Variety (September 1913)

VARIITY 21 SMOLDBKINO FLAMR "The Smoildering Flame," produced at the 48th Street Tuesday night, teaches another Great Moral Lesson. It is not that virtue is its own reward. Neither, thanks be, has it anything to do with the wages of sin. Indeed, it would take a good deal of study to de- cide just what the Great Moral Lesson is. But it's there, as we shall learn when Old Dr. Pro Bono Publico gets busy with his fountain pen. The author will then disclose it. Stripped of the literary conventions which cloak this tangled thesis on fem- inine psychology, the story has to do^ but on second thought perhaps it would be as well not to dispense with the draperies of convention. Mathilda Thomas has been brought up in the unlovely atmosphere of a Puritanical New England home pre- sided over by two maiden aunts. From childhood she has lived a life of re- pression, crushing down all her in- stinctive reachings out for affection. She has now come to the age when she looks with horror down a long per- spective of years of spinsterhood, prematurely aged by her martyrdom of repression. She is urged almost to re- volt by a pure passionless yearning for motherhood, a sort of impersonal im- pulse toward maternity. Just that. That's why they call it "The Smolder- ing Flame." The death of an uncle brings her from her drab New England life to the home of her cousin Edith in New York. Edith's immediate marriage has been put off for two years by her father's will. Oppressed by hope de- ferred and moved by the presence of her lover, she arranges a midnight rendezvous with him in her boudoire. Mathilda, listening near by, seeks to prevent so'mad an act. She reproaches the other. Mathilda is shaken by a paroxysm. Protesting, she drives her cousin from the room, then, transfixed by a swift idea, turns out the light, the signal for Edith's lover, and awaits him in the dark. There is a record somewhere of a short story by DeMaupassant based on much the same set of circumstances, but it never reached publication. The final act is 10 years later. Math- ilda is back in New England with an adopted child, but so afflicted by a gnawing remorse that her life is en- dangered. Hither qomes Edith's old lover, developed by this time into a Professor Munsterberg, summoned by the village doctor to diagnose the case. The consultation, of course, brings the denouement, and the play ends with the suggestion that the golden-headed baby will bring the two together. The impossible situations are skill- fully manipulated by theatrical trick and device. Delicate character rela- tions are handled with some effect, as for example the picturing of the two maiden aunts as meanly selfish, while the village doctor who is a father and a neighboring woman with a brood, fairly drip the milk of human kindness, by contrast. F. Ray Comstock's company at the 48th Street is uniformly excellent. Fer- nanda Eliscu played Mathilda with feel- ing and some power. Forrest Robin- son made the country doctor real and THE ESCAPE Paul Armstrong and "The Escape" opened at the Lyric last Saturday be- fore the usual first night audience. The reception was cordial, and the author responded after the third act. In a speech he "panned" the former New theatre management which had refused "The Escape" some time back. The piece played Los Angeles last season and was later brought into Chi- cago, at the Grand Opera House, and was then removed to the Chicago Op- era House, where it remained until the house was closed for all time. In Chicago Helen Ware played the leading role, and while she did not look the part she did play it. Catherine Calvert heads the company at the Lyric. She looks the part but does not play it. The role is a most important one, and while the whole test of the piece does not rest in the character, still it is of so much impor- tance that a careful and capable hand- ling is essential. The theme of "The Escape" treats of conditions in New York's tenements and eugenics. There is a constant screaming against present crowded conditions and the marriages which bear sick and invalid children. The story carries a consumptive girl through three acts to a slow death. A brother has a keen desire to murder, called by a medical term in the play, and another girl of the same family goes wrong. The coming back of the girl is the play. It is not a pretty or appetizing thing, and should be a great advance agent for the Cabarets and dancing res- taurants. Anyone seeing the show will want to get where there is a bit of life as soon as the play is over. Opening night the piece dragged. It is talky and for some reason from 15 to 20 minutes were allowed between each act. The final curtain dropped at 11.20. The Lyric is not the house for "The Escape." One of the modern small theatres would have suited it much better. In the third act where most of the playing is up-stage in a bay window the lines could not be heard in the sixth row. The piece has one or two slight changes from its Chicago presentation, but in the main remains the same. Harry Meystayer, who did very poor- ly in a comedy role in the late "Elixir of Youth" at the Cort, Chicago, comes into his own here and carries away the real hit as the brother with an impulse to murder. Charles Mylott as the young doctor also attracts at- tention, playing the role in a straight- forward and convincing manner. Other characters were adequately looked after. "The Escape" is for one to decide for himself. In Chicago it pot along fairly well, attracting a big clientele from among women folk. There seems to be something about the theme that appeals more to them than to the men. Ihmh. Maud Sinclair and Marie Day pictured the maiden aunts with a sure touch. The play was first shown under the name of "Deborah" at Toronto. Thoy grew excited over it. Rush. THE MARRIAGE MARKET It's