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Show (MliiTttMed Qplqtfornu By GEORGE JEAN NATHAN. j THE difference between Hermann ; B&hr's play, "The Master," and the average play one encounters In Broadway Is the difference between be-tween a book by Kills, Havelock, and one by Kills. Edward S. In trie former for-mer we have an interesting subject handled han-dled by :in intelligent man In an Interesting Inter-esting manner. In the latter, a mere thumping upon dishpans to dunifound the youngsters. Currently revealed In the Fulton theater by the widow of the late Henry B. Harris, the Bahr manuscript, written in V.tOZ, has these many years been peddled up and down Broadway in vain shouldered aside by our persprca-clous persprca-clous theatrical mlsmunagers in their haste to lose money by producing, instead, such flon-flon as "Please Help Emily," "Margaret Schiller" and "Fast and Grow Fat." Encouraged by Mr. Arnold Daly, one of the two actors in the American theater able to distinguish the literature of Georee V. Hobart from that of Moliere, Mrs. Harris has now at length earned for herself the honor of presenting the manuscript to the native stage a manuscript manu-script long well known lo persons interested inter-ested in continental dramatic literature and a- manuscript that provides the Broadwav theater with one of the very few respectable and interesting evenings It has thus far in the present season vouchsafed such of Us patrons as have advanced somewhat beyond the cerebral profundities purveyed by the Willard Mftreins, the Jules Eekert Goodmans and the rest of the gentlemen of the Broadway Broad-way Royal academy. Is a Good Play. Had the Bahr manuscript been of the caviar species its neglect by .the managers might readily have been understood. But it is nothing of the kind. It is, first and last to call on the argot of the pot-wallopers pot-wallopers a good show. True enough, its theme Is a theme in grade vastly above the usual Broadway fable of the worthless creature who turns over a new leaf and makes a million dollars in the last net by perfecting a machine to make horse radish out of absorbent cotton, or something of the sort, but U Is at the same time a theme that even a Xew York first night a udtence the meanest intelligence intel-ligence one knows may easily grasp. And more, by way of amusing the super-yokels, super-yokels, Eahr. ever a skillful strategist of the stage, has not omitted In the telling of his tale such little tricks of the the-atrlclan's the-atrlclan's trade as may hold the reluctant reluc-tant attention of the average bumpkin who supports the popular playhouse. The play, further still, lias trie necessary, or at least what is believed to be the necessary. neces-sary. Broadway punch, and, even further still. Is possessed, of a sufficient sex quality quali-ty to magnstize the box office. If, therefore, there-fore, the producer is not rewarded by sucr cess, one may only deduce that the play Is too well written to enchant the yahoo in large- numbers, that its viewpoint is a not sufficiently sentimental one and black parasol to point her sentences, confided con-fided that the little orphan was an illegitimate ille-gitimate child; the young scalawag with the gold cigarette case tried his obscene arts upon I he maiden and, of course, the grumpy bachelor fell in love with the small, sweet one "You're like sunlight let into an empty life" and permitted the audience to get back to the restaurants restau-rants by marrying her. ' Sawdust Construction. A naive business. A something to : osteopath the emotions of servant girls, readers of the Sour Stories type or' magazine, and admirers of the beamy of Francis X. Bushman. Why the conte failed to crowd the stalls, heaven knows. It contained all the banality, all the illiteracy, illit-eracy, all the obsolete sawdust that go : generally with the making of our popular plays. I Miss Kathlene MacDonnell, who has ac- ; quitted herself ably on two previous oc- i casions in the local theater, made a sad mess of the leading role. vhe presented, indeed, about as baroque a sample of his- ; trionism as the boards have disclosed in seasons. Her speaking voice had the sound of a duet played by a man with an oboe and a small boy with his new-Christmas new-Christmas drum. And her antics, the hops and jumps and wiggles with which she sought to depict youth, reminded the spectator of nothing quite so much as a series of explosions In a barrel of glucose. Frederick Perry negotiated the role of the bachelor as well as the role permitted, and Miss Maude Ehurne was moderately effective as the spinster scandal