Life — January 26, 1905 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

exhibitions of Mr. George Bernard Shaw's powers as a satirist and dramatic argufier. It ts even better in the acting by this very able company of artists than in the reading, and it will be a damning commentary on the intelli- gence of New York as a theatre-going com- munity if the piece does not have a long run, It must be a very stupid public, indeed, which cannot understand it and find it laughable acd diverting. * . * UGUSTUS THOMAS, having abandoned his intention to dramatize the States of the Union in alphabetical order, has,in “ Mrs. Leffingwell’s Boots,” localized his efforts in a more or less fashionable New York sub- urb, He calls the place Larch- mont, although it might quite as well have been Pelham, or Short Hills, or even New Rochelle, The defining of the locality might be made even more exact by any one acquainted with the per- sons in the suburb he really means, but in the process of identification it is not necessary to go any further than to say that it was extremely unkind of the author to make his Mr. Lefingwell a cruel caricature of that high-principled theatrical manager, Mr Daniel Frohman, Never mind Mr. Thomas's geography, though, for he has written a most laughable play, which lies in the indefinite ground between comedy and farce. The Osteopathic Medical College should give him an honorary degree for the advertisement the piece furnishes for that newest of physiolog- cal arts. It is full to the last curtain of good, honest, side-splitting laughs, and gives a good many sly digs at persons who are socially biting off a little more than they can easily mastica one, in the main, the honors going to Miss Fay Davis, Mr. Lawford, Mr. Courtenay, Miss Jessie Busley and Mr. Saville, Miss Buste; performance of the Insh mainstay of a subur- ban household was very clever, indeed. “Mrs, Leffingwell's Boots” can be recom- mended as a germicide for the bacillus of melancholy 1. The company is a well-selected M*“ EDWARD TERRY'S impersona- tion of Dick Phenyl in ** Sweet Laven- der” at the Princess's was interesting in itself, and doubly so to those who remembered and could make comparison with Mr, Lemoyne’s rendering of the same part. On the whole Mr. Terry's Pheny! was not so smooth, unctu- ous and gentlemanly as Mr. Lemoyne’s amia- able, alcoholic barrister, Mr. Terry prefers to make the part a more eccentric one and get his fun more ona low comedy basis. In its way it is a very effective piece of work, but it does not appeal to the sympathies as did Mr. Le- moyne's lovable drunkard, It creates more laughter, and evidently caught the fancy of -LIFE: the British public, as Mr. Terry has played the part more than four thousand times, HE new burlesque at the Weber Mu- sic Hall is one of the best ever seen at that house. Mr. Ade’s*Col- lege Wide ow "is fun- ny, but The Col- lege Wid- ower" is funnier yet. Madame Marie Dress- ler, the celebrated ¢ragédienne, has a role which puts Lady Macbeth an entire stack of blue chips back of the game, and to it she brings all the fizesse and light and shade for which her impersonations are noted. There is not a rich deaf man in the world who would not give a large sum to hear the exquisite pathos with which she sings that touching ballad, ‘*My Mother's Boarding- The Artist: BIBBY TOLD ME TO SEND THI 405 Home." Signor Josepho Weber is also great in his exsemb/e work with Madame Dressle and no one with a weak he: to which laughing is dangerous, should go within a block of this entertainment. rt Metcalfe. The Wise Canary. CANARY bird that had hung in its gilded case for several years, singing cheerfully in spite of neglec finally became intensely piqued by the manner in which its bath was delayed cach morning. So it began to sing very much off the key to attract attention, and scattered its feathers about the cage in simulated rage, A bird doctor who was called in pro- nounced it an acute attack of the pip, after which its bath was changed twice a day, and it had apples and lettu fed to it, A blameless life isn't all it’s cracked up to be. Kate Masterson. HE man who falls in love with a good woman rises. S AROUND TO MIM AND HE'D MAIL ME A CHECK FOR THE PRICE; BUT I DON'T KNOW—HE SEEMED A LITTLE—ER— The Lady: \NTOXICATED? ean The Husband: SND IT BY ALL MEANS! HE HAD NO BUSINESS TO GET SO DRUNK. comicbooks.com