Variety (Nov 1906)

10 VARIETY Shows of the Week COLONIAL. With the exception of Kocian, the vio- linist (New Acts), the Colonial bill is made up entirely of members of the Old Guard of established acts. Harry Corson Clarke and company is the least familiar name in the lot, due to the fact that he has been away from these parts recently. His offering, •'Strategy," is built upon polite farce lines of a rather threadbare sort, the plot, which is developed with a vast amount of talk, involving a fictitious child, invented by a sporty husband for the purpose of getting money from his rich wife. Unaided by music or other vaudeville incidentals, it must be con- fessed the proceedings were a bit dull to the sophisticated tastes of the Williams audience, although Mr. Clarke with his two aides, George Leonard and Margaret Dale Owen, labored with the best of in- tentions and considerable skill to amuse. Maude Lambert came into the entertain- ment for about ten minutes with three songs, the best the second number, and Billy S. Clifford stopped over for about the same length of time with his act un- changed. The Piccolo Midgets have some sur- prisingly good acrobatic work in slow two-high handstands, which more than makes up for the time-filling "strong man" feats which go before and which are for the most part unattractive. The tiny comedian performs some clever clowning and adds immensely to the value of the act. The burlesque boxing bout gives an adequate finish. It is possible that too frequent watch- ing of the Robert Hiliiard playlet, "As a Man Sows," inclines one to be a bit captious, but it occurs that the stalwart leading man strives after effect by harping upon the old, old melodramatic strain. He cannot apparently mention his wife and child without adding "God bless them." Having very early in the proceedings made it plain to the dullest that he loves his family, this rubbing it in seems a trifle unnecessary. The playlet held the inter- est and was a popular number on the bill. Edward Blondell and company have very little that is new, but the quiet comedy and unique funniments of "The Lost Boy" retain popularity on their sec- ond (or is it the third?) lap around the metropolitan circuit. The Barber Ritchie Trio closed the show with their excellent bicycle act. The comedy man has a new comedy trick in the shape of a bicycle the wheels of which are hugh barrels. Krone- mann Brothers, also on the bill, are under New Acts. TWENTY THIRD STREET. May Tully and company (New Acts) gets no place in the electric illumination on the front elevation of the Keith- Proctor establishment, although the new offering overtops in every way the "Elec- tric Crickets," which name is blazoned forth in glittering incandescents. Barrows and Lancaster do exceedingly well in Edmund Day's rural sketch "Thanksgiving Day.*' The playlet has good comedy values and is played throughout in a quiet vein. Frank K. Batten rather missed the proper characterization of the 'grouchy" brother, but the rest of the cast realized their respective roles. Norma Seymour is far and away the best feature of "The Crickets." For the rest it is made up of poorly drilled girls, clumsy dressing, ridiculous scenic equip- ment and questionable stage management. The final drill was made ridiculous by the girls becoming mixed and springing a few new phonetic spelling combinations. Miss Seymour carries the act by virtue of her personal beauty and a strong, clear voice. Raymond and Caverly have added a little new talk to the opening of their dialect talking act, and a number of new parodies won the biggest response of the evening. With these new parodies the pair could afford to do away with a good deal of the later talk, which has been in use some time now. ,--Th e --' iGl o bevof Death" elosed .44hk-4mB_' with a real startler. The team riding of the man and woman is interesting and the motor cycle loop-the-loop at the finish makes the most blase sit up straight. Mr. and Mrs. Jean Bregant, a pair of midgets, opened the bill with a short sing- ing act. The man has an odd and not at- tractive style of dressing, but the woman won out instantly by her pretty appear- ance. Bailey and Austin amused with their clowning and knockabout cavortings. They keep the funniments moving swiftly and therein is contained the secret of their success. Dave Nowlin was moved from second to third place. He has a novel opening for his act and got started nicely. The imitations keep him in good favor and his closing burlesque let him off the stage to solid applause. The Three Mitchells were billed but did not appear. - By Rush her final jumbled song. Hamilton King and the Four Masons are under New Acts. The Kremka Brothers have a fast, smooth acrobatic act which gets away from the familiar sort through its speed and several new tricks. The acrobatics are depended upon, as there is no comedy to speak of. Both the ground tumbling and two-high handstand work is executed with style and without slips or breathing spaces. The Kremka Brother! were re- viewed under New Acts last week while playing Keith's, Philadelphia, their first American appearance. John D. Gilbert possesses distinctiveness in his work, showing variation from the cut-and-dried style of single talking acts. His lines are bright and pointed and never infringe upon the dear dead past. Cavana, slack-wire contortionist, shows several feats not seen before and neat dressing, while Alvin and Kenney on the flying rings did immensely better than the usual Union Square opener. Juliet Winston still displays at times the small affectations of a high-priced course of training, but is altogether charm- ing in appearance and maimer. The Healeyi did well enough with the piano playing, but the talk is old and has a poor laughing value. UNION SQUARE. A dearth of women marks the Union Square bill this week. There are only six in the whole show, with the surplus- age of men further accentuated by the fact that squarely in the middle of the program there are five consecutive acts in which not the