chef. The balance of the company R. I. P. Lyric Is Witty. Somebody or other, according to agate messages in the local gazettes, has protested pro-tested against the "bad taste" of a Joan of Arc lyric written by Clifton Crawford and sung by that comique in the Shu-berts' Shu-berts' new musical comedy, "Her Soldier Sol-dier Boy," at the Astor. and as a result tlie lyric has been deleted from the exhibition. ex-hibition. What the "bad taste" was the present sleuth is unable to decipher unless un-less It be bad taste to include a really witty lyric in a Broadway music show libretto. The lyric' in point was nothing more than an observation to the effect that the Illustrious Joan (as you who have seen the pictures recal1.. wore silken hose and that her Gallic troops, when she led them into battle, plunged headlong, not so much after the enemy as after Joan. I submit the content to my flock. A liberal lib-eral prize of one excellent 5-eent cigar (the best money can buy) will be presented pre-sented to any one of the brethren who will discover just where the odious taste Is hidden. The music show in point, has a very mucTi better book than one usually encounters en-counters in such entertainments (the work of Victor Ieon, author of "The Merry Widow") and the company contains, con-tains, in addition lo Mr. Crawford, that adroit chant euse. Mile. Adeie Rowland, and that Tat her pleasant singing voice named Beth L,ydy. The music, by Emmerich Em-merich Kalman, composer of the delight- 1 " i i. ... ,, .vhl. i rrrrrj -ffi j i I :xyJ V f,rv "v VI VI ATY "MA-RT1JX" v" "Tne Rigl Pipectioir" DALLAS- R.A A1 0 UV T - rui , At the Paramo tint -Empress today, Monday and Tuesday. that it contains in its cast of characters neither a poor, persecuted stenographer nor n wemh in a red dress named Passion Pas-sion who embraces a Juvenile actor named Virtue and so sends him staggering out of a door named Disillusion. Will Indicate Disposition. : If "'The Master" does not succeed on Broadway It will be less a vindication of the commercial manager than a vindication vindi-cation of the commercial audience. And the two, as a study of present theatrical financial conditions will probably show, t are by no means so closely related as tho skeptic might believe. ' The Bahr play, written while Its au thor was steeped still in Ibsen, lectures on the attitude of an egoist when he learns that his wife 1ms been guilty of Infidelity. Himself a philanderer, but a fellow of strong will and unshaken principle, prin-ciple, the egoist defends her action in terms of his own actions, and offers, without with-out reproach, to take her back. Here, however,' the. woman rebels. And the nlay ends with the egoist learning from his Japanese colleague in surgery that emotions -above cold thinking play the most beautiful strains in the melody of life. This storv Is related in vivid fashion fash-ion by a dramatist of vivid skill. The play Is finely thought out. finely written, writ-ten, conslKtentlv engrossing from curtain cur-tain lift to fall. Mr. Daly handles the central role with his customary excellent finish. The performance is distinctly worth seeing. This Is Commonplace. For a few nichts the platform of tht Princess theater was held by a something some-thing out of George D. Parker, given the title "Margerv Paw." The characters in the confection were a sweet little orphan or-phan child, a swnet-natured village doctor doc-tor in a white wig, a grumpy bachelor who had been disappointed in love his fat housekeeper, a voting rake in white flannel trousers and a gold cigarette case and q spinster scandal monger with a black ihawl and an accent like Helen Lowell's. , The plot of the grand doings is thus made at once clear. , The little orphan girl (played, as has ciime to be the custom, by a mere child of 32 clambered onto chairs, flopped atop tHhlps. talked In three flats and conducted conduct-ed hrrself generally after the established Foliyannsenue recipe. The aweet-natured . old doctor wagged his head mellowly from 'rVj Bide to side, patted the little orphan pmtlv on the arm and spoke the line. Y "Then, there, mv dmir; dry your tears. All will como out well; all will come out well." nr sr.m.Hhlng tn the sanio usual eftect. The old gossip who used her small ful "Sari" chorus, is not up lo the stand- ; ard of the latter, though here and there1 one engages witli a soot hint; hit. John Charles Thomas does the baritone of the evening. The performance In its entirety provides aRreeable entertainment, though it were a disri-eet move to erase from tlie stage a small Otinnan comedienne who is a decidedly moist blanket. |
