomb at the flvo Xrightned men. Jt Is nothing but a rubber ball, and bounces. iVjN'E evening this week aeventoen members of tho Yalo Dramatic association came down from New Haven with an announcement of tho ilrst performance in English of "The Fruits of Culture," by Count Leo Tolstoi. That sounds serious and important, but to the eye the play . rather shrivels up and blows away before the comic effort of several strapping youths squeezed Into corsets, cor-sets, hampered with skirts, and wholly undisguiirod in curly wigs, and paint and powder. Doubtless they are glad their make-ups and tliolr mincing ways do not deceive us It Is well they don't; but what Is fun for tho boys is death for Tolstoi. Not. Indeed, that "The Fruits of Culture" is much loss. I speak, of course, of its value on our stae and lu this English translation: it is hardly to be supposed that such a literary genius as Count Tolstoi could have written anything that was dull and worthless. A Robort Browning tragedy translated Into Russian prose might leave something to be desired. de-sired. THE play by Tolstoi, as was not generally his wont, Is conversational conver-sational comedy. Tho action concerns con-cerns tho nobility of Moscow, with servants and peasants introduced for contrast. There Is no plot. Spiritualism Spirit-ualism as a social fad Is discussed by tho square mile, with such side-cuts side-cuts Into any other field as tho author au-thor happens to fancy, qulto In tho Shavian manner. As tho comedy was written a quarter of a century or more ago. the sparkle has rather gone off some of the "Issues." Others were never Issues with us at any date. In short, tho comedy moves along with all clarity and rush and general charm of the Chicago river. Professor Crawford of the English llleraturo department of Yale. Is croditod with having "cut" tho play, and I accept tho. statement as true, But, If I may be allowed to say it, tho comedy seems quite as long In performance as when I read it, two or throe years ago. In an unabridged translation. The young actors, taken as a group, are to be commended; though I will not go bo far as to say they would not handle a football better than satiric comedy. Still, this is Russian cornody. That Is to be borne In mind. I doubt whether E. 3-L Sothern, William Faversham or Henry Miller could have excelled them In tho ease with which they let fall trippingly from tho tongue audi names as Leonid Zvezdinlsev and Aleskol Vladlmlrovich Krooglosviot-lov. Krooglosviot-lov. Sam Bernard, of course, might equal them; but then, cveryono admits ad-mits there Is only one Bernard. On the wholo, I think he might make something out of Tolstoi's comedy. In his old Weberlleldlan wig and dress as Mrs. Broome of Broome street, ho might squeeze sovoral laughs out of Tanya, the saucy maid. JN 190G, "The Superior Miss Pellcn-dcr," Pellcn-dcr," a comedy by Sydney Bow-kett, Bow-kett, an English actor who has played here. wa3 produced In London by Cyril Maudo and his popular wife, known as Winifred Emery. (Quito "by the way." Mr. and Mrs. Maude are to come over hero next season for their first American tour a3 actor-managers, neither having acted In this country for nearly thirty years, when ho, at least, was wholly Inconspicuous.) Mr, Bowkett's play, which got its first New Yorlt hearing only this week, and then but for a single matinee, in a slender little tiling, wholly agreeable as for as It goes. Mrs. Pellondcr is a young and pretty widow with three daughters daugh-ters and a little boy. She lives In mortal terror of them all: but especially espe-cially of tho eldest girl, the snncrlor Miss' Pellendcr. Hor own desire Is to marry a fussy, kind, rather old-iph old-iph man. aptly known as Mr- Tlster; but thev dnre not approach tho children. chil-dren. An elopement Is decided on. However. It still lakrs three actn of quiet fun three very short acts for the mature nair to screw their courage to the sticking point. IN the bill with "Tho Superior Mies Pellendcr," a drama In one act. wan introduced. It was called "Tho Separation" In the translation by Mortlmor Delano, from tho French of Valentine de Snlnt-l'oinct. It might n well have been left In tho original, In which form everybody who does not understand French might havo gushod over It ecstatically. The little lit-tle piece is depressing without holng Important; and after a lot of futile and unpleasant talk, it ends In doubt, The wife of a paralytic husband becomes be-comes enamored of a youth. Sh talks of cloning with him. and then she talks of sulolde; yet in tho end we aro left uncertain as to which course she pursues. Rather stingy of tho author, nftor we hnd listened to so much. On the other hand, nobody no-body much cared. |