Show t tt THE BATTLE 1 t 3 OF THE PLAYERS Two of Quo Their HI tr I l I m I 1 mt mu 1 I we e w wen treated to a ar lAST war r behn rival ol of Du Dur r mu The Tit Three Musketeers e end nt r f nI ms we an In III tb the throw of a Ilfe J i and death struggle between two pIA playa J 1111 1 upon groat t f Quo In order to under tb the conditions condition In this city with reference to Quo It ItI ItIs I Is nrc necessary alY tr In go back a bit some Iome somer I I IUri r hI Ih the Polish author I hi hie scary tt It attracted d much it t tf I f In this runty Barrett was a at th tin a great dal of I money Inin his lu Tho Ih tIn of tM the Crose Croll to ay J fh 11 sou W startlingly like lik Quo end It was because of th lh III ea a matt r vf Y f comment along Ion the RI RI alt olto that no had made a play lay out of t tb e b book Quo It must mut be r lp bred red was In this coun countr tr try and o 10 WI was free fIM al ai the Air to ta any anyone I one who oho ot nce e to use UM It o ly dy however seemed to think that the work Will was one which would not lend Itself to stage purposes and the of The i Sign of the Cross wu was oa one of tb the mOAt put ut forward wb why W iii n a of Quo would fan fall to win will popular approval the Idea I apparently that Mr Darrett Barrett drama had bad exhausted whatever dem demand d tb there re might h here been for dram drain of that sort lort Stang II a young OUng man who h h Ie fell to writing comic opera i had bad then to tG tb the Ita stage IOme I play lAl wai not In ac accord II ton cord with the general opinion concern II ii Ing the It tage value Alue of Quo Vadla II III He I concluded to make mke a play lilay of o It and nd In InI Indue I due course cour the piece was reAdY It II I rumored that tbt the young man found It rn l re difficult to place the play than to Write It bUt be thAt as It may tny F 11 C Whitney WhOM whoa fortune fortun at that ular juncture wore were at a low 1 ebb decided to make a plunge on the Stange play Thle hi he did In some month ago 1180 and since Ince that lime r Mr Whitney h hag had to do except Junt his hI proms The play was wa an from the box fj standpoint and few tew were given et at which the was Wal not Mt eoll b by the ca capacity of the theater Immediately after the Whit ncy production there then began to appear l of et of Quo In every per por ot of the country Many lIany of these th Were Vue crudely built bulit pIa plays which sought lOucht q to profit b by the glory or the f experiment Some of o these managed to teak luk a I little mone money but mOlt mat of them wire were short lived 1114 In the extreme t l Jannette L Glider I In h n a literary woman ot of i ii l i tallon had from Henryk len leny y Ii formal to hi hie novel Jacking Backing was 08 found for tor the ther I IA A r time teas waa at a Nw New NewYork York theater and a w was en engaged Prior to 10 It had been an announce 1 that the Play Would In this city next taU fall for a ai along i long run When Mr Whitney learned that hi he was to Ia be forestalled by the i authorized version h he hurtled about and In having hi play took book L ed at the New York a theater which f has haa hitherto ben identified with mu Inu 81 atral al show during the performance ot of c Which the auditors have then and nn oven even encouraged d to drink and smoke Whitney so 10 far certainly had rather the tb WOrN wore ot of It To a greater ex still did thu to be the cUt cue cUti i when the cast for tor the thO Glider Gilder play was announced Edward tb the lead log Int man mall of the Daly theater stock om com pony was W given the role rele of white that ot of had bad Wee been In r rd l to John Jolin Blair these the who 1 url earlier r In th the season had created some th ng of a sensation In II a series Imel of mod modi modern i frn ern literary plays at the Carnegie l 1 reum Mr wa wat wac t Mr Arthur Forrest an actor ot of some little reputation outside New York and andr nd r r hl hta was wal Jpseph an anI I performer who despite the therall rall really fine work h he ba has done from time timeto 1 to time bu never ban able apparently to a firm arm foothold In Nf New NewYork I II I York TIM Tie Gilder people In view ot of ofors ors there things seemed to have the hatter f li ot of H Ht Jt t On tb the other hand hanel Wh Whitney It lie had bad R a Room oom company which had beam for and It w was therefore tor to be ex exp p rfd that hi he would be able to give 1 a ati ti i acting at last it at theor the i or performances The Gilder peo pec Pr fr pre pIp k tile the upper hind hand hinds s 11 t h reference h t Ity of theater y ant a frantic effort wan made to jet et the Ion on at the mu mo moi i neat J Ic order to 40 this It became 1 I to t which W the a tile the Herald rare to close clo Ira ILl engagement The Mt For sons days however It l MIa a toss tOIl lip up u al to Quo y I New York Tork wu U to so He first nral nut But the matter w finally III as It was a foregone that It Would be settled by simultaneous Th cats ruta ot of the rival JlIa plays wen fI II as follows OIt r r tae 1917 Job Haworth I J I r U n Lose LoseT 0 T I In It r P It rt rl L 1 Op OIl iw r Fwd J Ct ce W T 7 T eared Will Ail Aut Mast Teddy Kettle Ihm ll al AU Piety Willard to pms M i m w Qiea 11 W C Moe tit nU KlIOtt usry rp tet Peaty Fealt g iR The moat mat Interesting thing about Quo lust