Life — January 15, 1903 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

OUR YELLOW-CITIZEN, THE SULTAN OF SUL, AND A PEW OP IIS WIVES. from what was fresh and dainty to what is vulgar and common- place. “The Billionaire” was evidently constructed with the HAT a belligerent lot of folks we are ‘Tenderloin taste well in mind, Messrs. Smith and Kerker have ie been at this sort of thing so long that they know perfectly how to suit the requirements of the managers who cater to the Tenderloin grade of intellect, and the result is exactly what was to be expected, To Mr. Jerome Sykes, whose broad comedy as Fory Quiller is agreeably remembered, is given the part of the chief vulgarian who gives the picce its title. In make-up he is a repro- duction of some well-known caricatures of Senator Hanna, Mr. Only Two More Musical Comedies. => getting to be! Even our Z operas have caught the warlike s} and the United States un American flag properly set to music have ome sure lures for popular favor. Whe ywe had an army of only. twenty-five thousand men and were a peaceful, stay- at-home people, content to mind our own business and let other nations mind theirs, es soldier was not very good stage material, Now that we have embarked on a career of world-conquest and have an idea that trade follows the flag, our patriotic and commercial instinets make the soldier and sailor mighty inspiring characters. the United Si . . . ultan of Sulu,” of which Mr. George Ade has supplied the book and Mr. Alfred G. Wathall the music. Mr. Ade has seized upon Uncle Sam in his new réle as a conquering hero, and out of T of these appeals to the warlike spirit is ‘Th the novelty of our relations with uncivilized races has managed to inject some originality into the hackneyed musical comedy idea. The book is not so funny as one would expect it to be coming from Mr. Ade, but its humor is fresh and clean, and its special value lies in the promise it gives of a libretto- writer who may have brains to get away from the set lines of a form of entertainment which has been done almost to death. The Sy kes’s singing voice was in total eclipse dur sentations of Th performar the earlier repre- Sillionaire,” so it is hardly fair to judge his in its entirety, The princi; fun allotted to May Robson is a display of grotesque hosiery, which seems a waste of a talented comedienne’s real abi The rest of the company is not much, but it is quite equal to the material with which it has to deal. Such a piece as “ The Billionaire” at Daly's will be rather a shock to the persons of refinement who have been accustomed to patronize that theatre. Metcalfe. LIFE'S CONFIDENTIAL GUIDE TO THE THEATRES, Academy of Music.—"Tue Ninety and Nine.” Melodrama with tm- posing fire scene Belasco.—" The Daritng of the Gods," Imposing, interesting and well acted. Broadway.— The Sliver Slipper.’ Moderately good musical comedy. Casino." The Chinese Honeymoon.” Musical comedy, Diverting. Daly's.—"* The Billionaire.” See above. Empire—Stock company tn “+ The Unforeseen.” Notice later. Gorden,—Sothern in“ Hamlet.” Well prodaced and well musical accompaniment to Mr, Ade's words is not awe-inspiring, 01 but it is fairly good, and some of its numbers have the desirable q Herald Square —Mr. Mansfeld's production of * Ju- quality of catchiness, sar. 'Satistactortly done, Kntekerbocker.—" The Altar of Friendship,” with Nat Goodwin and Maxine Elliott as co-stars. Not great, but amusing. Madison Square.—Filzabeth Tyree in “Gretna Green." Notice later. Manhattan.— Mary of Magdala.” Interesting. version of the New Testament story. New York.—" When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” Fan and muste of Rebellion days. Princesse. Heidelberg. Romantic sketch of German student life, Weepy, but amusing. Saroy, — “The Girl with the Green Eyes." Mra, Bloodgood tn not the greatest of Clyde Fitch's society sketches, Victoria —Hall Catne’s “The Fternal Cuy tn stage form. Fairly interesting Wallack's—" The Sultan of Sulu.” See above. Weer and Fields's, — Bar lesque and vaudeville. The theatre 1s small ands few good seata are to be had from speculators at advanced prices, The title rdle introduces to Broadway a new and very amusing comedian, Mr. Frank Moulan. As Ki Kam, the ruler of Sulu, who, among the earliest institutions of American civilization, becomes acquainted with the cocktail, Mr. Moulan not only is amusing, but is also that rarest of birds, 2 comedian who can sing. It would be well for the piece if the same could be said of the person to whom is wrongfully intrusted the important part of Col. Budd, in command of the American troops, Both Maude Lillian Berri and jertrude Quinlan sing well, the first as the Colonel's daughter and the other as one of the wives of our openly polygamous fellow: citizen in the Sulu archipelago. ‘The rest of the east is competent, the chorus redundant with pretty costumes sufficiently brilliant. © The Sultan of Sulu "is considerably better than most of its kind, rls, and the ge settings and . . ° nex “The Country Girl” to ‘The Billionaire,” which has taken the place of the former at Daly's, there is a long drop THE SULTAN AND Tuk COLONEL's DAUOUTER. comicbooks.com