Variety (April 1912)

14 VARIETY NEW ACTS NEXT WEEK Initial Presentation, First Appearance or Reappearance In or Around New York Wilton Lackaye and Co., Hammer- stein's. Hriwurd Abeles and Co. (New Act). Fifth Ave. Fanny llrioe, Hammerstein's. K. A. G. Trio, Hammersteln's. Annie Kent, Hammersteln's. Four Coles, Hammersteln's. Graham Moffat Players (5). ••The Concealed lied*' (Comedy). 30 Mins.; Full Stage (Interior; Special Set). Palace, Chicago. "The Concealed Bed" (by the au- thor of the famous "Bunty") Is a Scotch comedy with an original and interesting little theme that will de- pend principally upon its author's re- putation to win out. It rolls in a spattering of rich Glasgow dialect that is bound to amuse, regardless of the lines, and it carries a true-to-life picture bound to interest. In addition to this it tells a natural little story that looks awfully simple, yet carries a good grip. Some of the speeches stood out because they were imme- diately recognized as characteristic of the Scot. The characters were a bit out of the beaten path, yet every on* of the quintet was a living possibility. The story, thrown in the parlor of a Scotch family, tells of a love affair between the lad and lassie. The girl and her mother are away out of town somewhere, and the lassie's brother, a mischievous youngster, and her sweetheart (who had promised her faithfully to join the Teetotalers) have just completed a big night with the barleycorn and ale. The brother is seen dressing when the curtain arises. The room is littered with empty bottles and other rubbish. The visitor is asleep in the concealed bed, concealed by way of being built in a sort of closet directly off the par- lor. Before he can leave, the mother and daughter return, discovering what is going on. From then up to tn* finish a series of slow farcical situa- tions are introduced. Finally the laddie is discovered by his sweetheart, and after a little scene is forgiven. During the action a comedy relief character is introduced in a gossiping neighbor, who looks more like a funny valentine than a human being. Her chief delight is to run down the char- acter of everyone in the tenement. Finally she is evicted and peace is restored. In "The Concealed Bed'* the comedy situations do not seem pointed enough. The skit slows up in spots and runs behind. The Injection of a little action would improve this. Acted by a company of Scotch players, the characters were all well handled, the best work being done by Andrew Clyde as the son. "The Concealed Bed" will amuse the average vaude- ville audience because it is a sort of novelty as a sketch, but it could hard- ly stand a return date. At the Palace ft went over fairly well. Wynn, Mountain Ash Male Choir (18). Singing. 26 Mlns.; Full Stage (Interior). Palace, Chicago. The Mountain Ash Male Choir is one of those strange, reasonless things that occasionally bob up in vaudeville, and after sputtering around for a tem- porary spell, suddenly disappear. It doesn't come under the classification of a "freak" act, but there is nothing discernible that warrants its perma- nent layover in American vaudeville. It carries, of course, a few redeem- ing features, principally in the ensem- ble singing, and 'tis true, the voices, both individually and collectively, are strong and musical, but beyond that there is nothing in sight to advocate its presence as a "big time" head- liner. This particular organization consists of a score of men who wear, or at least try to wear, evening clothes gracefully, but 'tis quite evident they were trained by a master whose ideas of staging a vaudeville offering are decidedly limited. The stage appear- ance is bad, the arrangement is still worse, and the men look anything but picturesque. Still the singing offsets the many handicaps, at least suffi- ciently enough to allow them to pass nicely. The choir is made up of many- sized men whose ages probably range from twenty-five to fifty. The direc- tor stands on the stage with his back to the audience while leading the numbers. A position in the orches- tra pit would be far more becoming, although it would dispense with his several entrances, exits and bows. The men are grouped about the stage dur- ing the numbers, occasionally herding together quartet-like to bolster up a chorus. The best of Monday evening's repertoire was the sadly overworked but still favorite bass solo 1 , "Asleep in the Deep," sung by Godfrey Price. A tenor member rendered "Silver Threads" also, going quite well, and the finish, in which the entire choir participated, "Gypsies' Laughing Chorus," brought them back to en- core with the Welch war song. This choir can sing, and do. Any church outfit can do the same thing, and probably would, if properly coaxed. The Mountain Ash Male Choir will probably make a hit anywhere where good singing is appreciated, but they could only do it once. And to those who continually advocate the importa- tion of lyceum acts into our best vaudeville circles, they give a splendid opportunity for the stereotyped "up- lift" sermon, but conservatively ex- amined as a staple act, they cannot but appear as a crude organization of excellent singers, badly trained for the two-a-days. And in this heyday of American novelties something besides vocal ability Is expected. The Moun- tain Ash Male Choir hasn't got it. They came from Wales, especially im- ported. W'ynn. Stane's Circus. 12 Mins.; Full Stage. City. An act of the calibre shown by Cliff Berzac and others with trained ponies, unridable mule and the re- volving table. Stane will give satis- faction where others haven't beaten him to it. Mark. Arthur Hopkins Co. (7). •'Hazel Weston Or 'More Sinned Against Than Usual* ". 