now le the result of the bitter warfare which has haa been waged wred between the Gilder and Stange versions venlon At Al UI the It maybe said eald that except In a tw few separated spot POll the latter le II tar far and amI away a the better play Mr Stange Stallie has written B a dr drama become soon alter after Ut the rise rile of the first curtain and nd remain so 10 until the end llla JI Gilder hu bu evidently attempted to preserve u much a possible ot of the literary quality of the novel noll Naturally she hl his II sue UC etel only In retaining tb the shadow while the substance u tance has almost I ly hr her In some lome I respects the pictures at the end cede of the acts of her pia play are hatter beUer than thou those In Mr Ita work but bot an out oats here and ad there I U not to make a fertile plain Then too loo some of the ant of at the novel art are r retained by Miss 1 Gilder though their value le II They are not used tiled In tb the Stang 3 I Is In tact fact With almost one accord pro pronounced pronounced to the Glider play The Th death or of which Ml Glider Gilder UI see to see HI and which tJ is brought about by poison In the of Nero I Is but an Impre Impressive spectacle In the Stange play this Is II much better an flounces to and Lnla that h he must mut dIe and after a fond farewell leaves Uti them presumably for the pury pur pace ION ot of obeying Neros to open his hi veins Miss 1 Gliders ale b by tb the wa way J is about the wakat wk thing In her pia play Mr Stange tJ familiar Ular with stage Itaf end and limitations hu bu to make nake the arbiter of fashion what h has pointed painted bl him whereas alp II Gilder mak makes him just an ordinary Ina Individual with no marked Stane lacks Iek the brutality and Ity Ily of the Glider creation and Jt it hi I U a whether the utter has nt nit an advantage In that respect It If It ho hos however It I fe more thin than last in tt o subsequent development of th the cllara chara ten ter where I Is gradually w n 11 ti t TM greatest t Nt m In I that cn can be made s play is that he permits to 11 be It r I entirely too quickly At Ator or r that I le Mid aid though there la III 1 else with which fault OlIn can be found I An Interesting comparison mIght a o obe I be nude mad of the pili players d In n the two riyal rival pr presentation of QUo Va Vai the honors go to the tbt Stange Stang pt pr pie le Arthur perhaps has haa not the reputation of Edward organ soh 11 was thought a year or two ago alO to br bi th coming great American actor Yet In Ud thus play Mr Ir Forrest made the cin ID lag American actor tor appear almost almot pike like an amateur For this of course roane the superiority of the role rol In III the tbt Stan Stange version I Is partly responsible but mat of oC It le II due to the fact that Yr Mr Forrest ha has evidently given rIven more thought and more study to his hi Impersonation than was possible In the cue eue of Mr Ir Morn Morren who obviously had bd barel barely time timeto to enable him to let get up In III th the 1111 lines Forrest u II one of tb the most and ad wU well considered perform anon anOll seen In III New Tort on I in recent ent years It I is a veritable gem and will go 0 tar far a award to toward ward for this actor a puma neat Mat place la In tb the ot of New theater goers ts a Joseph Haworth was superior to Jolt John Blair Blahs In fact tM the latter ad adamire s amon among whom I Iun Iam un am proud to enroll myself elf had bad no I Ida that this player could give v so 10 poor a performance he be had deliberately tried to do o his III worst wont lie He don dOlI mot for a moment grasp the Uti of 01 the role or It If he does dotI he be u unable to tt it Blair u II no DO nomore more the Uti of than Othello wu the Othello of Blair a I really 11 a good actor bat his performance of eg u II I and aggressively had D Lyra Wu ray tilt the Nero ol of the Stange play and nd the other Nero was laughable by bF lIOn Iron With him Lyons managed to give 1 the varying emotion of the conceited In a manner which exactly d di idea of the bed ruler tuler and wo worse poet The Eb ot of Miss Ilu Bijou Fernandez Fernandes was I less bd bad than that of II Knott who had Ut the part In tb the Stange play Jut But both At the mOlt mat WI were very poor Ot Of the of I Arm Armstrong strong tron and Elmer Eimer I liked the Armstrong Armtrong Impersonation better for tor while the tint first mentioned actor Ictor scarcely looked th the athlete hit his work was WAI more convincing The Th other members of both casts eata were In the main In the matter mUr of the mounting and the Incidental music the advantage was agan all with the Stanl Stange ply play In fact It I Is a signal winner beyond all possibility of doubt A AI to receipt when I saw the two pia playa neither w was doll doing hv heavy buln business Th Thu may or of course coune chin change and one Obe or the other ma may begin shortly bortl to pack patk tb the hou house but then again aln It may not and ml It may transpire that the game me wu was not worth tb the candle and nd that Nw New York b has de deWed Wed aided to treat both production ot of Quo Jut u aa It treated Th Tb 1111 of 01 the Cross CrOll when that play WI was pro product produced duct at the Knickerbocker litter after a run tun ot of two yarn Irs at the theater In London New York |