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Show EDDIE FOY DETERMINED TO PLAY HAMLET. (New York World.) Hamlet's soliloquy as E. Foy Fitzgerald might glvo it: To be or not to be? Hully gee! That's the question; Whether 'tis nobler, bo, not to set up a tall scream When you're stung; or put upa. scrap against a sea of troubles. To croak; to pound the feathers; or jump in At the sound of the gong and go to it, kiddo, And" s"6 fo'rget your troubles, see? A guy is sure up against it in this world And if you jump off the dock, where do you come in; A lot of boobs put up with it because they don't L Know where they get off. It's a hard luck r-story, r-story, bo, For most of us; so many things put on the cheese; Our bet friends pan us, a skirt will throw us down; Bulls in harness pinch us, what's tho use? "Mr. B. Foy Fitzgerald will present himself as Hamlet." So th bills will read in springtime. Mr. Foy or, as he will bill himself "then,-having taken up his family name for dignity reasons, "E. Foy Fitzgerald"- assured us of this in all sincerity sin-cerity in his manager's office at the Lyric theatre last Monday afternoon. "I have as much right to play Hamlet as anyone any-one else," said the great actor. "I paid 16 cents for a copy of tho piede, and that's all It cost anybody any-body else. "Yes, I used to sing 'Hamlet Was a Melancholy Dane,' but I did not state it as a fact, and oven if it wore so, that has no bearing on the case. "It isn't a joke, although I regard this, the greatest of all Shakespeare's work?, as a comedy and not a tragedy. I don't intend to gag it, although al-though I will play it for the laughs, and there are a lot of laughs in it. "I will iput 'Hamlet' on in tho spring right here in New York. I can't repeat too often that I will give it a respectful handling. The book will not be rewritten, for, with all due respect to our modern mod-ern librettists, Shakespeare is good enough for me. "I will not interpolate any songs. Tlve Pony ballet will positively not be featured. "I have never played the part of Hamlet rlghi IE I mlt tmthe stiige but for twenty yeurs I have road ! and rehearsed it. , .f ( 'As . I- ail, Ljyiy hm my premier, right hero j ih N&v;Yorl$. J -vKtyl not Often in. New Haven: and I , ten go i on. thojrqad for a weelwhile we fix over ! tie piece. I have tried it on the dog. My dog I sjeepsri'Tlie BanC'TEIo can't sloop while I'm re i liarsingthqugh, because I act the part; I don't & I VT11 ;play it a,s a young- ma$. Hamlet wots a f ' yaung man. Yes, I know he says lie was 'fat-and ' 1 a jartt& 'of bittathV' aiid- that irr.one place ho al- lades... to., hh? boakrd, but jl'll play it without eithec par or biisflies. ;And I wiil not pick up Yorick's i skuJland1 say; .JTis a pretty, thing! i ? "What, is my conception of the part? Hamlet, Ifg in my opinion', was a hut. Just a, nut. I've seen H all the, groat actors in the park Booth, Tom H Ieene, Forbes Robertson all of them. In my Hi opinion, thougli, Booths interpretation was the H bbst. ,Boberts,pn made him a wise guy not that Hj. ( Hamlel wasn't skilly, at that; but lie was a H ; daff. : There's nothing to it; the Prince of Den- Wm i nlark was a star-gazer, all right, all right lit j 1 "til play it made up juvenile, a Scandinavian B j Georgia- Cohan who took himself seriously. Of B ; course I.oxpacL a. lot of people think I'll mug. and WW ' gag and do a danoe in the soliloquy. H ' "None of that in mine. I'm going to play it B! j straight, and the. only funny thing about it is B ) that nobody but actors will believe I'm in earn- Bj '. est;, in this matter. I meet a dozen crushed tra- BSf gedlans every day, who come over from the lunch counter and give me advice. I don't need any IK advice. I've seen James Owen O'Connor, Charles B & Leonard Fletcher and Edmund Russell play mR I Hamlet. I know what I'm up against. I'll play it Bj I I without the aid of a net, too. BP i "No, I don't e&peot anytliing to be thrown at I I me except bouquets. I remember once out in B ' 1 a sleepy little town in the wegt Shakespeare, B ' Mont., so called, because 'Only a little Hamlet slept.' A band of bad sheepherders threw eggs and vegetables and even old pans and kettles at James Owen O'Connor. "Ho caught a couple of the eggs and some of the vegetables, and pick d up one of the pans and cooked himself a tomato omelet over the footlights. "I will come to the theater when I play Hamlet, Ham-let, however, after I dine, and no favor will' bo done me by tossing me eggs, vegetables or kltch-onware. kltch-onware. Besides, footlights in Now York are incandescent in-candescent lamps. "Also, in speaking of the late James Owen O'Connor, the tragedian, I would not have any one infer that my production of Hamlet will be anything any-thing In the nature Of a revival. "I'm going to use ID. H. Sothern's scenery, most likely, and I will have a competent support. I want to be careful of that. Nat Goodwin wants to play the First Grave Digger, but could I trust him to stick to his lines when I say, 'How long will a man lie ih the ground ero he rot?' "Nothing would keep Nat Goodwin from saying, say-ing, 'Not long, if he's as rotten as you are in this part.' "How'll I dress the part? Well, not with a pad and a brush, as I told you. Nor as a Joey with a red rose and a bald wig. "I'll wear a hawbuck for the usual black and maroon. And Til get away with the part. It's all sure fire hokum." "Sure fire hokum" is actoress for lines that are always applauded, such as "Rags are royal raiment when worn for virtue's sake!" "He who lays his hands upon a woman, save in the way of kindness, is unworthy the name of an American Amer-ican gentleman!" "Get it down right," concluded Mr. E Foy Fitzgerald, erstwhile Eddie Foy. "I'll be in this burg in the spring to play 'Hamlet,' and I'll be here With chimes on my clothes!" When Mrs.. Foy, who was present, (was asked what she thought Of it, she said she would rather- Eddie "played. "Hamlet" than the horses. Whereat Mr. Foy-Fitzgerald sententiously said: "It's enough." |
