Variety (September 1907)

12 VARIETY HAMMERSTEIN'S. The need of the ▼krlniia bills for a larger list of acts working in "one" be- comes more and more apparent. At Ham- merstein's this week it compelled a re- arrangement of the program which had four full-stage acts running in succession. Even with the new placing to help 'out, there were two occasions on which the or- chestra played overtures while the scenes were struck and the stage reset. Eva Tanguay is the headliner with a partly new act. The costuming is en- tirely new, but shows no improvement over the old wardrobe. The two first songs are likewise unfamiliar. The open- ing number is called "'Nothing Bothers Me." It ia a revised edition of "I Don't Care." The changes either in lyrics or music are not radical, but the revision does not by any means improve the num- ber. "Does It Pay?" the second number, is well written and went nicely. Miss Tanguay was easily the hit of the show, singing five songs and the applause at the end lasted three minutes. Herbert Lloyd deserved a better position than second. His business is to make au- diences laugh, and he accomplishes this end with conspicuous success. Lloyd's act is probably the product of long study, and a vast amount of ingenuity. Something happens every minute, and all of his ridic- ulous clowning is original. He made a splendid laughing number on a good com- edy bill. Genaro and Bailey are using "Tony the Bootblack," a sketch which has nothing of real value to offer and only hampers the real ability of the pair as dancers and singers. The plot of the sketch is painfully light and inconsequential, and does not entertain until Dave Gennaro gets into his straight part, and the pro- eeedings turn into the old Genaro and Bailey specialty. From there the number went merrily along as of old, finishing to solid applause. Harry Bulger with his parodies was moved up to "No. 4" from a later posi- tion, to supply an act in "one," which was reeded in that section of the show. A new song with a capital topical twist is offered on the subject of "Dr. Munyon," with allusion to "affinities" and other items of timely interest. It was helped along Monday night by the fact that the original "There is hope" expert himself occupied a stage box, and the house was 'wise" to his presence. The Five English Madcaps followed the intermission, changing places with Bulger. They make up a gingery quintet of acro- batic dancers, and deliver twelve minutes of swift and graceful action. The English girls are as hard working a lot of "ponies" ns has been seen hereabouts lately and the Victoria audience liked them immensely. It is to be hoped they will soon have saved enough money to supply themselves with silk stockings. The Exposition Four command a posi- tion well toward the top in their class. The comedy values are a bit light, but the straight musical quality of the num- ber is excellent. It seems at times as though the quartet might substitute some- thing more modern for the bamboo chimes, which play so prominent a part in the act. Cressy and Dayne and Sam Watson's Farmyard were the others; together with FrejJ, Jarvis and Lily Tudor (New Acta). Ruth. NEW YORK. The New York's bill is pronounced "great" by the audience this week. After fairly started, the show ran off finely on Monday night, to a great big finish which included Vesta Victoria, the hit of the program, (New Acts), followed by the Okabe Japanese Troupe, which did not suffer in applause from the closing posi- tion, and a sensational moving picture held the house until 11:20. In the first half, Clifton Crawford scored the hardest, being second to Miss Victoria in favor. The show opened with Newhold and Carroll on the parallel bars, with a neat introduction of their own. This, and the novelty of the apparatus on the stage carried them through. No startlinjr acrobatics developed, but those seen were probably new to nine-tenths of the audience. With their string instruments, the De Faye Sisters, after holding up the stage in the "No. 2" t position to permit of the new special %et now carried in "two" be- ing placed, gave their full act whereas they should have closed in "one" on the second number. The act is not a heavy one, and the full routine, including a mis- taken "Gibson Girl" impersonation, ne- cessitated another wait for the change of costume. The setting shows large cham- pagne goblets on which the.girls are seated and the finale occurs when they reseat themselves on the brim, falling into the <-ups. which revolve. "The sketch" at the New York is being tried out by Maud Hall-Macy and Com- pany in "The Magpie and the Jay." A comedy sketch, with the fun sufficiently pronounced, will please in this theatre as it will in any other. Miss Hall-Macy is demonstrating this, and obtaining the re- sult through her slang, sometimes deliv- ered smoothly as it is written, but often sounding forced, as it is also writ- ten. Mr. Crawford returns with new dia- logue and verse, retaining the Kipling ami "sneezing" portions of the former act. His matter is all bright, and well deliv- ered, he scoring decidedly from the outset. When announcing a song, Mr. Crawford said it was to "enable a young man to earn an honest living, and anyone now- adays ought to succeed in that; there is so very little competition." Ida Fuller, with her spectacular creation holds over, closing the first part, and Mile. Lucile Mlurger, another holdover, opened the second part. Mile. Murger should locate Fougere. and the two might do a "sister" act if a manager could be found who would give an engagement. Murger has discarded her half-and-half dress, wearing a soubrette costume split up the side, as Mile. Murger evidently believes her art to be appreciated must not be screened. The comedy juggling of W. C. Fields was enjoyed, although Mr. Fields seems to make more misses at the New York than elsewhere, and the Japanese group of seven, including two remarkably youthful contortionists and acrobats, lay rightful claim to the best Jap acrobatic act over here. One of the hand-balancers, and he is the best in his class, makes a full whirl around while on his hands, and there ore any number of striking feats, not the least being 37 consecutive hand-springs by a boy over the body of another on a small platform-. The moving picture wind- ing up the show is under New Acts. Sime. COLONIAL. Millie