Life — August 1, 1901 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

A Hot-Air Production. T argues the possession of a brave heart to produce a new piece in New York and perform it continuously during such a summer as the one which is just now making us all pour generous offerings on the altar of the Goddess Perspira, The deed becomes actually heroic when the piece is a saltatory one like “The Strollers,” in which every one, from Mr. Wilson down to the most speechless of the back-row ladies, has to do a tremen- dous amount of dancing and other physical work. In witnessing the performance New Yorkers are perhaps like the Kentucky colonel, who, sitting on his verandsh with a mint-julep hard by found an added element of coolness in watching * his niggers working in the sun. It is that, owing to the combination of work and temperature, the combined weight of “The Strollers” Company has shrunk on an average five hundred pounds aday, and that even the most humble places in the company are eagerly sought by actors and actresses of weight who wish to reduce themselves. “The Strollers” is really amusing. The is adapted from the German and— se it is adapted from the plot and rather an in- genious The lines and lyries supplied hy Mr. Harry 1. Smith are quite clever and he has not il as many visits to the chestnut grove as usual T music of Mr. Ludwig Enghinder is not surprisin: tuneful nora marvel of orchestration, but ly catchy and shows, as compared with his previous efforts in the same line, that he is gaining a knowledge of the re- quirements of comic-opera composition The costuming and mounting of the piece are quite sufticient, and in the third act reach rather an unusual degree of clabo- rateness To Mr. Francis Wilson is assign congenial part of a strolling reg by his wits and with a strongly haw f the serapes into whieh his wits get him. The warm weather seems to agree with his voice, and he has a couple of cleverly written songs whose meaning he interprets clearly. Lire hasalways been a stickler for distinet enunciation on the stage, and Mr. Wilson certainly possesses this virtue—carrying it almost to the point of a vice. Of the eloquence of his legs there is no doubt, and in ‘The Strollers" it finds full opportunity of expression. His companion stroller, Brrtha, is played by Miss Irene Bentley, who supplies a suf y of prettiness and grace to the part. She is especially effective in one of the best numbers in the piece, a combined dance, trio and chorus, in which she is aided by two German lieutenants and a chorus of German students, A large part of the fun of “ The Strollers” is supplied by Mr. D. 1. Don, as an aged prince enamored of a ballet-dancer, and Mr. Edwin Foy as a German jailer with a decidedly Hibernian brogue. The management has shown commendable taste in the selection of the chorus, both in beauty and years—the dead-line in the latter particular being set very well this side of fifty. In New York going to the theatre in mid-summer doesn’t seem a ve ional proceeding, but quite a large contingent of New York's theatre-going popu- lation has to remain in town, and this is reinforced by a considerable number of transients. The roof- den entertainments have come to be so far beneath contempt that the public, which seeks to forget its MR. WILSON AS AUGUST Lexp Woes and the heat through stage entertain- ment, is forced indoors, Of a cool evening “The Strollers” will be found amusing in itself, and of a hot one the discomfort of its performers makes one’s own seem sinall by comparison T Metcalfe. Two Hearts. HERE is a heart— AND MR. MISS BENTLEY BENTLEY AS “RUDI VON RODENSTEIN.” ss “nent,” Of fragile clay ‘tis made, Aod art Has laid, In lines— Twining vines And violets every where Upon its surface; it is fair— They call it: Dresden, and ** Take cure Is placed upon it ; bonbonn ‘They call it too, and those whe ‘Take it up so carefully— Lest they make A slip, and it should break There ix a heart— Of fragile clay ‘tis maw And from the start, Life bas laid ‘The ebb and tlow Ane glow OF Love upon it; itis faie— We call it human—Oh, take eare Lest bitterness should jar it, And mar it— ‘And let us touch it gently, lest we make A slip, and it should break Montrose J. Moses comicbooks.com