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GOODWIN'S WEEKLY. 11 H 1 H Be With The First Mighters BS ", " I "UNDER COVER" Surrounded by withered, retouched scenery of the iSelwyn stamp, that excellent octor H. B. Warner and his company are doing their best to make something of "Under Cover," a four-act (melodrama of upper tendom by Roi Cooper Ma grue. The author, who we believe is compara tively new in the business, has wasted no end of clever lines on a vehicle tho construction of which has little to commend it, as it falls far short of most of tho crook plays high and low that have been presented. The chase for tho necklace S' is very tmuch on the order of "give me them pa pers" of other years, and even in the most dra matic situations in the play there isn't anything to thrill, or hold the interest at an intensity. The denouement is cleverly arranged, but it takes a long time to get to it, and it is really too bad that an author with the ability to (make his lines spar kle as does Magrue should have put them "Under Cover." That's a rotten pun. Mr. Warner, fine actor and worthy son of his father, has a personal charm which combined with his natural ability always makes his per formance a treat, but in "Under Cover" he de scended, and he probably knows it. But then one cannot And a real play every season, those things being almost as scarce as real actors. Isabel Irving, who may always be depended upon, possessing fine poise and the art of an older school blended with grace, charm, exceptional in telligence and a complete understanding together with lilstrionic ability that has always been splen did, gives a perfect performance. Another act ress (visible, unfortunately, only in the first act) whose work created a nice impression, is Prances Stamford. Rita Stanwood in the lead as Ethel Cartwright, tho girl coerced by the secret service agent and in love with Steven Denby played by Mr. Warner, is apparently not so much at home in plays of this character as she was in "Excuse Me," and "My Best Girl," though in the scene in Denby's room, she rose to the occasion splendidly in her erotic ferocity. Her entire performance was very good. Except for a certain insusiance, there was nothing to commend the work of Ruth Donnelly 1 as Nora Rutledge. She hardly has a line in the play that isn't full of fat, but she slurs and slights her reading and loses most of the effect. We fear It will take much tutoring to make an actress of Miss Donnelly, jty Of the men T. J. McGrane as the deputy sur veyor of customs did fairly well, though he could not get away from the tendency to' overdo, which seemingly overtakes most actors who essay the roles of third degree coppers. The Monty Vaughn of William Courtleigh, Jr., was played to a nicety and he brought out everything that was in the part. Old friend Frank Kingdon with his usual polish in a part eminently suited to him was all anyone could be and the inspectors played by E. M. Dresser and J. Wilson didn't do anything to mar the performance. But "Under Cover" is not an "Alias Jimmy Valentine," "Deep Purple," "Within the Law," or ,k any crook play of quality that has lasted over a season. PANTAGES There is a girl over at Pantages this week with a lilt in her throat that is winning every audi ence. She Is Agnes Von Bracht, a Dane, possess ing a wonderfully sweet voice with which she Bings in English and in her native tongue. Her work is especially appealing after listening to the usual blat of near operatic soloists. There are some other good acts on the bill, notably the Tal Plen troupe of Chinese wonder workers, jugglers and contortionists. The greatest novelty of their performance te the feat performed by two of them in which swinging from the,lr queues in midair, they enjoy a little libation seated at a table sup ported by them. Charles King, Virginia ,Thotnton and Erman Searey are presenting "The Stranger" during tho second week of their engagement at Pantages, and aside from having been seen here before, it falls far short of their playlet last week, "The Village Priest." The character work of Searey is the one noticeable thing in the sketch. Fred Duprez has a monologue and an after act contain ing considerable humor, though he gets his audi ence in the beginning with smut stuff and they ap parently like it. Another act is that of Izetta who plays an accordeon fairly well, isn't much of a singer and wears a costume that is a scream. It isn't meant to be funny but the expanse of pink Incasing Izetta's nether extremities makes it so.. A good picture and some good music round out the bill. ORPHEUM There is a lot that is good in the bill seen at the Orpheum this week, but many of the acts are so long drawn out that they detract from the impression they create at first and become tire