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Show I With The First Nighters H I THE EASIEST WAY. H By T. G. H i In E. Temple Thurston's "Sally Bishop" there H .Is this: " this gigantic city has only displayed H its attractions in order to gain its prey. They H are drawn by the colors of the petals, they come 1 to the honeyed perfume of its scent; but once H caught in the prison of its embrace, there is only H the slow poison of forced labor ," or for the m woman who loves beautiful things and innately m most women, particularly in youth, do crave them H for the woman who is starving in her honest H I struggle, while the idea is constantly growing in H her that she is being unjustly deprived of the 1 luxury, a part of which at least was meant for M her; there is the fatal alternative, so tragically, H so wonderfully portrayed in Eugene Walter's tre- H mendous play "The Easiest Way." M It would be utterly Impossible for any one to ( write a criticism of the Walter masterpiece which W would accord with the views of the majority of M any audience that sees the play. So very few in K a Twentieth Century audience consider it In all K of lis terrible meaning. In those who are good, M or those whose instincts in the beginning were Bl good, this greatest American tragedy of the age M brings out nil of the best in their natures, and m it is a certain sign of shallowness or narrowness, M ADRI OPLE H And Ethel Lorraine in "Going Some" at H the Colonial the first half of H next week H or inability to understand, for one to ask as so H many have, "Why do they allow such plays on the H stage?" They forget the hundred nasty problem H plays (all alike) they have seen, which make the H greatest appeal to the vicious and which, by H inference are so much more repellant than any- H thing which may be heard in the plain truths of H the Walter play. B No thinking person can be so trivial as to H treat lightly this too often recurrent story of New H York's sordid tenderloin. Had it been told less H, truthfully, the play might have contained some B more pleasant moments, but the very leaving of I the truth is the foundation of its strength and Walter's relentlessness in concealing nothing in h the story of one of those poor women who in H their weakness take the first false step and then H go onward to destruction the most helpless crea- H tures in the world is responsible for lifting "The H Easiest Way" far out of the rut of other problem H plays, and rising with, it to a place few Amer- H ican playwrights may hope to attain. H All of Mr. Walter's characters know the world H very well. Up in the peace of the mountains H when Laura Murdock, poor, pitiful little woman, H sees a hope for the future in the love-light in H John Madison's eyes, they understand all each has done before; it is quickly seen what Brack-ton's Brack-ton's life is, and Effie St. Clair isn't overly particular par-ticular about keeping her's a secret. Even Jim Weston and Annie the maid are of the tenderloin uutender, and so there are no eyes to be opened on the stage except in the end the confiding ones of Madison, who takes a chance on the integrity in-tegrity of a weak woman who has been the mistress mis-tress of another man, and who in her struggle lies very badly and loses her way to happiness. Walter has not quibbled. In every situation he has made every character exactly like hundreds hun-dreds of others in the city of today, and even in the task of adding humor to his story, he has still stuck to the truth, for in Effie St. Clair he has shown the world the counterpart of a thousand thous-and calculating courtesans of her ilk in Gotham's feather bed row. Efffe, it must be admitted, is a bit plain spoken, but her lines are not offensive; they're a scream. As for those who played, the honors are first Miss Starr's, while Miss Randolph, Miss Rand, Mr. Kilgour, Mr. Robins and Mr. Brawn were perfect per-fect in their parts. It is treating them very shabbily to give them only mere mention for they deserve much more. But on Thursday night the play was certainly the triing the play that makes one pity all the women who enact it every day. So, as in the beginning of this, may we turn another page of Temple Thurston's book and quote: "What Is the good of it all to what does it lead, this endless forced march toward a vague encounter with the enemy who are never to be seen? If only they might pitch tents there and then there and then dig trenches, make positions, posi-tions, occupy heights put the rifle to the shoulder shoul-der and fire into hell if need be. But no this endless, toilsome marching, marching always onward, on-ward, yet never at the