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Show E : With the First Nighters ' "THE STRENGTH OF THE WEAK." Florence Roberts is sort of a modern Medea, HK who 'with the help of the well-behaved Jasons in Hfl her company, makes a periodical getaway with n the golden fleece the fleeced in this case being Si, a public gullible enough to once more put a H, blind faith in the sorceress who is now charging a dollar and a half to ask the public in the same scrdid old way, why a man may sow wild oatts and reap a lot of good things while a woman is blown over by the first zephyr that crones through the poppy patch she set out in the front yard in ! the springtime of life. J Rarely has Florence tried to play anything H. that was not reeking with the story of a misspent Hj life, and this "The Strength of the Weak" is just Ri another "Camllle" with a few modern trimmings. The father in the new version, however, plays a more important part than to merely interfere H with the matrimonial plans of the son. In this HP dainty creation, it is discovered that the fine old fellow is the man who has wronged the woman H; his son is about to marry, and while he Is think ing of a way to clear up the situation, and the son is looking hopelessly into space, the lady in a bedraggled tea gown writhes out of " the room. There is the report of a blunderbuss; the son has carefully lenrned the familiar "O, my God!" the curtain drops, and we go away disgusted with the rot that runs riot in a stream of words that are nothing mora than words, powerless in expres-sion, expres-sion, putrid in thought, pitifully weak, and vlrls-cent vlrls-cent with t' e slime that such stagnant situations The sameness of Florence Roberts is tedious Hji in the extreme, and she again has made the mis- take of surrounding herself with a good company. The contrast does not add to the brilliancy of a histronic reputation earned in fifty cent stock, Hh the place ir which she now rightfully belongs, H anl to which she will probably return after her j reckless dash to New York. H' Florence Roberts never differs, in her soulless Hj imitations, and after a double dose of Fiskelan mannerisms and Roberts tears each season, her Hj febrific efforts are somewhat devitalizing to one B, who must listen. Miss Roberts is certainly a repeater, machine- like in her ability to play different roles the same Hf way, and it remains for a Stanley of stagecraft to Hj discover just where in her latest maudlin emotion Hj the strength of the weak appears. In healthy, sweet, refreshing contrast to the 59 peculiar seriousness of tho latter acts of the play, Hji is the comedy and the types that make the early scenes delightful. In fact, if more of these peo- mm pie could be seen, as the action is supposed to grow intense, there would be cause for great rejoicing. re-joicing. There are a score of opportunities for pretty touches of pathos and humor that have not ji II. S. NORTURUP, ono of tho real actors in tho Rob-orts Rob-orts company, and a young man much in demand by enterprising managers. be'in heeded by the authoress, who Instead of introducing in-troducing them has given the entire stage to the "star," abruptly dismissing all others. And as for the pathos in her- voice, there is more in the proboscis of a weighty dowager suffering suf-fering from influenza. Of the ladies in the company, nearly all of them are pleasing. Florence Robinson's Mrs. Dare (the parvenue) was nicely handled, and Ruth Allen's "Jack," the college girl captivated everyone. There was something" so real about everything she did. She is endowed with a personality such as fall to the lot of those who make great successes, and her youth and' spirit make the life of every scene She Is in. The men who have anything to do are splendid with the exception, of Eugene Ormonde, who would make a fine filler for a post hole. His love making is about the temperature of a refrigerator car. The strongest work of the men was done by H. S. Northrup who was seen here in "Ann La Mont," and who spent the winter in Ned Royle's "The Squaw Man." As the young blood, somewhat some-what of a cad. but not a bad fellow at that, he won first place in the estimation of the audience. Max Figman's German baron was a rare bit of artistry excelling anything he has ever been seen in here. Robert McWade is the same tfever old boy as of yore, looking homelike in the Paul Armstrong scenery which was all that could be desired. Along in the first part of the play Richard Adams (Mr. Ormonde) asks Pauline Darcy (Miss Roberts), "Are you going to live in New York?" Strange how that question lingers in the mind and echo answers "23." The Campbell-Drew Amusement Co. present next week at the Lyric theatre, the "Avenue Girls" Musical Extravaganza Co. The scenic and electric effects are said to be fine, and the costumes are highly spoken of. The roster of performers