some. However there are enough novelties and clever performers in the offering to make it en joyable most of the time, though the precedent of the week before set a pace that was hard to follow. Following the pictures, showing scenes in Sumatra and the Valley of Waitaki in New Zea land, pictures by the way that add to the interest ing and educational scenes with which the Or pheum people have scored during the season, Eadio and Ramsden open the show in something called "Charle's Visit," which is an excuse for the songs of one and the clever contortions and eccentricities of the other. Then Brent Hayes takes a long time to show what he can do with the a banjo. True enough he is master of it, but the banjo act in vaudeville is somewhat passe. Tom Brown, Louis Fletcher and Tom Driscoll have a peculiar act called "Christmas Eve," giving them various opportuni ties to prove that their voices are good. Inter spersed with the music is a llttel story containing humor and sob stuff. Mme. Jeanne Jomelli, formerly of the Metro politan, has created considerable interest In mu sical circles, though as was to have been expect ed, the selections from her grand opera reper toire did not meet with the lesponse from the masses that her singing of "Home Sweet Home," brought forth. She is a gifted and finished art ist of pleasing personality, and big enough to go to work. Victor Moore, Emma Littlefield and company in "Change Your Act or Back to the Woods, get a lot of laughs out of their burlesque with the assistance of some stage hand slapstick work. They could impiove V ir act immensely however, by a little careful wc ig during the spring time so that the novelty of it would not wear off owing M to its length. M Anna Chandler with some new ideas regard- M ing the way songs should be sung and some chat- M ter, humorous If not uplifting, scored a big hit. M She is one of those don't care ragtime artistes M who always seem to ingratiate themselves im- M mediately with vaudeville audiences. The "Dance M of the Temptress," as produced by Alice Eis and H Bert French, is a weirdly beautiful performance H in which the stage effects play an important M part, with great billows of Bparkllng foam in the H background which move and whelm everything M within reach much as the surf and settling spind- H rift in the wake of a liner at sea. The dance is H original and somewhat exciting finishing with H the immersion of tho whole damn family in the M suds. H M WHAT'S THIS? PEG O'NEILL AND I TIM FRAWLEY. M Peggy O'Neill, the star of Peg O My Heart, H who made Laurette Taylor (Mrs. Hartley Man- H ners) so jealous profe tonally a year ago is now H Mrs. Timothy David Frawley, that inveterate H bachelor of the stage and the fascinating Peg hav- H ing been married secretly in San Francisco a 'H few days ago by a Catholic priest. It is said that H the devotion of iFrawloy to Miss O'Neill has been H noticeable for many months. It certainly was H here during the recent engagement of the little H actress at the Salt Lake theatre, but no one who H knew Frawley thought that he was starting In a H romance. H In the old days of the Frawley stock company H at the Grand theatre here when such stars in the H embryo as Blanche Bates, Madge CanCooke, Julia H Dean and others were playing, Frawley was per- H sonally well liked and quite a popular stage hero. H Since those days he has been seen here once or H twice and has been about the country with vary- H ing degrees of success making his headquarters H in the east most of the time. "POTASH AND PERLMUTTER" Most of the big popular successes on the American stage came unexpectedly. Some of them have gone begging for managerial recogni tion, while others were thought of so poorly In advance, that it was hard to find who wrote them. Among the latter is "Potash and Perl mutter," the comedy founded on the "Montague Glass" stories in the Saturday Evening Post, which A. H. Woods will present at the Salt Lake theatre for five nights and Wednesday and Sat urday matinees beginning Tuesday, March lGth, with the same identical cast that played at the George M. Cohan theatre, New York, for fifty six weeks. The company includes Alexander Carr and Barney Bernard who created the famous parts of "Abe" and "Mawruss." Charles Klein, the well known author, was invited to make the dram atization of "Potash and Perlmutter." He drew the ground plan, so to speak, and then begged to be excused. He said that tho material of the "Glass" storfao was to disjointed that it did not promise well for the stage. Other hints were to the effect that he had been requested by prom inent New York Hebrews not to lend himself to the caricature of their race. Jules Eckert Good man and a number of others were asked to take up the work, but for some reason or other, de- 3