Judge — March 25, 1916 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

B E T W E “ HAT do you think of this play?” W queried the Tired Business Man of the Critic. We were waiting for the crowd to thin out a bit from the Lyceum Theatre, where “ The Heart of Wetona” had just ceased throb- bing. “It’s going to have a run,” replied the Critic, “but——" “You're always butting,” interrupted the Tired Business Man. “That play is mighty interesting. There are periods in it that just hold you tight.” “Yes,” admitted the Critic, “it has tense moments; but in the final analysis it is imply melodrama finessed by the fine Italian hand of Belasco. However, its tense moments and the bold but effective handling of sex will carry it a long time.” “The only thing I didn’t like about it,” said the Tired Business Man, ‘was the comic-opera pose of the young villain The Débutante had been listenin, but didn’t you think he was terribly hand- some? Of course I know he was awfully wicked!" “Handsome? That's what caught We- tona, the simple Indian maid,” said the Tired Business Man. “That’s a villain’s long suit. But this fellow got on my nerves with his attitudes. And I think Joe Hardin, the hero, should have wrung his neck right before the audience instead of giving him a run for it.. The Indians got him off-stage, but such a rotter should be killed where you can look on.” “That’s where Belasco comes in,” sug- gested the Critic. “But it’s all melodrama, with the same characters you have seen a hundred times in other circumstances: the wronged ingénue, in this case a girl half white, so appealingly innocent that she com mands sympathy; the noble hero, here a man with a past of his own who is thus conveniently able to overlook error in the woman he marries; the villainous lover; and the stern father, in this case an Indian chief with all the conventional prejudices E N hy CYRIL ANDREW of a white man led to his original unin- hibited violences.” “Yes,” said the Tired Business Man, “I didn’t just see him, though William Court- leigh’s acting was good.” “His acting was consistent along the lines indicated,” continued the Critic, “but the psychology of the réle was false, though per- haps it was good enough for dramatic pur- poses. To my mind, while Leonore Ulrich was admirable as Wetona, the best acting in the play must be credited to John Miltern as the Indian nt and rescuer of the heroine.” BARONY, N.¥ ONE OF JUDGE'S FAVORITES JULIA ARTHUR. in” THE ETERNAL MAGDALENE ” A mystical rble, in which she successfully marks her return to the theatre C U R T A I N S “Well, [agree with you there,” said the ed Business Man. I entered the discussion: he = f left. the Booth,” I “When I saw it, I did not prophesy a long lease of life for it.” The Critic agreed. “*The Greatest Nation’ was too dull to hold,” said he. “It combined most of the dramatic faults with——" “Let’s not talk about the dead,” said the ed Business Man. here're lots of live things for subjects. The livest thing I can think of just now is the new Winter Garden production—‘ Robinson Crusoe, Jr."” The Critic grunted. “Oh, T know you don’t like the Winter Garden,” said the Tired Business Man. “But Ido; and I’m bound to say I enjoyed ‘Robinson Crusoe, Jr.’ “But all Winter Garden shows are cried the Critic. “They vary only in the colors and age of the costumes of the chorus and in the rotation of jokes on Pitt burgh. be geometrical, their popularity increases inversely as the square of the :rea of the costumes. And the humor of the productions is decidedly of the type known as ‘alleged.’” “But this Business Man. “Yes, [ know—this year put more on the chorus and added Al. Jolson to the cast or better, added a cast to Al. Jolson. He is, as usual, the center around which the performance revolves. oW I like Jolson,” id the Tired Business Man defensively. “He makes me laugh, and that’s what I go to the Winter Garden fot “You and the Suburbanite are ali that you both want to laugh at the th said the Critic causticall If a pla: amusing, you don’t like it But Jolson is always funny,” said the Tired Business Man. hat is what I object to,” retorted the Critic. “It’s getting monotonous.” year—" began the Tired comicbooks.com