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Show i Mis cWlumi'mted By GEORGE JEAN NATHAN. SO often am j.Iays being changed in the Maxine Elliott theater that T have earnestly requested the Messrs. Shnbert in the future to turn over my present pres-ent seat in the mHrlle of the auditorium audi-torium to some less regular theatergoer theater-goer and provide me instead with a seat on the aisle. I have explained to them that frequently during the last month one play was being presented pre-sented when I walked down the aisle of the theater and that, by the time I got my seat in the center cen-ter of the house over the knees and laps of the interposed proletariat, the play had been taken off and another an-other was being presented in its place. - Since my last mention of the Mazine Elliott theater in this paper about ten days or two weeks ago five .changes have been wrought in its playbill. First, Gertrude Kingston Kings-ton aDd her company from the Neighbourhood Neigh-bourhood appeared in the house in the interesting Shaw-Dunsany programme. Then "Gamblers All" was put on. "Gamblers All," failing signally to attract, wa3 withdrawn and Gertrude Kingston was heralded again as its successor. Overnight, the plaus were changed and a play called "The Brat" announced. an-nounced. No sooner, however, was the ink dry on this announcement than the wheel was given another turn and "The Brat" abandoned in favor, of an English piece called "The Lodger." Then "The Lodger" was taken off and sent up to the Bandbox theater and now, as I write (though probably subject to change before I turn this over to my stenographer for copying), Gertrude Ger-trude Kingston is back again! Originally in London. "The Lodger," founded on a novel by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes and framed "for the stage by Horace Au-nesley Au-nesley Yachell, author of "Jelfs, " "Quinneys" and other such pasties, was origina-lly done in Loudon Lou-don under the caption, "'Who Is He,?" The fable is of a young man who conies mysteriously to a cheap . boarding house, the environs of which are currently terrorized by a Jack the Kipper. The young man . is mistaken for the al "fresco sur-V sur-V gcoo and, after a series of maiad-rfr maiad-rfr ventures, discloses his identity and reveals the fact that he is not the Kipper but, per contra, a yoimg nobleman who has been jilted by his V adored one and who has sought in the peaceful boarding house isolation from the world. That the young nobleman has meanwhile fallen in . love with the Cinderella of the establishment is, of course, obvious. The farce, truth to tell, is as thin as Mrs. Vernon t'astle. Its maneuvering maneu-vering discloses small invention and its humors are decidedly bald. The defects are emphasized' by the two featured mimes. Lionel Atwill and his lady. Miss Phyllis Eelpb, both performers of ' mediocre stature. Miss Beryl Marcer is happy, however, how-ever, as the landlady and her performance per-formance is the one thing about the enterprise for record. Mr. At-will At-will is the sort of comedian who expresses nervousness hy imitating Ralph Herz and Miss ' Relph the sort of actress who plavs her love scenes with eyes fastened wistfully on Ihe buses. Is Dolorpus Gew-gaw. At the Fulton, a, farce by Mrs. .lames Savery, higbt, "In for the "ight." Here, a dolorous gew-, gew-, gaw. Built after the formulae of "Seven Days," "Over Night," et cetera, et cetera, we are here presented pre-sented once again with the spectacle' spec-tacle' of the young man and voung woman who are unable to leave an isolated hotel, who are mistaken for man and wife, and who, es night conies on, are hard put to it to devise de-vise excuses which will keep them from being assigned to the same room. Into these aJready long -arid proceedings Mrs. Sa.verv has contrived to in.iect no new humors and the farce drags along its hackneyed hack-neyed way with all the smooth celerity ce-lerity of a punctured tire. The company assembled to interpret inter-pret the dido is. saving in the in-stances in-stances of the Messrs. Herbert Yost "Sind Percy Ames, exceedingly inex-rrt. inex-rrt. Miss Lily Oabill plavs the leading -woman's role in the 'tempo of milk train. Edwin Forsberg, csst as a gentleman of the aristocracy, aristoc-racy, howls like a hungry doe and stamps around the stage' as if his feet were cold and he were trving to get them warm. Joseph Herbert, .' playing a low-eomedv waiter, is as selt conscions as a. dramatic critic; Miss Ethel Martin, in the role of a society matron, as "society" as the S. F. 0. A., and Miss Irene Oshier, playing a. slangy chorus cirl, as thoroughly gifted with a sense of comedy as ( hnrles Rutin Kennedy. The scenery, designed bv Everett Kbinn. is of a quality greatly superior su-perior to what goes on inside' it. Comedy Is Satisfactory. The French theater has at last naked. up sufficiently to interrupt its astounding procession of obsolete obso-lete liinnuseripts, its "Iron Masters" Mas-ters" and "Saphos, " with the gav Parisian frco-cotnedv. "The Kiibi- '"11. J his work of Edouard Tjour-dct. Tjour-dct. which, were it to be translated into English, would crv probably be promptly hauled off 'the boards bv the alert cendarnics, is a thing intrinsically of the boulevards, nanchtv hut of a suave cleverness sophisticated, written after the sprightly ritual of j.be admit. Sacba limtry, and censi.-leutly comical. For the benefit of the Anglo-Saxons in the audience and with a scrupulous regard for their morals the plot nf the plnv is described on the programme. Sinvo it would be out of the question to detail this , ..'heme more directly in n native yga-'.ettc, I give you the storv as j r" the discreet playbill sets it ion b. Therefore: " Gonu.-une Seyin, failing to at-yttrnct at-yttrnct the man s-ho loves, marries another out of spite; she is. how ever, his wife in name only. When the again meets Francois' Mareuil, the former admirer, who wouldn't ask her hand, their affection proves to be as deep as it was before. Francois begs Gormaine to be his, an. I she consents, but when Francois learns the nature of Germaine's relation re-lation to her husband, he hesitates. He finally refuses to enter into such a liaison unless she, as the author of the play puts it. "crosses the Rubicon" and actually becomes her husband's wife. She "accepts Francois's Fran-cois's conditions, but discovers theu it is her husband she really loves, and starts with him on a Dew and more real honeymoon." Lillian Greuze, Robert Tourneur, Yvonne Mirval and Andre Bellon play the leading parts and acquit themselves satisfactorily. Bright, but Mediocre. At the Lyceum is a revival of A. E. Thomas's comedy, "Her Husband's Hus-band's Wife," with a company including in-cluding Marie Tempest, Laura Hope Crews, Grahame. Brown and Henry Kolker. Although Mr. Thomas's manuscript is deftly written, I somehow have never been able to persuade myself in the matter of this comedy's much-talked-of brilliance. bril-liance. It is a bright little thing, true enough, but there judicious praise halts. To proclaim the play a dazzling instance of c.omedic writing writ-ing is surely critical trapeze-work. Miss Crews is still engaging as the hypochondriac, and Mr. Brown is amusing as the susceptible husband. hus-band. Miss Tempest's face-making has become a tiresome spectacle. A so-called mugger of the virtuosity of Eddie Foy, Miss Tempest 's performances, per-formances, in whatever roles she happens to be playing, have become as alike as so many peas. The lady's sudden protuberance of her Little Mary to accentuate divers staccato sentiments, her perking up of the nose and the rest of her physiological physiologi-cal antickings are things to' irritate the spectactator who looks in acting for stratagems somewhat, more dexterous dex-terous and subtle. Mr. Kolker still slouches around, with his hands fastened in his pockets. Henry Miller is responsible for the production. |