too bad all New York cannot go over to Daly's theatre, London, and catch the English chorus men playing American cowboys. It should be vast- ly more entertaining than "The Mar- riage Market" as presented at the Knickerbocker, New York, Monday evening by Charles Frohman with Donald Brian starred. This mixture of Americans and Eng- lish, set in California, was adapted for the English stage, the program tells, by Gladys Unger, from M. Brody's and F. Martos' work. The music is by Victor Jacobi. Arthur Anderson and Adrian Ross wrote the lyrics for the Knickerbocker piece. Frohman usually accepts an adaptation. Perhaps that makes it harder. However, "The Marriage Market" at the Knickerbocker is all summed up after Mr. Brian, Percival Knight and Arthur Reynolds are mentioned. Of the entire cast, these three men are the only ones to do or gain anything for the show. Brian, with his looks and dancing, also perhaps his singing, and Knight and Reynolds with their com- edy. If you are looking for a real good laugh catch Percival Knight in "The Marriage Market." He plays an Eng- lishman as an Englishman, to be laugh- ed at, should be played. Some of the lines Mr. Knight is handling must have been interpolated into the piece by himself. They could not have been "adapted." Mr. Reynolds must be English too. He's excellent as the valet to Knight's Lord. Many people are on the stage, chorus men and chorus girls, some of former carrying much paint and many of the latter carrying nothing worth looking at, not even clothes. Mr. Frohman has cheated again on the "production." The costuming for a 12 show is very flimsy and not tasteful, nor is the set- ting at any time worth talking about. The shipboard scene has been better done in burlesque many a time, and in about the same way. There's too much "story" to "A Mar- riage Market" for a musical play or comic opera, as this piece was intend- ed. It's romantic musical drama, with Mr. Brian very romantic, and he's som; little love maker for a man who sings and dances. But Brian made his rep for grace and must now live up to it. Everything he does must be grace- ful, or the ladies in front may protest. So when the author gave Mr. Brian some business which meant carrying a mop pail up the rigging, he had to do some climbing, likewise descend from the swaying affair with grace. It can't be done, by Brian or anyone else. There is too much swaying, and the mop pail looked like a feed bag, so it seemed as though the star was going aloft to feed the horses. It was a ter- rible thought also if the ringing should give way, and he kerflop to the stage, without grace. But Brian is well liked in this show, and stands especially strong with the women. In fact if "The Marriage Market'' docs business, Brian will have to draw it on his popu- larity. He can do it for awhile, but as a big musical production that should do business on its own, "The Marriage Market" isn't there. Simt. C^THE HAPPY WIDOWS "The Happy Widows" is a Fennessy &. Herk production now on the East- ern Wheel. Last season these man- agers were Western Wheelers, but came over at the time of the merger. It may be the same show Jos. K. Wat- son and Will H. Cohan were featured in on the other Wheel last season. The piece in two acts is called "A Mar- riage of Convenience," written and pro- duced by Watson, with the numbers by Ed. Rogers. Other than Messrs. Watson and Cohan there isn't much to the per- formance, but these two are enough, it seems. As Hebrews, of medium size and with much bright dialog, some parodies (that have been sung by others), and good "business,** Watson and Cohan carry 'The Happy Widows" to success. They are funny, and the night the show was seen when Willie Cohan had a bad cold, he was the funnier of the two, mostly because of his hoarse voice. Several good figures are displayed among the 20 chorus girls. A few pass with looks, but their "shapes" are gen- erally much better than the average in burlesque. In cleanliness, the show is not 100 per cent. pure. One de- scription of a love making recipe is very vivid. An olio of three numbers divides the two acts. The vaudeville portion is opened by the Saida Watson Duo, operatic singers. It's a real comedy turn if you get it right, but at the Mur- ray Hill they didn't get it that way, so the act made good. Mr. Winston needs further instruction in enunciating the lyrics of his songs. He is also a prin- cipal in the play, and as such has rob- bed Corse Payton of his title of "The world's worst actor." An olio act that counts is Valdo, with Irving Hay lecturing. Hay is the same smooth talker. He speaks con- tinuously from the opening of the turn until its close. During that time Valdo accomplishes just two tricks, one a "Cabinet rapping" bit. Hay also plays the straight in the pieces and gets away with that, too. It's almost a shame he is an actor. Hay should have been a promoter selling gold bricks downtown. It would have got- ten him a lot more money. The Tier- ney Four close the olio. They sing rag stuff, with the comedian horribly made up and getting little comedy. Dave Harris of the quartet leads the best staged number in the show. It's a rag near the finale. Other than that the numbers slip by. No specia^ at- tention has been given them and there is little dancing. Fay Odell leads the majority. Fay is shy a voice, but that is a detail in burlesque. Helen Van Buren is principal woman, with clothes. She must have been engaged for her contrast in height to the two principal comedians. Helen is a very tall girl, with nothing else to be said of her. Still these things don't make so much difference. The show hangs on Watson and Cohan, is built around them, and they take care of it. For a show with only a pair of Hebrew comedians as funmakers "The Happy Widows" is fortunate in having this couple. They make you laugh. Sime.