Lindon, an English importation (New Acts), was jumped to the deadline position from an inferior place in the bill- ing Monday night on the strength of her showing at tjie matinee and her name re- placed those of the Fadettes of Boston and Master Gabriel in the electrics over the Broadway entrance. The Fadettes are all to the Bostonese, both as to their sedate bearing and ap- pearance, and the sort of music they pro- duce. As coming from the burg where the leadership of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is a much livelier issue than the possibility of Roosevelt's being forced into a third term, they have a reputation to sustain and they go about sustaining it in workmanlike style. Caroline Nichols, the leader, is a personage. £he looks Bos- ton, nice, agreeable Boston, and despite her rotundity of figure she makes a pe- culiarly attractive leader, with a round, placid face and short, prematurely gray hair. Also when Miss Nichols, of Boston, turned around to her New York audience during the playing of the national anthem and bade them rise with a regal gesture, that New York audience obeyed as meekly as it ordinarily does to the hoarse com- mands of a "step lively" street car conduc- tor. The music of the score or so of nice- looking girls was thoroughly enjoyed. May Tully returns to us after a trans- continental trip with her entertaining sketch "Stop, Look and Listen." Neither Miss Tully nor her vehicle has been im- proved in the interval. The principal seems to lack her old quietness of method and the strain of steady work appears to have cost her voice something of its de- lightful oualitv and resonance. She has lost none of her fire, however, and the bit of tall acting she does is still a fine exam- ple of convincing dramatic work, and won her a sincere burst of applause. Jane Gil- bert seems to be a newcomer in the cast, but Frank Robinson is the original "Rube.*' Mignonette Kokin is a neat dancer and does better with numbers of a soubrettish sort. Her second number fell flat and the talking and singing of the first number did not go particularly well. The dancing saved her, however, and made hers a neat early number. Redford and Winchester opened the show with their comedy juggling. The straight member is working with a good deal more skill than formerly, handling seven balls without a slip and working through his whole routine with perfect smoothness. The comedy goes nicely and has a large degree of novelty. Foster and Foster likewise get away from the familiar routine of tinging and tiilking acts. The two men are agreeable singers and they contributed a good com- edy value to the bill with an excellently worked up close in one. Smith and Campbell have a whole new line of talk. It is significant as indicat- ing a change in popular taste that, whereas the pair used to get a good deal of their most effective material out of horseplay, they now seem to have found that they do better with a quieter brand of humor. The new material is an im- provement over anything they have yet had to offer, and that is saying a good deal for th<»m. The points follow each other with thi? speed of a moving picture reel, and th<»re is not a superfluous line in the whole fo the dialogue. Gilletti's Monkeys. Rush. ALHAMBRA The AI ha rubra this week must be con- sidering the weather, for fun predomi- nates on the bill. Two comedy sketches, with a monologue between, are on the program and billing as features. Other than the laughing acts, the bill contains good vaudeville in McMahon's "Minstrel Maids" and Sie Hassan Ben Ali's Arabs. These are placed in the second half, with another good comedy turn in "one" sep- arating them. Alburtus and Altns (New Acts) are starting the show, while Valadon (New Acts) opens after the intermission. Bea- trice Lindley occupies the "No. 2" place, and after her appearance, the audience commences to laugh, with few breaks thereafter. The orchestra this week is acting as 1 "plugger" for the near-by bars at intermission, playing an overture re- sembling a cross between a wedding and a funeral march. Miss Lindley is remaining on the stage eight minutes now, four minutes too long it she must be there at all. Placing the piano in "one" might help her act as well as the stage manager if the piano were situated so the right side of the house could see her. Virginia Earl has made a number of changes in "A Midnight Mistake," for which Will M. Cressy receives credit. Up until towards the close, the sketch has not been improved, but there is a finish now through fast work and singing en- joyed by the audience, bringing several curtains. Miss Earl is giving a good per- formance. Charles E. Evans and Company scored solidly with the Geo. Arliss farce "It's Cp to You, William." For vaudeville this is an excellently written sketch. spoiled now in the opening by the'women, particularly Jessie Bradford as Mrs. Law- scn. Both are much better when the men are on the stage, and the early part of the act ought to receive attention, either fiom the author or the principal. A new scheme for the orchestra to play in his act, literally and figuratively, has been evolved by Marshall P. Wilder, who is telling a few new jokes in his routine, among them being the long Chinese an- swer to a simple question requiring a reply of one or two words. Mr. Wilder interprets the lingo as saying "yellow dog." Leo Carrillo, who told the story first, says "No." Perhaps Mr. Wilder is not aware of Mr. Carrillo's priority. Charles F. Semon was the other monol- ogist, of the musical sort, placed far down and in a hard position following a 'girl act," but he was very well liked, and the Arabs gave the acrobatic finish in their usual way, the tumbling gaining a hearty recall. The "girl act" is McMahon's, with Charles Shrode now the\manager. Alice Shrode is the interlocutor. The act is go- ing fust aa well as it ever did, and there are no changes in it, excepting those men- tioned, and possibly a couple of girls, but that is not noticeable. A selection called "Rag Time Ball" is sung by the Misses Haney and Cassidy, the "ends," replacing "Tallahassee," and a better song could be secured. Miss Shrode sang "I'm Only Living For You" on Tuesday evening. Her voice does not seem strong enough for it. Mr. Shrode ought to coach the "end" who reads the letter to be just a little more natural and funny. Sime.