rustle of a skirt is heard. Cressy and Dayne are "home again," playing the old sketch "Grasping an Op- portunity," one of the earliest of the Will M. Cressy efforts. The comedy is a good deal more highly colored than in his later efforts, but there is the familiar quiet touch of his style and the same skillful handling of situation that marks the Cressy-Dayne work. The Hungarian Boys' Band was shifted to the closing place, changing places with Spessardy's Bears. The all-boy organiza- tion works admirably for vaudeville pur- poses, keeping their selection of numbers close to the popular line and displaying some strong brass effects. The bears came close to outstaying their welcome. They got off with a hand, however, owing to a good comedy finish. The Quigley Brothers in "Election Day" use a quantity of first-rate political talk, all of it gauged to help along the char- acterization of an Irish ward boss, cleverly drawn by Bob Quigley. With the election only a week past the brothers appear to have remodelled their lines, working in not a few capital post-election gags. George W. Quigley handles the straight part neatly. Nora Bayes holds closely to her estab- lished act, winning out a good exit through KEENEY'S. The bill this week is injured by the lack of good entertainers working in "one." This causes the curious arrangement of two single acts of poor quality holding down fairly important positions, while the entertaining offering of Gussie Francis and company (New Acts), with five people and a special setting, open the bill. "The Geisha's Dream" is also seen for the first time. With a sketch offering no novelty at all and very little humor in text or situ- ation, John T. Kelly scores purely by reason of his own personality. The odd little mannerisms of speech and action come to his rescue and aid vastly in making "A Game of Con" pass muster as a laughing act. Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Barry do ex- ceedingly well with their amusing skit. The dialogue in the early part contains a good percentage of laughs, and the musical numbers are cleverly worked up through incidental business, particularly the exit following the final song. The bit of pantomime at the finish is well handled and lets the pair off to solid applause. Mrs. Barry is refreshing to look at and manages a difficult "feeding" part with not a little quiet skill. If there is any bit of worn quartet comedy that the Orpheus Four does not employ it has passed from memory. Even the makeup follows antiquarian lines and the merry seltzer syphon, slapstick and knockabout are compellingly in evidence. Madge P. Maitland allows herself to be- come confused in her dialects. She has an agreeable voice, but instead of using it for its proper purpose of "coon" singing, insists upon telling stories. One involving a "tough kid" runs the dialect gamut from newsboy to negro and back to Irish. She sings a "kid" song, too, that doesn't sound childlike. The "coon" numbers were the best. Harry J. Breen is a "comedian" only on the program. He opens with a medley of George M. Cohan numbers in which the original lyrics have been twisted into strained parodies. Some more parodies follow, all along the same lines of tortured humor, and for a closing number he uses the familiar "extemporaneous versifying" idea. There is no talk except a few side remarks, mostly addressed to the orchestra leader, which are about as spontaneous and laughable as a lirsi rehearsal of "King Lear." Van CU'w, Went worth and Pete close the bill. RIALTO ROUNDERS. "Known as Professor Bunk—9 parts bunk and 1 part professor" is the pro- gram description of Sam S. Howe, the leading member of the "Rialto Rounders." This would appear to account for Howe's makeup, leaving the auditor to use his own judgment as to how many parts of his constitution are to be credited to his abilities as a comedian. Most of the fun in the first part has to do with the ancient burlesque business of money changing. Rather an odd opening arrange- ment is shown, but the finale could be worked up to a more effective climax. Several good musical numbers were put over, notably a Spanish song led by Marie Beaugarde and a quartet involving Howe, Anna Meek, Lottie W T ren and Frank Kil- lion. Miss Beaugarde executed a few graceful undulations which suggested that she could if she wanted to do a sinuous Spanish dance to the Queen's taste. In the quartet number called "I Wonder if Dreams Come True" there is a splendid op- portunity for a topical song with unlim- ited incidental business and a dance or two. George Brandy and Lottie W'ilson open the olio with a neat dancing turn, ending well enough in a bit of whirlwind team work. They are followed by Howe with his Hebrew monologue. Howe opens his act with a parody instead of working up to it later.. He attempts two impersonations —that of Fagin from "Oliver Twist" and Dave Warfield in a serious scene from "The Music Master." The latter was by all odds the best thing he did, and not- withstanding the incongruity of such a proceeding in the midst of a comedy dialect monologue he compelled and held interest. The Fagin performance fell down lament- ably, and the audience displayed a dis- position to find food for amusement in the tragic prison scene from the Dickens novel. Without being in the suggestive class, some of Howe's talk is in questionable taste. Living pictures fiill a place in the olio, and Blanche Martin and Anna Meek do a short "sister" act with three songs, all of the popular order, with little or no danc ing. They wear striking costumes and their voices were ngreeable. The New York Harmony Four closed the vaudeville section. The balance of singing and comedy is well looked after, the grotesque telegraph boy making his part truly laughable without getting into roughness or knockabout. The three other members of the organization are dressing "straight" now and there is a bit more of the capital singing. ("The Rialto Rounders" wore reviewed in VARIETY of August 25, when known as "The Moonlight Maids.")