Variety (Feb 1906)

VARIETY Shows of the Week COLONIAL. Exceptionally strong is the bill at the Colonial this week, where one gets a lot • >f acts that would have been considered marvelous ten years ago, but which is only a little stronger than the average Wil- liams bill to-day. Henri De Yries (in his second week) packs them in, but later in the week Salerno made his influence felt. for he is a juggler of the first flight and manv of his tricks are startling. Nothing prettier than his juggling of the lamps, and his picture frame has not been spoiled by Chinko and others. He scored a real and deserved success. Mr. l)e Vital has not suffered in the process of cutting down for vaudeville purposes. Artistically the play is not quite so well rounded off. but the accelerated action more than com pensates. The holiday audiences were in- clined to be restless at the start, but be- fore the first ten minutes had passed even the gallery boys were interested and quiet. The Four Seasons (found in Xew Acts) made a showing, and Joe Welch found favor, as did the Four Lukens. Simon and Gardner, with their rough house, were just what the audience wanted, and the house was kept in a roar for twenty minutes. Mr. Simon has cut out his disclosures of underwear, to the de- cided improvement of those scenes. How- ard and North are up here from Ham- merstein's, but stand a second viewing well. There is real humor to their dia- logue, and their quick turn to pathos at the close is splendidly worked. The last episode is a gem in its way, and worthy the dramatic stage. Augusta Close shows a decided improvement over her earlier work. Her child song is sung with a close approximation of the real child voice, but she should extend her walk song. A simi- lar idea has served both Irene Franklin and Blanche Ring and Miss Close can get Very much more out of it with a little study. She would improve her act vastly by adding a song permitting a small dance. The three Leightons have a medley turn in which the feature is the dancing. This last is good; the rest little more than fair. TWENTY-THIRD STREET. Between Robert Fitzsimmons and Lin- coln's Birthday there was a. house ami a half at Proctor's downtown theatre Mon- day afternoon.- In addition to Fits and his "thrilling one-act melodrama," there was Radha (found in New Aets) and a bill of favorites. Riee and Prevoat made the hit of the show with their tumbling, but were compelled to spoil it by coming back and fooling in the front scene while an overburdened Btage manager made a set for Theresa Rent/. In spite of this, they did well, and some small new bits of pantomine pleased almost as much as the heavier work. Fitzsimmoni and his better half went through with the same per- formance they offered at the Fifty-eighth street, last week. Fitz, with his toupee, is one of the funniest juveniles on the stage to-day, but Mrs. Fitz is a better singer than actress, and is not much in advance of her husband. The bag punching was again the hit of the bill (no joke in- tended). Theresa Rents (a good old Ger man circus name) offered two horses of high school attainments. The use of the serpentine dress and slides is not to be commended. The riding is far more in- teresting, though the effect of the colors on the white horse is amusing. Cole and Johnson were not the hit they usually are. Their songs are not up to their stan- dard and they fare poorly. This is a pity, for they have a good act in other respects. Foy and Clark scored with their submarine sketch, though the need for dialogue away from the sidewalk con- versation type is still apparent. Apart from that they are far in advance of any of their earlier efforts. James Richmond Glenroy should be exiled to the ten-cent circuits until he gets rid of those epitaphs. They are more tiresome than ever and even the holiday audiences do not laugh heartily at them. The worst of it is that Hlenroy can be so much more clever when he tries. The Societv Relies suffered from ■r a lack of room at the opening, but got through in good shape, though one of the young women (who works on the left, or Sixth avenue side of the sta^e) was on strike Monday afternoon and neither sang nor danced. She may be a friend of the family, but she should be made to work. The Tobins did some good things in the musical line and Hubert De Veaux drew some pictures on black and white grounds. There were also the pictures. HURTIG & SEAMON'S. On paper the bill this week is one of the strongest of the season, but there are a couple of sagging spots that spoil the make-up. One of these is contributed by Ward and Curran, who are Working very badly in the early half of the act. Mr. Ward lacks his usual briskness, suffering apparently from a cold, and when the ex- pected laughs do not come he resorts to chats with doe Ali, the leader of the or- chestra. Ali helps him out, but the effect is slow and they do not make their im- pression until the encore. The Howard Riot hers contribute some good banjo play- ing as well as a display of banjo juggling that is not approached in any other act yet shown. In their straight work they would confer a favor upon all by forget- ting the "Poet and Feasant" overture. Ever since the "Miserere" was declared to be bad form, banjoists and others have divided their attention between this and the ' Tell'' overture. It has come to be an infliction and musicians who seek to demonstrate their abilitv should find ■r something new. There is a wealth of tuneful and not too difficult music they could get did they only take the trouble. The Howards owe it to their reputation to keep ahead of the rest. Carroll Johnson made a score with his antique recitation. His ait is interminably long. If he insists upon reciting he should cut out his last song, It would be better to cut out the recitation. In any event he should pur- chase a new hat at onee; his present head- gear has grown positively filthy. Cressv Mid Dayne scored here, though for some reason the house did not appear to catch many of the points and thereby lost much real fun. Some of the lines in this little satire are the cleverest to be put, on the vaudeville stage in a long time. It is really a