shows a list of good people in vaudeville.. vau-deville.. Murphy and Vincent, the "laugh-makers," have created for themselves a certain popularity pop-ularity that only such in their class could receive The management announce a matinee every day except Sunday, during the next two weeks. & & & "HER DOUBLE LIFE." The story of "The New Magdalene" is not at best a very fascinating one, and in the form of "Her Double Life," which is a rather free adaptation adap-tation from Wilkie, Collins novel and which was the Grand's bill of fare during the early part of the week, the stage version was devoid of any particular charm. Miss Laura Frankenfiv.. is the star of the performance, per-formance, and shows every evidence of becoming in after years a winsome actress." She is not only quite prepossessing but acts with naturalness, although she is lacking in clear articulation and a correct interpretation of English vowelsr It is not pleasant even for a plebian to hear society referred to as "socie-tay," and "it is me" is a dramatic informality which does not make a strong appeal to the more or less cultured mentality. men-tality. Also Miss Frankenfield gives one the im-i im-i pression of having just emerged from a school of J . dramatic training, but in the best scenes offorded 1l by the gruesome play she shows a great deal of ' dramatic talent, which will probabl. be more pro nounced within a few years. She is certainly severely handicapped by having hav-ing such a pompous and impossible person as St. George Dagelen in the leading masculine role. Ho Is about as affected and stupid an impersonation impersona-tion of what is supposed to constitute an actor as has decorated the local boards for quite a long period. He would scintillate much more conspicuously as a snow shoveler. Tho rest of the cast are quite commendable, but all are nec-essai.... nec-essai.... handicapped by a dramatic vehicle-' of the intense and impossible order such as Miss Florence Roberts delights to heave at a tired public' In more pleasant and congenial surroundings, surround-ings, Miss Frankemleld should later on be quite an artistic success. RUTH ALLEN, Who made a groathlthoroas"Jack" In "Tho Strength of tho Weak." Miss Allen is ambitious, am-bitious, and ono of tho fow women in tho Roberts company who will mako good in Now Yorlc ORPHEUM. The Three Seldoms in plastic statuary poses, Rosaire and Doreto, the captain and the drunken A Hunch of Beauty in "Piff, Pnff, Pouf." sailor, and "Lavine and Walton are worth seeing at the Orpheum. The posing of The Three Seldoms is extreme-ly extreme-ly beautiful, Rosaire and Doreto fall on their faces in a way to inspire levity in anything hu-man, hu-man, and Lavine does a stunt with a hat and cigar that is all the candy. For the rest of the show, vulgarity is the key-note, key-note, until the Kinodrome pictures an escape from Sing Sing which is a positive horror. Just why a jH set of pictures of - crime and brutality such as de-velopes de-velopes in these are allowed to be exhibited is a problem to conjure with. The finale is the kill-. ing of a baby girl with all the attendant features to make it just as bad as possible. An injunction would bo a handy parcel for the manipulators of this machine. , William Davis and Maud Neal in a comedy sketch essay a new line of vulgarisms, and Artie Hall is coarse with nothing exciting in anything she does. There are thred good acts this week the other numbers remind you of the Orpheum. & 5? LYRIC. At the Lyric this week there were some clever specialties and of the artists the fistianic Dick Hyland was by no means the least. In fact his rapid fire delivery was more appreciated than some parts of the choral output, although the chorus during the week was quite as acceptable as any of those which have appeared at the little playhouse during the present season. The Clipper jH Comedy Four were received with many evidences of enthusiasm, and the bill included quite a num-ber num-ber of other clever vaudevillian specialties. "LITTLE JOHNNY JONES." The date arranged for "Little Johnny Jones" in this city is April lOtht and 11th and already H managerPyper is being besieged with requests for advance seat reservations. The company pre- jH sentlng this, tfie greatest of all Cohan successes on the coast numbers 15 singing and dancing com-edlans com-edlans and comediennes, and includes a charming chorus of sixty. Salt Lake gets but two nights of jH "Little Johnny Jones." jH Frederick Warde in his fine Shakespearian HH lectures delighted good audiences at the theatre KM on Thursday. Mr. Warde is one of the most charming of men, and his visits are always looked jH forward to by his hosts of friends here. 5 fk Walter Wellman visited Vice President air-banks air-banks the other day and spent several hemrf in his company. He may be acclimating himself for his coming trip to the north pole. |
