Variety (Jan 1907)

10 VARIETY Shows of the Week - PASTOR'S, Fourteen acts that ran something less ihau three hours and a half kept the aver- age time below fifteen minutes ami things moviug more rapidly than usual. Monroe, Mack and Lawrence in Ned Monroe's farci- cal sketch "The Servant Girl (Juestion" had 'em laughing from post to finish with just the style of boisterous comedy the Pastorites enjoy. The three are established favorites on Fourteenth street and the dis- play of the names was followed by ap- plause. The Two Pucks do surprisingly well for a pair of juvenile dancers and singers, and their elders might take counsel from them as to dressing and stage deportment. The youngsters are well named and the sugges- tion of the. cherubic in their ugreeable round faces made friends instantly. A "tough" number at the end gave a good finish and the excellent singing and dancing of the pair made theirs an entertaining feature. The Chad wick Trio in their new sketch "For Sale—Wiggins' Farm" were prime favorites. The sketch gives scope to the specialties of Ida May Chadwick and her father. The dialogue of the sketch is bright enough to carry itself. Miss Chad- wick is one of the best young clog and ec- centric dancers and the dancing finish let the pair off the stage to good applause. Ascott and Eddie did nicely with their comedy act. Mr. Eddie was funny for the most part in his clowning, and his partner, beside serving as a sort of assistant, per- formed a graceful toe dance and helped out immensely by her attractive stage appear- ance and tasteful gown. A backflip in which the head was used instead of the hands was featured and won gasping ap- plause. Jeanne Ardell and her "Inky Dinks" fol- low the style employed by several other women using "pick" acts. The difference is that one of the boys plays a trombone rather poorly, while the other two beat drums. There was lots of noise and danc- ing action and it was unmistakably liked. Nellie Revell told storks, of which sev- eral were old, but all gained laughs. Coo- gan and Bancroft did good straight roller skating and comedy falls and the Four Masons gave their schoolroom sketch un- changed. Bouman Brothers displayed some new talk in their conversational act, the work of the blackface man being the strength of the offering. Among the early acts were Mr. and Mrs. Buckley, a musical pair. False notes were frequent. Mrs. Buckley plays a "solo- phone." Either the instrument, the bow or Mrs. Buckley needs attention. Prob- ably nothing worse is wrong than the need of some rosin on the bow. The dressing is neat throughout. The Five Nightingales are not songbirds by long odds. Individually their voices may pass, but in the ensemble numbers they make of themselves a company of solo- ists, each following her own sweet will. The result is fearsome beyond description. A female baritone made such a show of labor of her singing that she served as the comedy feature of the act. Redo'l and Hadley scored through the singing of Mae Hadley and a mechanical figure specially by Charles Reded. The CHERRY BLOSSOMS. The women principals of Butler, Jacobs & Lowrie's "Cherry Blossoms" at the Dewey this week supply the entertainment, the nieu for the most part being employed in the subordinate business of tilling in the gups necessary for costume changes, which are extraordinarily frequent and elaborate —particularly elaborate. In their desire to make the dressing ornate the women run very much to span- gles. This was very well when the "shin- ers" were put on skillfully, but in several cases they were used without judgment. Lillie Walsh wore a pretty frock of black and white on which spangles were used with taste, but shortly after Cora White appeared in a cloak, pretty in itself, but made hideous by a thick covering of spar- klers resembling Christmas tree contrap- tions in the violence of their coloring and brilliancy of sheen. Both girls had agreeable voices and did well with their numbers, which were backed up by the well-dressed chorus, one of the best working organizations seen hereabouts in some weeks. Tom Nolan made his role agreeable and John Perry in a tramp part got not a little amusement out of the opening piece "The Wrong Count Tobasco." His song "The City of Booze" was one of the hits of the piece. Joseph Bryson had an inconsequen- tial part and Joseph Ward figured in the proceedings in the familiar sort of German dialect role. None of the men stood out prominent in the comedy, in which the whole offering is conspicuously lacking, making its appeal with the singing, dress- ing and chorus work. Lillie Perry, who had been prominent in the earlier musical numbers, opened the olio with a soubrette singing act, made at- tractive by her good "coon" voice and pleasant stage presence. She wore span- gles, too, thereby severely injuring the effect of a pretty gown trimmed with bro- cade. A furious dance incidental to "Bill Simmons" gave her an excellent finish. Loro and Payne have some first-rate new ideas in their comedy acrobatic act. The straight man, wearing a bellboy's uniform, is a splendid ground tumbler, while the comedian, working in blackface, has a number of excellent feats that seem to be original with him. They have a new trick in which they start off stage close together < and halfway do a "rollover" across the table. Frank Ross has the usual Hebrew dia- lect act with a fair lot of parodies, several of which have been employed pretty gener- ously, and Nolan and White made their sketch "Looking for a Record" amusing. The Manhassett Comedy Four (Harry Shepell, Jos. Bryson, Joe Ward and Arthur Putnam) have little of originality to offer in quartet work. Some of their ideas are the same as used by the Orpheus Comedy Four. Putnam has an excellent bass voice and the singing numbers were enjoyable. There are places where the talk approaches the danger line of suggestive- noss, but in the average the show would be put down as a "clean*' one. - By Rush FAMILY. Twenty-three people are involved in an unusually heavy bill provided for