Life — December 24, 1896 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

- LIFE: A MIXED BILL. HREE clever actors of burlesque, with parts to suit them, and two clever women, equally well-fitted, form acombination rarely to be met with in one piece. They are to be found, however, in ‘The Girl from Paris,” at the Herald Square Theatre. The piece itself is not much better nor much worse than a lot , of similar things which have found early graves in Broad- j way play-houses. It has no plot, its lines are not N ; particularly fun- ny; but the mu- sic, the cos- tumes, the dash of the —- performance, and the cleverness of the people, unite to make an entertainment which, if one does not happen to be in an especially pessimistic frame of mind, is funny and pleasing. Against the success of the piece was the loudly-heralded fact that it had run over two hundred nights at a London theatre. That an- nouncement would naturally count for a good deal with the local Johnny element, but with other people would be more or less of a handicap. As against this disadvantage, a fair quantity of local color is introduced, and, best of all, the production is under the supervision of Mr. Edward Evangeline Rice. To the initiated this latter statement means that the piece is brilliant with proper lights, and that its background is made up of shapely femininity, properly grouped, becomingly made up, and cos- tumed to make it look its best. Mr. Rice has always believed that the chorus girl was quite as important as the scenery, and his name on a programme is a guarantee that the bald- headed row, at least, will have nothing to complain of. The principals are really clever and funny in their parts, which is an exception to the usual rule in Broadway produc- tions of this sort. They are Mr. Joseph Herbert, as a typical Frenchman of the Jardin Mabille school; Miss Clara Lipman, as a more typical Parisienne of the Bullier group; Mr. Louis Mann, as a German of the kind more frequently met with on the American vaudeville stage than in Germany; Miss Josephine Hall, as a servant girl impossible anywhere; and Mr. Bigelow, as a Dissenter of the American Baptist or Methodist brand. But they are all funny, and therefore ‘ The Girl from Paris" is successful in that it is bright and’ merry and tuneful, and calculated to keep away the blues. . * * HE Late Mr. Castello,” at the Lyceum, is funny in spots, but the spots are not sufficiently close to make one think ofaleopard. Mr. Sydney Grundy has labeled his play acomedy, but that doesn't make it so ; for, as we know, Englishmen are notoriously inaccurate about things where humor is concerned. Calling skim-milk cream doesn’t make it cream, and two or three laughs in a three-act piece don't make it a comedy, Mr. Grundy and the programme to the contrary notwith- standing. Miss Mary Mannering, the new leading lady in Mr.Frohman’s Company, gains no fresh laurels, but makes a good deal of a part which hasn’t much in it. Mr. Felix Morris has lately been added to the Lyceum ranks and in this piece, and is not permitted to become too tiresome with his wonderfully microscopical art. Mr. Hackett, having a rather farcical réle, is forced to unbend from his usual dignity and show that he is not of the accepted type of comedian. To sum it up briefly, Mr. Grundy’s piece is not suited for the Lyceum stage nor the Lyceum Company, and could be a success only in Lon- don and the British provinces — if thefe. ““ T was rather interesting to note, a week ago, that out of New York's twenty leading play-houses, only ten were occupied by farce-comedy, light opera and vaudeville. The other ten ran the gamut from straight farce upwards. To the credit of New York be it said that on one stage Shakespeare found a place. Five per cent. Shakespeare as against fifty per cent. nonsense isn't so bad, after all, and the present condition of theatricals isn't absolutely hopeless. Of the twenty entertainments, only five were direct importations from London. This is a pretty high percentage, but is offset some- what by the fact that an equal number were absolutely American in authorship and production. MARY MANNERING, * . * VETTE, the divette(if that word describes the music-hall diva), has returned to the land of dollars. The funniest thing she has done in her artistic career has been her sensational comments on a sensational preacher, printed alongside of his sensational com- ments on her sen- sational self, all vended to a gap- ing public as valu- able news in the sensational col- umns of a sensa- tional newspaper. This is a great country for fakes and fakirs, on and off the stage. Metcalfe. YVETTE GUILBERT. comicbooks.com “