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Show XSolstoi's '"Resurrection" X5he Success of 'Blanch Walsh 5 5 3 Maude Adams. (Special Correspondence.) Tolstoi has at last come upon the American stage, and the result is that New York theatregoers theatre-goers are divided into hostile camps. Oscar Hammerstein, who has built about ten theatres in the city in as many years, is always doing something out of the ordinary in the in-tervals in-tervals when he is not inventing machines to manufacture cigars. He made the reputation of the Creatore "Italian Military Band" last season, and had New Yorkers packing his roof garden for weeks while he sat back and smiled over the thought that he had picked up Creatore somewhere some-where in New Jersey or the wilds of Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania and had scoured the Italian colonies of New York and Philadelphia for the bandsmen. ' It was like him to go to the other extrpme in winter arid introduce Tolstoi to New fork. "The Resurrection," as done at the Victoria theatre, has caused more dismussion than any production of the season. There are those who object to it because it employs too many of the questionable details of the book and others who are just as critical because it does not enter sufficiently into the discussion of the problem of the sexes. Like a great many other things that have been brought ' across the water, the dramatist has put the book ' through a washtub and made it acceptable ac cording to the standards of the English censor. It is an undoubted success, however, the very ; tensity of the partisanship of the two sides to the question making it so. It would not be sur- ' prising if it ran well into the warm season. I With "The Resurrection" Blanch Walsh has tound the opportunity to get a hearing in New ork which she has sought so long. Really New York should extend a warm welcome to Miss Walsh, but it has been disposed to treat her with frigidity. She is a thorough New Yorker. She came out of the great east side, and is proud of it. Her father was a saloonkeeper and Tammany " politician, and her girlhood days were passed in the district where every language of Europe is spoken. Her struggle for recognition in her home city has been a plucky one. I remember her ten years 1 ago, when she was in Salt Lake with Marie Waln- ' wright, and later when she came out as a leading woman in another company. It seemed then as though she must soon rise in her profession and attract attention, even in the metropolis, but she has been compelled to see actress after actress who has far less claim on the affections of the city, gain the honors for which she sought in vain. She has kept on, however, making a greater reputation repu-tation on the road each year Until at last a management man-agement has taken her up with the intention of giving her a better chance. Her opportunity came, too, at a time when it seemed as though ill fortune was following her still. Stanislaus Stange had gone along the path that has led other playwrights to disaster, and tried to manufacture too many things at once. He mixed the musical comedy "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" with the writing of "The Daughter of Hamilcar," and the result was that the comedy was too serious and the drama too light. "Johnny" was not very successful in New York, and it was found advisable to close the drama before it could be seen by the metropolis. metropo-lis. Miss Walsh has succeeded, however. The critics crit-ics have found fault with her, saying that her interpretation of her role is on too low a plane. But the women of New York seem to like her, and that is the thing that will please the management man-agement best. A clientage among New York women has brought success to many a worse actress than Blanch Walsh. & & t Augustus Thomas about whom one must write with exceeding care since he thrashed a country editor who called him "Miss Gussie" has apparently appar-ently abandoned his intention of dramatizing nil the states probably because of the failure of "Colorado" last year and has gone chasing after the French ideas, following Clyde Fitch and some others in this regard. His "Tho Earl of Pav-tucket" Pav-tucket" is written very much after the French farce method, although it is heavy-footed enough to make its Anglo-Saxon origin apparent. Still it is a success. It has struck a note of true humor in a season in which that quality has been sadly lacking, lack-ing, and so it is filling the Madison Square Theatre as that play house used to be filled in the days when the Hoyt productions v;ere made in it. The humor of it lies in the adventures of an English earl who tries to palm himself off for an American in his quest of an American widow. His jH beautiful stupidity and elephantine wit have been jH particularly apropos at a time when the Yankees iH would like to take another slap at England, and IH so he has been laughed at to the joy of his man- agement and the author. '1 In this play Elizabeth Tyree is hiding her did- 1 appointment of her failure to "make good" as a M star. It seems to have been a case of another clever leading woman setting out to attain to a sta- fH tion just a bit out of her reach. She was clever In "Gretna Groen," but the vehicle was weak, and she did not have the strength to overcome the, dif- M Acuities. H tv 5 ? iH I met Maude Adams' mother on the street the H other day, and she told me that the little star jl whom Salt Lakers claim as their own, is rapidly M regaining her health, and will be in superb condi- ! M tion for next season. Miss Adams has not yet ! entirely recovered from the strain on her nerves l and It was the part of wisdom for her to take the fH rest she has. She set a rapid pace for five years lH frail as she was and it was as certain as mathe- H matics that she would not be aEle to keep it ll up without a breakdown. New York is exacting M when it bestows its favors, and unless a favorite M actress guards herself carefully she will be car- H ried away to a nervous breakdown Tiy the demands H of the managers and public. H & & & H The newest thing in the way of musical come- H dies is "The Jewel of Asia," in which James T. H Powers is starring. It is the latest of the Lederer iNH productions. Indications are that the plan Lederer ' announced of taking Powers to London after a H long New York run, however, would not be car- H ried out. Lederer can still put pretty girls on the oll stage and drill them properly he has a genius for H that but he has not his old faculty of whipping a H comedy into condition so that it will make a big lH success. His production of last summer "The H Wild Rose," was driven out of the west, despite jl its endorsement by Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt. H His "Sally in Our Alley" has done better, but has M been far from successful from a financial point of , view. Now this production has failed to set Broadway aglow. H By the way, "Jimmie" Powers has a lively rec- M ollection of Salt Lake. I met him recently, and ho Hl told me about a practical joke played on him when H ho was out there about twelve years ago. Some H (.Continued on pata 7.) M Tolstoi's Resurrection" Continued. Salt Lakers filled him up with tales of the fine duck shooting at Hot Springs lake, and he was Induced In-duced to get up at a very early hour and go out to enjoy the sport. A flock of ducks was sighted peacefully floating on the writer, and he was told to crawl around a certain way to get a shot at them. He struggled through the tall grass and the swampy shores until un-til he was all wet and muddy, and finally he got a chance to shoot. Then he let go both barrels. None of the ducks flew away, and he shot a few times more. Then he struggled back to his companions and said: "Tamest ducks I ever saw. Guess I must have got 'em all." Then the wicked Salt Lakers took him in a boat and rowed him out to where a flock of decoys was still peacefully floating on the water. E. J. Y. |
