The Topeka State Journal

THEATRICAL NOTES.

Speaking of the presence of so many English actors in this country, the Morning Telegraph says:

Dear old London must be suffering for legitimate amusement. From the looks of things most of their first class theaters will be turned into garages if the American invasion keeps up much longer. According to the London papers most of the stars are playing in the provinces over there and the rest of them are in America. We have Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Sir Charles Wyndham and Miss Mary Moore and Edwin Terry with us, and sailing are Forbes Robertson and Gertrude Elliott and E. S. Willard.

The other English stars, like Beerbohm Tree, Lewis Waller and Arthur Bouchier, are knocking at our gates for admission. London, like San Francisco, has the 10-cent craze. That is the kind of amusement that appeals to your Britisher at the present writing. Well, the more the merrier. "goods," and they are welcome here. But what will happen if they don't deliver up the plays? Then, there is no place left for them.

This is the second and last week of "The Wife Without a Smile." It is the sensational Pinero company brought over from London by Charles Frohman and given a trial in New York last week, after cutting out the objectionable business of the wriggling doll in the plot, which has been fully explained. The doll quieted down and the playing held to its proper check. "The Wife Without a Smile" has proved a play without a laugh, and so it will be shelved after a miserable two weeks' trial in the metropolis.

Lillian Russell's Baltimore tryout of "Lady Teazle" seems to have turned up on the right side of the account. The critics have spoken very highly of it and it looks as if the beautiful star will have a fine vehicle in which to return to the field where she was so long the queen.

Charles Guyer, who has long been one of the principals in Babes in Toyland," says he contemplates returning to vaudeville, forming a partnership with Williams and Tucker for a new sketch, the idea of which he has mapped out and is now working up.

John W. Ransome, who deserted vaudeville to play the Cincinnati brewer in "The Prince of Pilsen," has returned to his early love and is doing his impersonations of prominent statesmen and politicians in the vaudeville again.

Blanche Walsh has not been able to make "The Kreutzer Sonata" a success and will soon bring out the new play by Clyde Fitch, to be known as "The Woman in the Case." Much secrecy concerning the story is manifested, as it is claimed that Mr. Fitch insisted that no publicity be given to the details of the plot until the play had been produced.

Maude Adams is rehearsing "As You Like It," and this charming comedy will likely be brought out in New York ere her present engagement there terminates.

Forbes Robertson, the distinguished English actor, and his American wife, Gertrude Elliott, sailed yesterday from London for this country. In a short time they open their second American tour at Toronto, Canada, presenting several important plays in Mr. Robertson's repertoire.

The promised revival of "Fatinitza" by Fritzi Scheff and her company revivifies interest in that old-timer. A notable flood of reminiscences for the old-timers will be awakened by the publication of the original cast when the opera bouffe was produced in San Francisco. The company included Mme. Cottrelly in the title role, Marie Prescott as Lydia, Felix Morris as the Pasha, while other parts were taken by Robert Graham, Hattie Moore and Lily Post. In the light of their subsequent achievements that came pretty near being a star cast.

It has been definitely settled that E. J. Morgan will be the star of "The Gentleman From Indiana" when that story is produced in dramatic form. Morgan has long been identified with the Hall Caine drama and is at present starring in "The Eternal City." His well established methods should fit excellently into the character that Booth Tarkington has so thoroughly sketched out in his interesting play, "The Prodigal Son," is waiting for the management to discover a star for that production, as it has been the idea originally to present Morgan in that dramatization.