TCDE-Team: Created page with "this article published in The Times (Philadelphia) on 27 january 1901. About the play Sherlock Holmes at ''Broad Street Theatre'', Philadelphia, PA, USA. == Article == [[The Times (Philadelphia) (29 january 1901, p. 7)]] "Sherlock Holmes" '''Mr. Gillette Has Made Diverting Use of Doctor Doyle's Fiction.''' The best fun that ha..."

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Created page with "this article published in The Times (Philadelphia) on 27 january 1901. About the play Sherlock Holmes at ''Broad Street Theatre'', Philadelphia, PA, USA. == Article == thumb|300px|right|[[The Times (Philadelphia) (29 january 1901, p. 7)]] "Sherlock Holmes" '''Mr. Gillette Has Made Diverting Use of Doctor Doyle's Fiction.''' The best fun that ha..."

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this article published in [[The Times (Philadelphia)]] on 27 january 1901.

About the play [[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Broad Street Theatre)|Sherlock Holmes]] at ''Broad Street Theatre'', Philadelphia, PA, USA.

== Article ==
[[File:the-philadelphia-times-1901-01-29-p7-sherlock-holmes.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[The Times (Philadelphia)]] (29 january 1901, p. 7)]]

"Sherlock Holmes"

'''Mr. Gillette Has Made Diverting Use of Doctor Doyle's Fiction.'''

The best fun that has come to town in many, many seasons is the entertainment in the Broad-Street Theatre. Moreover, it is the very best entertainment, as entertainment, that [[William Gillette]] ever has provided for us. It is offered as a footlighting of the deductive detective who is the protagonist of the various storiettes written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle|A. Conan Doyle]] concerning [[Sherlock Holmes]]. The matter that makes for the intrigue of the play is described as a "hither-to-unpublished episode in the career of the great detective, and showing his connection with the strange case of Miss Faulkner." But readers of the [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle]] fiction who see the play will recognize readily the fact that Its story was inspired by, and is an elaboration of, one of the adventures of [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] — that one in which a member of a royal European family enlists the services of the detective to obtain certain letters written in the frenzy of a salad-days love-affair, and wanted by the writer in order that they may not be used to blackmail or injure him upon his coming into a dignified political position by virtue of his birth. In that adventure, in the book, Holmes was outwitted fairly by the clever woman in possession of the papers. In the drama, the papers fall Into the keeping of a pair of ready-money blackmailers, who, when made to feel the detective's power, enlist the services of that delightful chap, [[Professor Moriarty|Professor Moriarity]] — he who, according to [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle]], eventually did for [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] in a thorough and complete manner.

[[William Gillette|Gillette]] has fashioned the story into a melodrama, devising a great deal of new matter, and elaborating the adventure even to the extent of toppling [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] over into love with the Miss Faulkner, who is shown as in possession of the much-wanted letters. This melodrama Is acted, by players carefully selected and cast, to the limit; and the result is an entertainment worth $5 per act for each of the four acts. Indeed, $20 for a seat ought to seem a low price to the appreciative; for one act is divided into two parts, with each part as good as a whole act, and, so, worth as much as one. Of course, there are folk to whom $1.50 must seem a wholly-reasonable and admirably-sufficient rate for the privilege of witnessing the entertainment; but it is doubtful if any self-respecting theatre-goer could be so iconoclastic as to consider any thing less than the regular tariff in a light other than that of a dirt-cheap bargain. And the best aspect of it all is that it is an entertainment with which nobody can find reasonable, fault. It should satisfy and edify the lover of the shilling-shocker and the devotee of Rostand; it should send into a fervor of exaltation the boy who is still in the heroes of envious admiration for the heroes of the dime-novel, and give diversion to the study-worn savant and thinker. Never in the annals of all Theatredom have we been offered anything exactly like "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Broad Street Theatre)|Sherlock Holmes]]." In the course of little more than three hours, it has Emile Gaboriau and Anna Katharine Greene 'tied to the mast," to quote that expressive and soul-satisfying dictionist, Mr. William Baxter.

In the play-bills, [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doctor Doyle]] is given. equal credit with [[William Gillette|Gillette]] as author of the play; but that credit, surely, is one of courtesy. It took the author of "Secret-Service" to put on the stage the play that kept last evening's audience — an audience that jammed the theatre from the footlight-rail back to the lobby-wall, and that towered-up into the gallery until the heads of the topmost gods must have damaged the frescoing by friction-spellbound and thrilled. Belasco didn't succeed in crowding as much suspense Into "The Wife," "The Charity-Ball," "Men and Women." "The Girl I Left Behind Me," and "The Heart of Maryland," all rolled into one, as [[William Gillette|Gillette]] has jammed into any single act of "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Broad Street Theatre)|Sherlock Holmes]]." It is the most satisfyingly-tricky melodrama that has been put before us. And [[William Gillette|Gillette]] dominates it all, holding Moriarty and his gang have trapped Holmes into the gas-chamber, and are ready to put an end to his intolerable interference in their affairs by the simple process of putting an end to him. Things don't look well at all; and deduction seems to be having a poor day of it. Then [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] takes a sudden dislike to the lighted lamp on the table, and smashes it into extinguishment. The scene is in total darkness except for the glow at the end of the [[William Gillette|Gillette]] cigar. It's a signpost for the gang; and the determined gentlemen advance for their final encounter with the smoker. They're all around that red-hot cigar-end when, Io! the scene is lighted again, the cigar is blazing calmly away in a niche in the wall, and [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] and Miss Faulkner leave the room and secure the door behind them, leaving the professor and his faculty to have it out with the weed. That scene took the audience literally off its feet; and [[William Gillette|Gillette]] tasted more of the sweets of applause in the succeeding three minutes than was vouchsafed Bernhardt and Coquelin during sixteen recent and very artistic performances of classic and modern drama at the same price per-seat as [[William Gillette|Mr. Gillette]] ought to charge for extra chairs in the aisles.

[[William Gillette|Mr. Gillette]] is to be congratulated for his dialogue. It is the most uniquely-refreshing stuff that has been spoken in a local theatre for many a long day. [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] is a whole minstrel-show in himself. He tells everybody all about himself or herself, and, when asked as to how he knows, replies that it is the elementary and primary process of deductive reasoning, and then gives the whole snap away with an air of languor that makes the inquirer look and feel like the 30 cents which would seem to be the most derogatory basis of comparison recent slang has disclosed. As for [[Dr. Watson|Doctor Watson]], one was torn between pity for the fact that he must have felt like not much more than an ordinary nickel, so many questions did he ask, and wonder as to how he attended to his patients, so much time did he spend in rapt admiration of [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]]' manifestations and cocaine-injections.

It would take all of a page to narrate the numerous reasons why "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Broad Street Theatre)|Sherlock Holmes]]" should be seen by our public; and the cold, dead types would be uneloquent. Here is a play that must be seen to be appreciated, and should be seen by all who are in search of rich and rare diversion. As to the acting, we repeat that it was the uttermost limit of what it should have been. Everybody on the stage, from [[William Gillette|Mr. Gillette]], himself, to the least-important interpreter, talked, walked, and generally comported himself or herself as much unlike a human-being as possible. The settings, like the players, were just what they should be. They were unusual, picturesque, and bizarre, and made for an atmosphere as invigorating as it was rare.

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