Chas. E. Evans and Co. (2).

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It Can Be Done” 20 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set).   Several months ago a story appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, the theme of which, slightly altered for vaudeville presentation, is made the basis of the latest Chas. E. Evans vehicle, having been played last season by the Princess Theatre Players. The scene is the rear platform of an observation car on a west-bound training running at high speed between Rochester and Buffalo. The characters include a New Yorker (Mr. Evans) with a healthy bank roll, an adventuress (Mabel Frenyear) who plans to relieve him of his wealth, and a Pullman conductor (Alexander Carlton), the latter merely handling introductory and closing lines. The girl tries the various glib-tongued methods to make a “touch,” and, failing in these, makes a grand-stand demonstration of a mild badger game, pulling her hair down and opening her clothes to create evidence of an attack by the man. This happens after he refuses to present her $500 on request. The conductor, hearing her screams, after falling for the ruse, is convinced of her trickery when Evans displays the ashes of his cigar, its presence being sufficient evidence of his inactivity during the ride. Throughout the playlet the dialog runs to light comedy, carrying many good laughs and other possibilities for the addition of others. A surprise finale is provided with Evans’ exit, when the girl, after listening to his braggadocio agent the impossibility of “trimming a New Yorker,” displays his purse which she plunked during the scramble. An additional kick is registered upon her discovery that is empty, Evans having extracted the collateral before she located it. The finish is handled a bit fast, Miss Frenyear bumping the anticlimax and the climax into a combined laugh where to belong together with the natural surprise. With a few short lines between the business this would be materially strengthened. The idea is unique inasmuch as the car-end set in a dark background is both realistic and novel. It maintains the illusion of rapidly a moving train and reflects credit upon the producer, no author being programed. The piece is sponsored by William A. Bradey, and will probably be listed as one of the season’s best vaudeville productions, principally because it is a novelty, something very rare in the sketches. The cast is excellent for the piece and at the Alhambra, brought home a smashing hit.

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