Life — February 26, 1903 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

“LIFE The Risquée Mrs. Johnson. N O New York first-night audi = thinks it has had its money's worth unless, in addition to the entertainment itself, the author, or star, or some one else is goaded into making a speech. As a rale the goading is not an arduous task, and on the first production of “The Frisky Mrs, Johnson, Anelia Bingham was quite ready and willing to oblige with a beau- tifully prepared and really amus- ing oration. She is her own manager, and showed that she assumes all the responsibilities of the position by her self-possessed allusions to “my play,’ “ my com- pany”? and ‘iy author.” Inas much as Mr. Clyde Fitch wrote or adapted ‘¢ The Frisky Mrs. Johnson,” and as Mr. Fitch has some thirty or forty other plays now playing in New York under other managements, this particular claim to ownership savors a little of bumptiousness. But taking Amelia Bingham's own claims to eminence as a manageress as founded more or less on , there crops up one very serious argument against her claim. A really clever manageress would have secured some one besides Amelia Bingham to play the title part, With her, temperament and avoirdupois are in the wrong ratio for friskiness. Had she more mind and less weight, more € pression and fewer curves and dimples, she might be frisky in the sense the author intends. Nowhere in the play is this more evident than in the scene where there is a quick exchange of very bright chaff between her, as Mra, John a Jim Morely (Mr. Lackaye). The vid -fi could never have come from such a Vrs. Johnson, In real life such a woman would smile fatuously and try to look as though she understood, but anything like repartee would have been entirely foreign to her. It might also be urged by those who would deny Amelia Bingham’s claims to greatness, that a cleverer manageress would have chosen some one besides Mr. Gottschalk to represent Lord Bertie Heatheote, @ young and conscienceless English nobleman “a deevilamong the weemen "and the hero of any number of conquests. Whatever Mr. Gottschalk may t and he is certainly a clever actor of eccentric parts—he neither a hero nor a “ masher,” and in the importa who is here assigned to him he is entirely out of the picture. A shake-up, which should introduce another and more spirit- uelle actress as the heroine, give Mr. Gottschalk the ec- centric part of the French nobleman, Count Max Dindeau, and make Mr, Abingdon (now Frank Morely, the colorless, deceived husband) the Lord Bertie, would be an improve- ment all around. Mr. Lackaye, although inclined to be stagey, gets inside of the individuality of the hero of the piece and carries with him the sympathy of the audience from start to finish, The rest of the cast will do. “The Frisky Mrs. Johnson ”’ reaffirms the suspicion that Mr. Fitch is getting along towards the front door of the facilis descensux, It is adapted from the French, to be sure, and, therefore, he is not as responsible for its résqvé motive as he is for the last act of ‘The Bird in the Cage,” but both show that he is exhausting his material and that bis imagination needs a rest. There is no law to prevent modern playwrights attempting to rival the Bard of Avon in the matter of productiveness, but they should remember that Shak sare not born every day, Also, that there was something besides mere speediness in the work of the author who wrote three immortal tragedies in one year. Mr. Fitch's friends and those who have hopes for an American school of dramatists have wished for Mr. Fitch's advancement, but judging from tho higher standards, his work this year scems to show advancement crab-wise. He has passed the pot-boiling stage, and it is no longer neces- sary for him to write simply toamuse. He is strong enongh in the popular fancy to attempt to do something for more enduring fame, The defects of ‘The Frisky Mrs, Johnson ’’ do not de- stroy its diverting qualities if one half closes one’s eyes. It is a fairly amusing evening's entertainment. yfetealfe. LIFES CONFIDENTIAL GUIDE TO THE THEATRES. lcademy of Music —The unceasing “Florodora,” load company, helasco.—" The Darling of the Gods."* The romance and tragedy of old iu impressive stage form, Marte a Notice tater, Broadway.—Last week of “The Siiver Slipper. Average type. ney Brown." Musical comedy. Casino —" The Chinese Honeymoon." Musical comedy, Fairly funny. Notice later. Musical comedy: Adapted to the Tenderloin Criterion. James T, Powers in “The Jewel of Asta. Daly's. —*The Billionaire, taste, Gar .—Mr. Sothern in well done. Garrick —Aunte Russell in “Mice and Men." little piay. “If 1 Were King.” Picturesque, poetic and Clean and amusing Heratd Square.—' Me. Pickwick.” ens’s work as & 0 Diverting musical piece with Dick- Knickerbocker.—"Mr, Bluebeard.”” clever. Manhattan.—Last week of “Mary of Magdala.” interesting. Amelia Bingham tn “The Frisky Mrs. Johnson."? See above. extravaganza more elaborate than Well mounted and Sketchy but lay of child life. Notice Jater. amusing. Afternoons, Victoria.—Bianche Walsh tn “ Resurrection.” Wallack's.—George Ade’s “The Sultan of Sulu,” Clean, pretty and funny. Musical comedy. Weber and Fields’s,—Burlesque and vaudeville. for the support of Indigent theatre-ticket speculators, Charitable enterprise comicbooks.com