45 Mlns.; Full Stage (Special Set.) Fifth Avenue. "Myrtle Clayton or Wrong from the Start" is among the "mellerdram- mers" Everett Shinn has written. Mr. Shinn authored "Hazel Weston." It's a very cleverly concocted travesty upon the conventional melodrama. As produced for vaudeville by Arthur Hopkins, "Hazel" is a rare find. On a miniature stage, four scenes are pre- sented, with seven principal charac- ters. In casting this satire, Mr. Hop- kins nearly located the only fault. "Hazel Weston" is possibly so well played some of the travesty may be lost, according to the audience it plays before, but the sharpness of it all without undue broadness in action or dialog can not fail to get over the footlights in the most rural of com- munities. A most delicious bit is the accessory to the villain, music—in this instance carried by the villain in the person of a violinist, who plays tremolo as the fierce man pants, and staccato when he rants. The violinist is a crafty person as well. He man- ages to keep out of everyone's way, though quickly moving about does not interefere with his playing. Later he developed into Frank Whitman, the Dancing Violinist, and as such, took a large part in the finish of the piece that was no doubt inserted by Mr. Hopkins for a lively climax to a laughable forty-five minutes. Not the least enjoyable were the "illustrated songs," sung by Dick Lynch, who played the sheriff. (Mr. Lynch was a "Rube single" in vaudeville). His songs were let loose between acts. This smoothed over the brief waits amusingly, for Mr. Lynch sung of "She Sleeps by the Erie Canal," and "She Went to Work on her Wedding Morn" among others. Ludicrous sketches on the sheet illustrating the lyrics were laughed at nearly as of- ten as Mr. Lynch's inimitable de- livery. The scenes were labeled "Luke Prentice's Kitchen," "The De- serted Tool-Shed," "The Bellevue Quarries," "Back to the Kitchen." May Malloy as Hazel Weston was the heroine, who became postmistress of Belleville after having been a wart doctor In another village. Her pre- vious occupation laid her open to suspicion in the eyes of Luke Pren- tice (Erville Alderson). He turned Hazel out pf doors, despite the pro- testations of his son (Ernest Leon- ard) who loved the young woman, even though she was accused by th«» sheriff of having robbed the post of- fice of four postcards. But the rob- ber was the villain, Flugeon Smith f.W. H. Ferris) who met his Just de- serts. Mrs. Prentice, the farmer's wife, was splendidly played by Vivia Ogden. Her make up was seconi only to that. Messrs. Alderson, Fer- ris and Lynch did as well with their roles. Miss Malloy gave a good per- formance. In fact about the only weakness in the cast was Mr. Leon- ard as the son. "Hazel Weston" is a real comedy act, of a different kind than vaudeville has known, and it's n headliner for any house. &ime. NEW SHOWS NEXT WEEK Initial Presentation of LagWmate Attractions In Naur Torn Theatres. ••Two Little Brides** (James T. Pow- ers)—Casino. French Grand Opera Co.—Lyric. Grete Wiesenthal. Classical Dancing. 24 Mins.; One (Special Drop). Winter Garden. Evidently the Messrs. Shubert were not afflicted with an overweening confidence in the successful debut of Grete Wiesenthal at the Winter Gar- den, for she was allotted but two lines on the program, announcing "Danse Classique," the name of the foreign importation, and a parenthetical phrase, "By permission of the Royal Council, Berlin." This served to kill whatever chances the little dancer may have had. It was bad showman- ship. The woman appeared minus all theatrical assistance, save a special drop (probably her own). The danc- ing itself is quite all right for its kind, but American audiences have had so many better "classical" danc- ers properly launched and surrounded by the "mechanics" of showmanship that mean so much, that poor little Grete was utterly swamped. Even the female ushers and the business manager of the house hadn't been properly rehearsed and only applaud- ed in a desultory manner—so listless in fact as to evoke but one curtain call after each of the three terpBi- chorean numbers. The only assist- ance given Grete was to have an invisible chorus chant a few bars of the accompanying music of the first number. Miss Wiesenthal is a rather sweet-faced, plain-looking little wom- an. Her first dance was in some sort of a bird costume, the second a com- bination of pantomimic posturing and whirling Dervish evolutions in what appeared to be a Gypsy dress, the third a green dress half way to the knees, hair loose and apparently otherwise unfettered. In this final number she was at her best, skipping, jumping, gyrating and convolving with charming grace and abandon to the accompaniment of a Strauss waltz. But the whole thing is framed wrong for a music hall number. The waits between the numbers are too Ions and the presentment lacks the "punch" of speed so essential for in- terpolation in the centre of a music hall bill. Grete was once of the Wiesenthal Sisters, who achieved con- siderable success in England as as- thetlc dancers. Later Grete bloomed out by herself, but did not succeed to any extent. Jolo. Wallace and Rogers. Banjos. 7 Min.; One. Hamineistein's. Two young men offer a varied pro- gram of music on banjos. While on too early for their own good at Ham- mersteln's they found the audience of sufficient proportions to have their offering manifestly appreciated. The men make the best impression with, their popular medley. Mark.