NEW YORK'S 400.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15252, 15 March 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEW YORK'S 400.

COSTLY "FIRST NIGHT "- PLAYS. Mb.3. Philip Ltdig, one of the contestants for the leadership of New York's social "four hundred,' set a new mark for novel private entertainments recently by giving at her New York residence the first American production of Miss Lounsbery's historical Israelite play "Judith." The principal characters were enacted by M. Edouard Denax, formerly Mme. Bernhardt's leading man, and Mme. Yorksa, of the Odeon, and the audience comprised the leading members of New , York society. M. Denax and Mme. Yorksa were brought from Paris solely in order to play in this drama. The performance was given in English, it being the first time that M. Denax has played in that language. The play deals with the well-known story of Judith, Princess of Israel, saving the beleaguered city of Bethalia by killing King Holoferneg, her lover, who is the leader of the investing • forces. Mrs. Lydig's ballroom was trans- . formed into a theatre, with rich Oriental decorations. Much of the success of the play depends on the incidental music heard at distances far and near. For this purpose pianos, organs, end flute players were stationed in the halls and rooms of the mansion from the basement to the top Boor. The lament of the Children of Israel was sung by a chorus concealed behind a curtain of smilax and roses. . Miss Ruth St. Denis, who personated a slave girl, danced on the • floor ■of the ballroom amid the audience, ostensibly for the entertainment of Holofernee and Judith, who were declining on the stage*