THB COURIER.
m
il
Clay Clement has signed a contract
with Ira LaMotte of the Schiller thea
tre, Chicago, to remain under his man
agement for Ave years. Mr. LaMotte
has arranged for a winter season in
New York at a good Broadway theatre.
Mr. Clement has enlarged his reper
toire. He will Play Mathlas in 'The
Bells" and he will produce his own
dramatization of Maarten Maartens'
story. "God's Fool." Clay Clement has
a Hans Andersen "Bllderbuch Ohne
Bilder" style and Maarten Maartens'
romantic simplicity and refinement can
be moved from the novel to the stage
without breaking the plastering by a
playwright who knows his business.
John Drew, who will play June 1
at the Lansing, is one of the best and
most polished of the younger school of
actors. For a number of years he was
Daly's leading man. Four years ago
when he left Daly to star he was over
shadowed by predictions of failure. He
has a temperament, rare among artists,
commendation or adverse criticism af
fect him not at all. It is strange that
he makes so fascinating a lover. He
goes about the one occupation that all
mankind is Interested in with such icy
indifference yet with such success that
every girl in the room thinks the hero
ine a fool if she takes a little time to
consider his proposal. An impertinent
and useless race of critics has made fun
of the matinee girls darling without
reason. The modern matinee girl of
New York city is not to be despised.
She goes to the theatre constantly. She
has reached that point in her dramatic
education by strict attention to the
course in comparative matinees where
mere good looks, including grace and
technical exceilence.have no effect upon
her judgment. She recognizes talent
as quickly and more generously than
the critics do. Her appreciation has no
newspaper reservations connected with
advertising or with prearranged puffing
of any other actor. It is genuine and
very rarely undeserved. Occasionally
especially if she Is alone and has no one
to express her admiration to, she writes
a letter to her hero. If the actor had
less vanity he would perceive that, in
spite of what the foolishly honest girl
says. It Is not himself, but his ability
to act certain parts that she admires,
he would accept the letters with a bow
as he does bouquets over the footlights,
1. e., as a tribute from the dumb to one
who has the gift of tongues. John
Drew has been the matinee girls' Idol
for some years. Idolatry has only
hardened his heart and iced his blood.
In congealing, however, he has only
gained in fascination. Mrs. John
Drew, his mother, has made her Mrs.
Malaprop a classic. It will hardly be
played by anyone hereafter without
careful reference to her reading and
if any change is introduced there must
needs be shown good reasons for It.
Her son John's first success was in
"Butterflies," which was written for
film by Henry Guy Carleton. The part
that was given to Olive May, who af
terwards became Mrs. Carleton, over
shadowed Drew's part and he got into
something else as soon as the public
would let him. The light comedy and
mitigated tragedy parts that Mr. Drew
has confined himself to cannot be said
to show versatility, which Is not saying
that he has it not he has been sure of
himself in the characters he has pre
sented. For this reserve many thanks
to lighten hearts not to weight them
is a task In the sunshine. It lacks the
strong lime light and black shadows of
tragedy. Heroic proportions built foi
tragedy are much rarer than tragedi
ans or than actors, who like Mr. Drew
know their place. His acting has fin
ish, delicacy, refinement. He Is the
product of two generations of actors
and of half a life time's discriminating
study.
Mr. M. B. Curtiss. who will play this
afternoon and evening at the Funke.has
played "Sam'I of Posen" for sixteen
years. The Jewish race is easily cari
catured and the stage has shown it no
mercy. "Sam'l of Posen" is a penni
less Jew boy who arrives in New York
and begins to earn his living as a street
peddler. It is as novel to see a Jewish
character presented without prejudice
as it is pleasant. The popularity of
"Sam'I of Posen" is a rebuke to the
Impossible nasal monstrosity that ap
pears in nearly every play. People
laugh because they have always
laughed at the caricature of a Jew and
because they like to get even with
him in some way. It Is not a type. It is
grossly unjust and it is worked to death.
In Utopia where the stage Is said to be
reformed the stage Jew is not. Happi
ness to the world, weary Is not so much
the presence of bliss, creating particles
as It Is the absence of agonizing instru
ments. The modern drama has the
heavy female In tights, the comedian
whose only funny expedient is to play
drunk, the sad man with the heaving
chest and cork leg walk and the stage
Jew on the stage and the girl with the
large hat and the man who chews to
bacco In the audience to arrest devel
opment The Methodist church and the drama
are further behind the procession than
any other two institutions. If they
would get together the blind man might
loose the bound man's hands and then
the man who can walk could lead his
poor blind brother to a celebrated oc
culist. Perhaps It is only cataract that
threatens the future usefulness of our
Methodist brother. An operation as
severe as the one called "The Protest
ant Reformation" might restore his
sight.
