Life — March 4, 1909 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

A Quick Recovery from the Recent Spasm OW awful it was while it lasted—that spasm of spaper virtue over the naughty plays. And what a complete and speedy recovery! Net re- sults to date: Perhaps tle more cautious about the theatre young persons. The cnemies of the legitimate stage and the sensational preachers have been supplied with fresh anmuni- tion. The five entertainments inveighed against are still doing business at the old stands. Mr. Abraham L. Erlanger, largely interested in the success of “Miss Innocence” and the other Held-Ziegfeld shows. and also a large advertising patron of the daily newspapers, has been permitted to exploit himself in the news columns as a protector of the morals of the stage. The daily newspapers are still appearing at regular inter- vals. Killed and wounded—none. All over. few parents have been made a lit- inj: of their o 8 HERE were two most agreeable surprises in the opening performance of “A Woman's Way.” One was that we have in Mr. Thompson Bu- chanan a new dramatist who can construct a comedy, fit it with clever situations and supply his characters with witty and laughable lines. The other was that Grace George has developed, t_ we were permitted to see her, from a moder- ately successful emotional actress into a very charming and expert comedienne. Instead of having been written by a novice Mr. Buchanan's comedy might well have been the work of a master hand. Not once did he resort to the old tricks of mistaken identities, hiding in closets or behind screens. In addition it is a clean play in most of its detail and in all of its tendencies, It is not hazardous to say that “A Woman’s Way"? will give a great many laughs to a great many thousands of persons before it shall have outlived its usefulness. Grace George's work is simply delightful. She has a sense of fun, she is just enough coquettish, she is properly demure at the right moments, she suits herself admirably to many changing moods and she gives one or two really pathetic touches which heighten the value of all the rest. is with her from start to finish in her plucky single-handed fight for her husband's love, and laughs with her in every one of her laughing triumphs. Dorothy Tennant—she of “ College Widow" girlish beauty—has developed into a handsome woman, with just exactly the poise and presence to be the flirtatious person who has played hob with the affections of almost all the male characters. The other women in the cast destroy the air of distinction which should characterize the The audience ¥ ADVICE TO THE DROWNING “OK-KEEP YOURSELF C-COMPLETELY SUBMERGED, OLD MAN—ALL RUT VOUK NOSTRILS—AND REMAIN P-PERFECTLY MOTIONLESS, AND YOU'LL FIND YOU CAN FLOAT—RE-ALLY.’” social life supposed to be depicted in the play. The men are well chosen. Mr. Frank Worthing has never done better work. In the comedy scene, in which he is devilled by his wife in fact and his wife in expectation, his accomplishment lies in the highest realms of the comedian’s art. Mr. Robert War- wick portrays with much dash an experienced New York bachelor, Mr. Reginald Carrington is a good butler of the solemn type and Mr. Edward Fielding is a refreshing com- posite picture of the persistent but “straight "’ reporters who are a ercdit to their calling. “A Woman's Way" is the way to success for Grace George and Thompson Buchanan. HE slowness of performance in the early scenes of “This Woman and This Man" is realism carried too far. It cannot be denied that it is realism for persons to pause be- tween sentences when they are deeply moved, but it is not a faulty convention of stage art that these natural pauses shall at times be shortened and at others be only in- dicated. It is only human to tire of too much concentration, and in this particular the author and stage-manager imperil the very effects they seck. comicbooks.com