The Miracle. The rays of collective genius, gathered from many lands by Morris Gest and focused to a burning point of matchless beauty, have burst at last into full flame. The light of The Miracle must henceforth be the sovereign beacon for theatrical spectacle. It has bewildering splendor, apparently limitless magnificence. More important than all, it has a narrative intensity that makes it a memorable emotional experience.
Followers, of theatrical despatches for many weeks have been burrowing through masses of statistics and superlative, relative to this dramatic mastodon which was making its way from Europe under the direction of Max Reinhardt. To these reports there was a dual reaction: 1) natural curiosity; 2) the peculiarly American scepticism that demands a demonstration. Many spectators went to the theatre with imaginations keyed so high that they were almost bound to be disappointed.
In actual performance The Miracle transcended every printed promise. The theatre had been transformed into the gloomy fastnesses of a medieval cathedral. Into this magic nave and choir, Max Reinhardt has infused the life of other centuries.
The action is combined spectacle, pantomime, opera. The story is based on a legend of the ages, told twice before—by John Davidson. in The Ballad of a Nun and by Maeterlinck in Soeur Beatrice. The Nun, feeling the call of the flesh, deserts her cloistered life, goes through a strange variety of worldly revels, and returns, tarnished and beaten by the world, to find that the statue of the Virgin has come to life and performed her duties in her absence.
Rosamond Pinchot, niece of Pennsylvania's famed Governor (see Page 5), appearing on the professional stage for the first time, gave to the part of the Nun a vibrant grace, a magnetic personality that made her quite the cynosure of the beholders. Lady Diana Manners was supremely beautiful as the Madonna, Werner Krauss magnificent as the crippled piper, Rudolph Schildkraut peculiarly powerful in the portrayal of several roles.
Despite these extraordinary individuals, the movement of the mob evinced most startlingly the genius of Max Reinhardt. Nothing approaching its expressive mobility and ordered variance has ever been accomplished in the Theatre.
Finally must come the powerful personality whose prescience made possible The Miracle. Morris Gest came to America as an ignorant immigrant from Russia. From odd jobs in the streets of Boston, he became an attache in the Theatre. He has risen through a series of phenomenal coups to the position of dictator of theatrical spectacle in America. After a number of staggeringly magnificent musical extravaganzas (Aphrodite, Chu Chin Chow, etc.) he introduced the Chauve Souris, the Moscow Art Company, Duse, The Miracle. He has the combined temperaments of the no-limit poker player and P. T. Barnum, plus dominating artistic instinct. He has become thereby a unique figure in a world where eccentricity is the primary requirement.
Alexander Woollcott: "The most prodigious theatrical production within the memory of man."
Percy Hammond: "Perhaps the most actual vision of a great dramatic idea outside of Oberammergau ... as effective in its minutiae as in its splendours."
The Evening World: "Overwhelming, overpowering, all-embracing."