journey's end. "Who blames them if they fall by the way? No one no one with a heart could do so. The great tragedy lies in the fact that tirey are left to blame themselves " ORPHEUM. From just about any standpoint you want to look at it, this week's Orpheum bill is one of the best of the fall and its record in excellence and box office joy ought to stay pretty close to the top for the rest of the season. It is a diversified, Interesting program of r what is of a surety advanced vaudeville and from Charles Lovenberg's operatic festival to the pictures, pic-tures, there isn't a dull moment. Nothing more , artistic and thoroughly finished has been heard at the Orpheum in months than the Lovenberg singers. In a program of solos, duets, quartettes and sextettes, ranging from a selection or two from "The Bohemian Girl' to the finale of a potpourri pot-pourri of operatic gems, the company excels. ! Among others "Lucia" and "II Trovatore" are beautifully sung, and Miss Brunnelle's violin work 1 is of an exceptionally high character. The voices among the principals of the company are unusu- . ally fine and every selection is a treat. ( The Rossow Midgets in strong arm stunts and a boxing match, furnish a lot of fun. The diminutive dimin-utive performers are clever and interesting. With a pair of dreamy eyes, five gowns and a maid who can get her in and out in record time, Marie Fen-ton Fen-ton sings several new sons effectively. She is quite a comedy maid and admits it. Cavana as an aerial wire contortionist is a ' wizard of equilibrium and he tops anything in 1 his line yet seen at the Beck theatre. Scott Sig- gins, J. J. Williams, Josephine Foy and John Doyle manage in the end to get a Jot out of the Green- 1 Armstrong sketch, "The Police Inspector," though I the skit is pretty well overdrawn in spots. There is enough of the real stuff in it to hold it together, however, and to give the layman a more of less truthful peep behind the scenes of many a police "confession." As Lou Anger puts it, "Roosevelt shot every sort of animal there was in Africa and a lot that never were there," and nearly every one I agreed with him. Its the monologue with a 1 few new ones lined through to liven it up. j Ben Beyer and brother finish up a fine evening's entertainment in a top-notch cycling act wherein l they go a step further in unicyc'.e work than has I heretofore been offered by trick cyclists at the Orpheum. "THE GIRL, THE MAN AND THE GAME." Eliminating the cotton hosiery and soiled lin- j gerle of its show girls and the excrusiatingly fun ny antics of the ham whose genius illumined face (with the hat) has adorned the bill boards for ten days or so, "The Girl, the Man and the Game" Is the closest thing to a stage version of the j testing room of a phonograph factory, with all J the old chestnut records ever made being given a j simultaneous try out, of anything that has passed this way in quite some time. ' According to the program, the play was j "adapted from the French." I French what, William? I And Billy "Single" Clifford! There's a name JL to conjure with, Clarice, for he is certainly one k of our grandest comedians. A regular go-to-hell of a cut-up and that funny that to look at the gentleman who wouldn't believe he had it in him. As the Irishman said, "I know it's cheese, but phwat have ye on it?" It is an over-worked simile, we'll admit, but Bud Braham is about as funny in the role of Harry Merry as six or seven sticks of dynamite entirely surrounded by clockwork that is tickling right along toward blowing up time, and about seven years more in the dramatic schools, would help materially in fitting the Misses Archer and Swan-son Swan-son for a couple of strong thinking parts in a first-class musical show. Of the entire aggregation aggrega-tion of insufferably incapable performers who ! make up the Clifford company at the Colonial this week, Jack Tralnor alone possess any talent. As Uncle Cattermole he is effective. To those who know the standard John Cort strives to maintain in the theatrical attractions playing the houses under his control and management, man-agement, the route by which Billy "Single" Clif-(Continued Clif-(Continued on Pago 9.) WITH THE FIRST NIGHTERS. f (Continued from Pago 7.) ford and his company leaked unto the circuit and the whyfor of that performer's face, eyeglass and hat being plastered on the tlyee-sheet boards and fences will be always something of a mystery. From the first to the final curta it is the end of the limit and the play is worse than the performers, perform-ers, if that were possible. The Colonial will thankfully wash its hands of the mess tonight. "A VIRGINIA COURTSHIP." In "A Virginia Courtship" Mr. Ingersoll and his associates at the Garrick have spent the week among the golden days of old Virginia, the stately bows and graces of Virginia's women, the melody of the old plantation days, and the quaint foolery and strenuous courtship that you so promptly associate with the play's name. And nicely has Mr. Totten's staging of the show retained the atmosphere so essential to its success. Mr. Ingersoll drops from the principal role for the week and gives place to his leading women, Miss Nielson and Miss Dills. Both are charming in their characterizations and the play moves- happily along with a picturesque and rather unwieldy gait to just the right sort of a finale for a Virginia courtship. Mr. Ingersoll, Miss Pringle, Miss Bingham, Mr. Herblin, Mr. Totten, Mr. Crosby and Mr. Pratt are all excellent and the play is really the best of a lighter sort Mr. Ingersoll has put on at the Garrick. THE NEW BILLS. Minnie Dupree and company in Frank Ferguson's Fergu-son's clever sketch, "The Minister's Wife," has been given the headline position on the vaudeville program which follows the Midgets, the Blond in Black and the rest of Mr. Sutton's family at the Orpheum after tonight's performance. The original Six Kauffmans, whose cycling act is always a big vaudeville feature, are on the program and this year the troupe is featuring the work of Frank Kauffman. Edward Flanigan and Neally Edwards will be seen in a sketch they call "On and Off;" Fred Duprez, monologist and singing comedian; the Harvy-Devora trio in a dancing review and a littlo fun; Luce and Luce, novelty instrumentalists and Grace Belmont, who says she really sings, will, with the motion pictures, pic-tures, finish up the week's program. The laughing show for whitfh Rex Beach, the well known writer of stories of Alaska, is largely responsible, opens at the Colonial Sunday evening for an engagement of four nights and a matinee Wednesday afternoon. The play is a satirical faroo on a bevy of incidents and scenes in the southwest and was last year one of the really big hits in New York. The play is in the west "this season with a company that has met with considerable success and that reviewers elsewhere have considered as thoroughly capable and interesting. "Going Some" has had one of the biggest runs of any play of its kind in the east in several seasons, and its humor is woven into a thoroughly entertaining enter-taining and clever story that will give Salt Lakers Lak-ers Mr. Beach's talent in an entirely new line. We have had his "Spoilers" and one or two of his other stories in their stage version, but "Going Some" will be the first of the excellent things ho has done in a lighter vein. Capably presented "Going Some" should prove one of the coining week's big attractions. "Seven Days," a comedy by Margaret Roberts Reinhart and Avery Hopwood, that has be so successful on and off Broadway ever since .. was first produced last season, will spend next week at the Theatre, opening Monday evening and closing clos-ing Saturday. Metropolitan reviews of "Seven Days" got far enough west as early as last winter to post most of the first nighters on its story. The latter has fo a nucleus the quarantining of the guests at a smart New York house party for seven days with not a servant in the place. That is but a hint of the clever comedy from the Iteinhart-Hop-wood pens, but it is enough to suffice until the show opens Monday at the Theatre. "Seven Days" was undoubtely one of last year's comedy successes in New York, and the management of this year's production announces a capable, well-balanced well-balanced cast for its presentation. "Leah Kleschna" is Mr. Ingersoll's announcement announce-ment for next week at the Garrick, and it is one of the most interesting he has made, for the play has been seen here once or twice by first-class traveling companies, giving excellent productions, and it will offer Mr. Ingersoll and his associates in work new to their local engagement. "A Happy New Year," with Carleton Chase, Mayme and Estelle Prager, Florence Swinnerton, Henry Auerbach and the other members of the Curtis company in the principal parts, will be seen at the Daniels for the week beginning with this afternoon's performance. This will be the seventeenth consecutive performance given by the Curtis organization. The Shubert has been given over to the presentation pre-sentation of old-time thrillers and Frederick Moore with a capable company is appearing there in a creepy piece called "A Fight for Love and Honor." The battle has been on since Thursday and will finish Sunday evening. At this writing love has a little the best of it. |