Variety (Dec 1905)

VARIETY. - - BO GMOOt HURTIG AND SEAMON'S. This has been opera week at Hurtig and Seamon'8, for from the rising of the curtain to the going down thereof there is nothing but opera. Even Mark Mur- phy takes a fall—and a funny one—out of the operatic end. His sketch is one of the best things on the bill; not that it is a well considered offering or that it possesses novelty, but because it is one of those old fashioned things audi- ences like to laugh at, and because it is briskly and carefully played. Edgar Allen, Emile La Croix and Lillian May Ttfuller are seen to advantage in a one act playlet spoiled by exaggeration. Mr. La Croix could be as funny and play his part straight. As it stands the two men offer frank burlesque where comedy would be better appreciated. Some clever fencing is the reason for the sketch, but they require a deal of time to work up to this climax, and a good part of the time is wasted in a raw ap- peal to patriotism. Waving the Amer- ican flag for kind applause purposes is all very well in its way, but something more than this is required and these actors can give it. The Otto Brothers should seek a stage manager of skill. They have some good talk and some funny ideas, but the jokes partly fail through lack of proper accentuation and the construction is loose. One of the men has a splendid falsetto which has all the greater effect upon the audiences because he does not spoil it by nauseat- ing effeminacy. This fact alone is de- serving the highest praise, but there are other points in their favor. World and Kingston finish better than they start. At the opening they are tiresome and stale, but their operatic finish is good both as to singing and idea. Mr. World should give greater care to his make up and should get a new comic song at once. At best his single offering was not good. Now it is worse because so old. Sabel Johnson made a hit with some good singing and then won an- other encore with the hackneyed medley of Southern and patriotic airs. It is funny to see persons who probably were never further South than Newark fran- tically applauding "Dixie." The Martin Brothers use xylophones with resonator attachments. They have a poor selec- tion of music, but do not play badly. J. Aldrich Libbey and Katherine Trayer have Libbey's idea of an act. Mr. Lib- bey should have his idea repaired. They sing only one verse of each song so that they may sing four instead of two, and so please a greater number of publish- ers, and they wind up with an operatic number that is excruciatingly funny through Mr. Libbey's ponderous and ex- plosive phrasing. He takes himself very seriously, but he is really a musi- cal joke. The pictures show how fatal it is to flirt with a traveling artist. The heroine is driven from home three times and in between is evicted and has her sewing machine taken by the instalment ■ collector. She is a much persecuted lady. TONY PASTOR'S. Harris and Harris top the Pastor bill this week, but there are lots of others whose names are enough to offset the dreaded "week before." Harris and Harris used to be Harris and Walters before Nellie Walters grew tired of act- ing and Harris put his niece in. They are still doing the Lamppost Inspector act, though it appears under an alias, and they are still getting away with it. Adamini and Taylor mix Venice and West Twenty-eighth street in a singing specialty. Mr. Adamini should seek to correct those vocal faults which suggest that he has a hare lip, though he hasn't. The singers scored a hit, but if they want to pay for carrying scenery around they should get a good cloth. Venice under a green sky more nearly suggests Ireland. The Pantzer Trio are about the last of the old line contortionists to hold a place on the better class bills. They succeed because the act is always neatly dressed and the grotesque pos- turings fall to the lot of the man. It is a capital act and pleased accordingly. George B. Alexander working alone fares as well as when he had a partner, but the act has lost in appeal. He is singing a number of English comic songs which are appreciated, though they pos- sess no particular merit. Mills and Mor- ris are pretty much the same and have not yet learned to keep together when they are singing. Dan J. Harrington is not keeping up with the other ventrilo- quists. His dummies are positively shabby and his jokes are as worn. The Amphion Four were made the second feature, though there were plenty who were better. They have a mixture which starts out as a skit and winds up as a dancing act. It will be a long time be- fore they have it right. It lacks finish, idea and novelty at present. Gus Leon- ard has ideas in plenty. He does bur- lesque magic while pretending to take himself seriously, and it is only occa- sionally that he spoils the effect by smil- ing. A little clearer dialect, the avoid- ance of repetition in his jokes and a trifle better grade of work would land him in the higher ranks in a short time. It will be worth his while to work on the idea steadily. His best thing is a trom- bone which gradually falls apart as he plays. The Arberg Sisters are a couple of youngsters who do some dancing and acrobatic work and do not sing, Heaven bless 'em! They just keep working un- til they are through and then they go home. Their first dresses are crude, but their sailor suits for the acrobatic work are worth copying. Kimball and Dono- van play the banjo pleasantly, though not brilliantly, and the De Macos have a ring acU'that is good because it is neat and attractive. It is not a big act. Allen and Dalton offer a musical specialty with borrowed jokes. They are not worth borrowing at that. Their selections are not well played, but they get through be- cause they are able to make friends with the house. Pictures, of course, at both ends. MINER'S BOWERY. Frankly