treat to get an act like this v- casioually. The I.arsen Sister! do a siort act in which the lack of form is against their success. They make no direct ap- peal with a specialty, but divided their time between ground tumbling and the single bar. They should decide upon one or the other and, above all, they should change their style of dress. Higher necked dresses are necessary or the present bodices should be tilled in. Sidney Dean and his company have ''Christmas on Blackwell's Island," which is clever, though growing stale. Never saw cells in any prison numbered 14-13-15 except on this scenery. There are the pictures, of course, and two new acts found under that heading. IMPERIAL. There is both quantity and jyuality in the Grover offering at the Imperial this week. The Florenze troupe were the real headliners and they performed some cap- ital work in the matter of twisting somer- saults to two-highs and other simple little tricks of .similar sort. There are two and three tricks being shown at the same time In'cause of the large number of persons em- ployed. They would use their workers to better advantage did they delay the second and third trick* a trifle so that they would follow each other in rapid fire order. Then all would score instead of the approval l>eing divided among three groups. Len (irover, Jr., is reviving some old-time one- act farces with decided success, the cur- rent offering being "Little John L." fa- miliar to the (irover beach patrons and Which is funny enough to be taken over the circuits. Vira Rial, Amy Lee, Rowland Edwards and Cosmo Cholmondeley—the latter clearly an alias—all assist. William Cahill would do well to work out some new jokes. He has an excellent style but his talk is timeworn, though it goes well here where many new patrons are found to whom all things are blessedly new. Sey- mour and Dupree have their leaping and dancing act. The jumping is good though not plentiful. The dancing is but fair, Miss Dupree being too boisterous in the Dutch dance.. There was plenty of Dutch dancing on the' bill, for John Hyams and Leila Mclntyre do their encore in this fashion, which enables Mr. Hyams to score his only hit. The major portion of the credit goes to Miss Mclntyre for her child imitations, though these are not as clever as when she originally offered them in vaudeville. Zazel and Vernon have an act built up of old pantomime tricks that is as good as most of the imported stuff. Greater speed in working would not only permit the addition of some new tricks bur would greatly help those now in. The box- ing finish is a sad anticlimax. Bert Levy had his soot sketches here but has cut down the number of pet ores shown. Some small interest centers in the model and the trick employed to obtain the effect is not discovered here, which makes the act a good one. Cooper and Robinson won more than their share of the applause and most of the house stayed in to see the pic- tures. .1. H. Moore, of Rochester and Detroit, returned this week from Arizona, where he spent some time with E. W. Wiggins, Mr. Moore's brother in law. While there, ihe two invested in some promising prop* ertv called a theatre. By Chicot TONY PASTOR'S. The Five Mowatts are closing the bill at Pastor's this week with their whirl- wind club finish, but they still work a little too fast for absolute sureness. They could afford to slow down a trifle ami drop things less frequently. In any event it is a capital turn and draws the applause. The Fitsgibbon McCoy trio are still very much the same. With Max Rit- ter in the act the dancing is very much better looked after ami he lacks his pre- decessor's eternal freshness, but the act is old fashioned and pleases only those who still fancy the rough-house work. Matthews and Harris are still showing (Yessy's "Adam II," which is not as young as it once was. It should at least be freshened by the introduction of an oc- casional new joke, but even this is de- nied. There have been two new jokes put in it since the sketch was written and they ar% out of date themselves. Colby and Way score with the ventriloquism and the dancing doll feature, both of which are good. This is their last ap- pearance in America for a year or more and their reception was strong enough to send them away with pleasant memories. Ix>\v Hawkins was good when he sang, but tiresome and reminiscent when he talked, Gilday and Fox just escaped be- ing a hit. A little more care in the se- lection and delivery of their talk and they would command an excellent posi- tion. Just now they hurry their work and are not careful in their character- ization. Kmerson and Omega have their old familiar sketch and the Pryors show a musical turn. Alma Pryor is a clever dancer and sings coon songs well. She is apt to take her work too seriously but makes friends when she smiles. The banjo playing is their best feature. Ivy, Delmar and Ivy should exercise greater care in making their selections. Also the man should cut out the alleged joke over the dummy's head. Such things are in execrable taste. The three play well and with a little care in getting the right sort of music would establish themselves ;is favorites. The Three American Girls wear Spanish colors on their tambourines and otherwise emphasise their American- ism. They sing well but lack animation. They should move around in more lively fashion and they should stop telling jokes and singing topical songs at the audience, both of which get them disliked. If the verses were clever there would be another story to tell. The Two Seymours (re- duced to one i have a dog act. The dogs are very much more clever than their trainer. Mr. Seymour should cultivate a *taee presence and have some one edit his talk. Alice Jennings sings songs with illustration-, arid L Jerome Mora does magic not badly, Last Friday night at the Circle while the "amateurs'' were having their say, a girl with a misshapen voice commenced to §ing 'If a Girl lake You Loved a Hoy Like Me." The audience tried to hoot her off the stage, but the strains of the melodv had its effect, the whole audience » joining in the chorus. Field* '"ill Ward expeel to go to Lon- don in May. opening at the Pavilion.