Harlem's East Side during New Year's week. Ernest Uogau's "Twelve Blackbird?" (renamed "The Twelve Unbleached Americans") hold forth as headliners. The sketch which gives the structure for their clowning, called "A Colored Picnic," remains uu- changed, the feature being the dancing of one of the girls, the comedy of the "Mammy" and the ensemble singing. For Family Theatre purposes the "roughhouse" finish is perhaps effective, but discriminat- ing audiences would hardly be inclined »o find amusement in it. The dressing, par- ticularly of the girls, is as untidy as ever. The Alabama Comedy Four, another colored troupe, opened the show. They show wisdom in subordinating the comedy to the excellent singing. The four men have splendid voices—just such round, full tones as are perfectly adapted to the sing- ing of Southern melodies—and the boys would do well to use as many plantation songs as possible in their program. Some one also should draw them gently aside and instruct them in the dressing depart- ment, Such information, for example, as the fact that the four-in-hand tie is not an accepted adjunct of the Tuxedo coat might be of value. Hallen and Hayes get away fairly with a dancing, singing and conversation act. The straight man has the right idea of dressing and does a splendid dance at the finish, but his manner during the dialogue is a bit crude. Mr. and Mrs. John H. Cossar have an entertaining comedy sketch called "Our Honeymoon," used, so the program says, by arrangement with John C. Rice and Sally Cohen. The opening drags a bit and the conversation of the woman through the telephone is needlessly extended. When the preliminaries of the plot have been ex- plained, however, the action moves forward rapidly and to the accompaniment of solid laughs. Mr. Cossar as the sporty husband handles bis end of the complications with not a little skill, while his wife as the bride makes something more than a mere feeder of her quiet part. Both are clever enough to secure laughs without resorting to noise or horseplay. Ren tf row and J an sen's sketch "The Second Mr. Fiddle" contains a rather wild farce idea and makes its chief appeal to the upper part of the house, ^n the absence of singing and dancing and any perceptible plot to sustain interest the sketch rather bores, although the man of the combination shows promise as a comedian and were he provided with a proper vehicle might rise above an average rating. Marie Russell works in a variation on the everlasting illustrated song act, singing her first number in a drawing room setting arranged appropriately for the number "Sitting in the Chimney Comer." The spotlight is used here to good effect. The other numbers were delivered in the ortho- dox fashion. latter particularly won them a cordial re- ception. LaVine and Alma. Awmann, nov- elty acrobat, and Nye and Boylan were also on the bill. Luigi Stoppani, a clarinet player with Gennaro's band, was stricken with heart disease -while playing at the Harlem Opera House Sunday night and fainted. Sig. Gennaro caught up the instrument and finished the solo. UNION SQUARE. There are the usual short overtures by the orchestra during the Keith bill this week to fill in dismal pauses while the stage is set. It seems difficult for the Fourteenth street house to get a proper arrangement of acts working or closing in "one" long enough to give the stage hands time to complete the settings. LaMaze Brothers were shifted out of town at the last minute, and although they were billed, Rae and Benedetto filled their place. Edwin Stevens and company (New Acts) is another to duplicate an offering successfully shown at opposition houses. Bellong Brothers, bicycle and acrobatic act, are also under New Acts. George Evans is in his fourth week here. For the regular patrons of the es- tablishment his talk must be a trifle tire home at times, although at the beginning he is using a certain amount of new talk touching upon racetrack victims and "suckers" in general. Toward the end, however, he goes back to the old mono- logue. It was apparent, however, that the extended engagement has been something of a success, for the audience was loth to let the blackface comedian go. Mansfield and W T ilbur were excellently placed and proved an entertaining number in "01 Prospect Street." The late George B. Emerick, who wrote the comedy play- let, skillfully surmounted the difficulty of having two characters played by the same person, and Caryl Wilbur manages his quick changes with cleverness. Such fre- quent changes, with the gaps left to he entertainingly occupied, is a rather dan- gerous arrangement for vaudeville sketches, but the pair get away with it very well. Sidney Deane and company, with the singing sketch "A Christmas on Black- well's Island," pleased the audience suffi- ciently to make possible a fortunate solo in one for Mr. Deane. Why it should be a solo is not plain when the trio numbers are so agreeably done. George Rolland has a splendid comedy method and the proph- ecy that ho will be working at the head of his own act at no distant date seems a safe one. Mathews and Ashley scored with their burlesque "dope" dream phantasies and parodies in "A Smash-up in Chinatown." This pair have worked pretty steadily for some time and the special drop is begin- ning to show signs of wear. Gorman and West were better in their singing numbers. Some of the comedy was worth the laughs it got, but much more of it was a bit passe" both in matter and theme. The close in one gave oppor- tunity for a good duet and an easy dance that made a good impression. Rae and Benedetto in a ladder act work rapidly and the contortion of the straight man gave variety to the routine. Mile. Nadji made a pretty picture, but some of her feats involved her in ungraceful pos- tures. Nessen, Hunter and Nessen, club jug- glers; Tyson and Brown, comedy roller skaters; the Musical Reeds and Arthur Fisher were the others. Bonita in "Wine, Woman and Song"' is working in whiteface this week during her olio specialty for the first time in six yean.