profane is the show at Miner's Bowery this week, the same be- ing called the Fay Foster Company. Louie Dacre, George McFarland and Bert Herbert are the principal offenders, and when they find that "damn" fails lo gain laughs they throw in a couple of "hells" to liven up the jaded tastes of their applauders. It is not a pleasant thing to hear a woman swear under any circumstances. Miss Dacre seems to find it necessary. When she and the comedians are not swearing, the two men are making improper suggestions to her through very plain inuendo. This week they swear only in the afterpiece —because the first part has been cut out to make room for the fight pictures. That seems to be the only reason. The dressing of thejchorus in this burlesque is better than the average, though the stage is so poorly lighted with a single calcium during the big numbers that they can hardly be seen. It is foolish to try and light a stage with one small spot light. It would be better to have the lights full on. The dialogue is not at all good; there is little real humor, and the people loaf through their work with the exception of Tom Welch, who plays a tough part in better form than one usually finds in these companies. He patterns largely after Junie McCree. Alma Vivian did well with a soubrette role, but the opportunity was small. The rest were profane and unfunny. Miss Vivian has some baritone solos at the start of the sadness. She is so busy keeping her voice down in the cel- lar that she pays little attention to her enunciation, and speaks of "Hosannah in the hi-yest" in painful fashion. Cush- man and St. Clair waste some time with some talk and song, and just as you fancy that they are going to get to work, they go off and the curtain falls. Perhaps it is as well, but it is some- thing of a shock. Herbert and Willing do a blackface act that pleases, though it is stale in its talk, and Keno. Welsh and Melrose have an acrobatic work with some splendid tumbling. There is some comedy that is not good, but that is to be expected. The fight pic- tures of the Nelson-Britt contest hold the audience. They show both the rounds and the waits, and take it right through to the knockour. It filled the house the other afternoon Getter than most attractions could, and while there is a lack of action in the early rounds, the boys warm up- after a while and commence to slug, to the delight of the gallery. If the show could be cleaned up it would be a good one. The girls are far more attractive than the aver- age. CORRECTION. Through nil error, the performance n( the Dewey Tlien(re In Innt hpcIi'i Variety \\nm creilHed to (he Tljcer i iii 4-m. The Jersey Lille* were n( (lie Dewey, (he Titfer LI lien heiiiK »iii Went. "CORKS" ON GIRL ACTS. "Two for me," pleaded the Human Corkscrew as he took his place at the tabic and reached for the nearest full seidl. "I've.been seeing girl acts." "Is that worse than seeing snakes?" asked one of the "push." "Huh," retorted Corks, "I guess a fel- low what does a contortion act in a snake dress in a Garden of Eden scene with a real Eve what sings 'Under the Old Apple Tree' in a soprano voice and a picture suit ain't likely to be scared of the sort of snakes you mean. Girl acts are a lot worse and there's more of 'em. "Every time the spear carrier on the Telegraph gets stuck tor something to write about for Sunday and tells 'em'all over again how new acts are needed, some chap gets a half dozen girls and tells 'em all he remembers of what Ned Weyburn remembers of the early days. Then he has their pictures taken and it's an act. "The trouble with most of 'em is that it's the same old act over again. You can't tell whether you've seen It before or not because you have even though you haven't. "I don't know where Ned got his ideas in the first place, but they are all about the same, and the rest follow along until you get the idea that some one hired a whole orphan asylum and taught all the Kiiis at once. There's the same stamping, the same hand-clapping and all that, and except for the name and the costumes, one act is the same as the other whether Weyburn or Gertie Hoff- man or some one else put 'em on. They can't pay the girls a fair salary and make a profit out of 'em, because a man- . ager wont pay enough, and so they do the best they can, and the best they can is rotten. "After two years in a Mexican Jail because my real Eve wore a picture suit ar»d the posters didn't say so, most any girl would look lovely to me, but I've seen the Minstrel Misses and the Shel- ties and lots of the rest, and I'm still waiting to see a good looking girl in any of the bunches. "They've got one girl in the Minstrels that's so thin you can't see her legs when she walks. She may be a good hard worker, but there was a time that they tried to get good lookers for 'big' acts. Now any old thing will do if you've got nerve and a pull with Billy Morris or the Association. "I'd rather see a good looking sister team than fight homely hens, but sister !<ams ain't fashionable now—they're too suggestive of the Dewey—so they have to get this sort of thing. Most of the time I think we get it in the neck. Another seidl," please," and Corks de- voted himself to the cup which beers. Abie Mitchell, who was with Hogan on Hammerstein'8 roof last season, ap- p< ais to have made a hit at the Palace, London, with the same act as was shown here. Genaro and Bailey are shortly to pro- duce a new act. It will be more am- bitious than their present offering. Imro Fox has been engaged for a Christmas pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. Alexandra Dagmar is at tin; Empire, Hackney, just at present. It has been a long time since she was here last, but she is as popular as ever abroad. Crimmins and (lore are making a hit in Australia with their old "What are the Wild Waves Saying?" specialty.