Mr. Curtiss' Jew Is a Jew sOIl. He
wears flashy clothes; he Is an oriental;
he has a heavy unmusical voice, a big
nose. Egyptian gestures (you can see
them cut on the reliefs in the temples),
and a love of money, the result of
eighteen hundred years, at least, of In
breeding. He also has tldelity. honesty,
and a warm heart and he carries the
sympathy of the audience with him
from the first. Mr. Curtiss has been
In Lincoln for several days on account
of some miscarriage of his plans. He
has used the time to rehearse his new
play, "The Alchemist." which he in
tends to put on In a few weeks.
The all-star caste of 'The Rivals"
was of course a disappointment. A
star cannot blend himself with others
into a streak of light like the milky
way after doing his own illuminating
for aeons. "The Rivals" by Jefferson.
Mrs. Drew, Francis Wilson, the Hol
land brothers. Julia Marlowe Taber and
other planets lacked perspective, at
mosphere, composition. The stage was
a picture made up of the middle cen
tres of a lot of other pictures, held in
place by paste. There was no back
ground and no air behind and around
the figures. The following is a New
York critic's estimate of the performance:
Every actor in the Rivals cast the
other day worked with honest zeal to
get the most out of his part. The re
sult, as may be imagined, was incon
gruous and unsatisfying. The ripe
method of Mrs. John Drew contrasted
glaringly with Mr. Crane's modern
sense of art. The finesse and equipoise
of Joseph Jefferson were jarringly off
set by the grotesquery of Francis Wil
son. Such a classic as "The Rivals"
can only be made enjoyable when It Is
acted, as it was conceived, in a spirit
of refined ultra-idealism. That spirit
was palpably lacking In the perform
ance of three members of the cast the
other day. There was a discordant
clash between the mellow and the
modern.
Mr. Jefferson's Bob Acres Indeed held
the whole thing together. It was tho
same exquisite, delicate personation
that has come to be regarded as a chef
d oeuvre of the comedian's art. Never
once realizing Sheridan's conception,
it Is, however, so infinitely delightful,
so humanly comlo and pathetic that
the actor cannot be blunted for his
Irreverent trampling upon tradition. To
eee Joseph Jefferson as Hob Acres la to
see the rarest and finest exemplification
of the comedian's nrt that the stage
of this country has produced for a
score of years.
Mrs. John Drew's Mrs. Malaprop Is.
what it always was. qunint. finished
and In the very spirit of the author's
conception.
Nat Goodwin was not at his happiest
as Sir Lucius OTrlgger. His brogue
was hard and forced, and of the will-o'-the-wisp
variety now you heard it
and now you didn't.
Mr. Crane's Sir Anthony Absolute
had the merit of absolute sincerity.
Robert Taber balanced the cynicism
and hypocrisy of Jack Absolute with
Just the right amount of earnestness
nnd force. It was one of the satisfying
performances of the day. Mrs. Taber's
Lydla Languish was charmingly na
tural. In the thankless parts of Falkland
and Fag, the Holland brothers "fed"
their comrades so unobstruslvely that
they deserve a very large meed of
warm praise. They kept the parts
where they belonged In the back
ground. As much cannot be said for Francis
"Wilson's David. He evidently did not
believe in abnegation. In his one "bit
of fat" he elaborated and over-elaborated
so extravagantly that he stood
wholly out of the picture. His self
assertlveness neverthelesss pleased the
audience, and he was rewarded with
two vociferous scene calls. His dialect,
by the way, would ha'e puzzled a
philologist. Fanny Rice plucked as
many laurels as came within her reach.
She played Lucy with refreshing snnp
and Intelligence.
Fregoli is doing the wonderful for
New Yorkers by assuming all the char
acters In a play. He carries a com
pany of eleven people, who are sta
tioned in the wings and render him si
lent assistance. He changes his char
acter at the same time that he does
his costumt Those who have seen him
say it Is Impossible to believe that the
same person Is before you who a mo
ment before left the stage. His larynx
has been removed and he can sing so
prano, alto, tenor and bass with ease.
If he comes this way let's go to see
him.
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