Life, 1893-06-08 · page 10 of 16
Life — June 8, 1893 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 368: Drama Section This page reviews theatrical productions for Boston audiences. The left column contains sketches illustrating "His Experience with a Colombian Postage Stamp"—cartoon vignettes of a figure struggling comically with an adhesive stamp, showing escalating physical contortions. The main text critiques "Robin Hood," a production by the Bostonians theatrical company. The review is mixed: while the piece has merit and talented performers (Mmes. Davis and D'Arville, Messrs. Macdonald and Barnabee), the music lacks originality compared to their previous success "The Knickerbockers." The critic notes the humor relies too heavily on bad puns. A separate paragraph discusses actress Lotta's "blackballing" by the Sorosis ladies' organization, suggesting this reflects broader tensions about women's roles and professional women's leagues in this era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
368 HIS EXPERIENCE WITH ACOLUMBIAN POSTAGE STAMP. iT; TaN NS cs THE “ BOSTONIANS!”’ LATEST. OBIN HOOD," although it proved a gold mine io the “ Bostonians,” is also rather a serious handicap to that admirable organization. The public is bound to use it as a standard for anything else they may produce, and it was so thoroughly pleasing both in matter and performance that any new effort is sure to suffer by contrast. This is certainly true of “ The Knicker- bockers.”" The music of Mr. De Koven’s latest production is pleasing, but on first hearing seems hardly as original or interesting as that of “ Robin Hood.” Individual numbers are attractive, but as a whole the musical part of the work seems to lack continuity. The action is laid in the time when New York was New Amsterdam, and that picturesque era should have furnished the librettist with inspiration and material for a very good book indeed, but Mr. Smith seems to have missed his opportunity entirely. The humor consists mainly of bad puns, and the plot is decidedly thin in some spots and opaque in others. But even with far worse material than “ The Knickerbockers to work with, the “ Bostonians” would give a musicianly and interesting performance. Such artists as Mmes. Davis and D’Arville and Messrs. Macdonald, Barnabee, Hoff and Cowles are bound to do well anything they undertake, and they make of “The Knickerbockers "a comparative success, while in other hands it would very likely have been a pronounced failure. The piece is handsomely mounted, and with a little life and action injected into the book may find a permanent place in the “ Bostonians’” repertoire. . . . HE black-balling of Lotta, the actress, by the ladies of Sorosis may prove a boomerang for that organization. There is a lingering suspicion that Sorosis to-day represents the sidz-curl and woman’s-rights era of female emanci- pation rather than the ideas which go with woman's more recent and present position in the world of affairs. The Erolessional Woman's League, a compara- comicbooks.com