The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW January 3, 1914 Correspondence Dick Wilbur Co FOURTH SEASON OF SUCCESS THE BIGGEST REPERTOIRE COMPANY ON THE COAST Open in Eureka in stock, beginning January 3—indefinitely. Send for New Catalogue Stating Kind Desired THEATRICAL CATALOGUE of Show Print- ing. Repertoire. Stock. Circus, Wild Wost, Tent Shows, Etc. FAIN PRINTING. Fairs. Rues. Aviation, Auto. Horse. Slock Shows, Etc. MAGIC PRINTING. HypwoUsm, Illusions, Mind Reading. Etc. MINSTREL PRINTING. White or Colored, With or Without Title. Etc MOVING PICTURE PRINTING. Etc. WESTERN PLAYS, Etc. FOLDERS o( Non-Roralty Plays with Printing. Show and Thiatrical Printers Lithographers, Engravers National stock Hangers and Posters on Hand for every Kind of Amysement Enterprise WRITE ST. LOUIS OFFICE - 7TH AND ELM StS. Salt Lake City, Utah W li. r. tli.' Cuisin.' ancl Cib^u-. t are the tKlje iflecca of K. I.. WILI.K, Mgr. Hancock Bros. ^ TICKET PRINTERS The Only Automatic Ticket Plant in the West 263 Bush St. San Francisco AT EASTERN PRICES We Msmufacture Roll Tickets Iff San Francisco XEVV YORK, Dec. 28.—The sen- timent alone which has clung to lironson Howard's good old com- edy, The Henrietta, during the 26 years since it was first produced at the Union .Sfiuare—its exact date was Sept. 26, 1887—would have paved the way to the success of its revival last week at the Knicker- bocker Theatre. But the popularity which is bound to follow the rebirth of what was one of the best native comedies of its day, rests on a foun- dation much more solid. The Hen- rietta—they call it The New Henri- etta now — will succeed again be- cause there are precious few plays in New York at this fag end of 1913 that can compete with it in liveli- ness, humor, sentiment and all the other elements that go to make up a first rate comedy. And it will succeed, too, in spite of the fact thai Stuart Robson is no longer in the land of the living to play the role of Rertie, the Lamb. Never was a fatter part written for a comic ac- tor, and never did a comedian make a role more a part of himself than Mr. Robson. Douglas Fairbanks, lo whom the character of the fool son of the rugged old Napoleon of finance has fallen, went about its re- creation in just the right way. He shut his eyes to precedent and acted it along entirely new and original lines. And in his own way he made it quite as amusing as it was be- fore. Of course there is still AVm. H. Crane as the blustering, crusty old Van Alstyne. jMr. Crane we al- ways have with us, and of a good thing we surely cannot have too much. The performance he gave had all the snap and sparkle of the original one in which he appeared— one of those old young feats of act- ing that help to keep the theatre mellow. In the revival there was also Amelia Bingham as Mrs. Op- dyke—the role that Selina Fetter used to play, and she acted it in a vein of capital, breezy comedy. There were Patricia Collinge as Agnes, who can see the pure gold under the dross of Bertie's tailor- made exterior; Lyster Chambers as the rather transparently villainous Mark Turner, and plenty of other capable actors—an all star cast as the announcements promised, and so efficient as to make the revival praiseworthy in every respect. Be- fore launching the old play on new seas care was taken to bring it up to date a bit. Winchell Smith and Victor Mapes, who undertook the delicate job, went about it in just the right way. They cleared away some of the obsolete material of the story and dropped two or three needless characters, but they were careful not to lay devastating hands on its crisp and original humor, or change a particle the spirit that Bronson Howard put into it. But why did they sacrifice that one characteristic line of Bertie's which, as Stuart Rob- son used to squeak it out, never failed to bring a roar of laughter, "The boys at the club think Fm a devil of a fellow—but I ain't." For the sake of old times that line ought to be restored instanter. The New Henrietta is bound to be one of the winter hits at the Knickerbocker. * * * The Comedy Theatre last Mon- day suggested the Metropolitan Op- era House in miniature on a Caruso night. Hundreds of sons of Italy filled the seats, while dozens more scrambled lutilely for admission. They hailed the return of Mme. Aguglia and her Sicilian players, first seen in Broadway five years ago. Mme. Aguglia has abandoned her repertory of dramas in Sicilian dialect for standard works in the Italian tongue. So last week the company was seen in a translation of Oscar Wilde's tragic playlet, Sa- lome, as a curtainer-raiser to Mrs. Ann C. Fle.xner's comedy, The Mar- riage Game. Apparently no fear of Com stock ian wrath caused any ab- breviation to be made in the text, for the Dance of the Seven Veils in all its bare sensuality and the epi- sode of the prophet's head in its re- volting realism were included. For once the vigilant William Hammer- stein has blundered. What opera houses could he not build for his sire had he but known how seduc- tively the sinuous body of Mme. Aguglia could contort and had he but garnered her for his temple of art! The little actress is below the average height, and her body is gracefully and amply formed. To this requisite of beauty from the Italian viewpoint is added the pi- quancy of a face peculiarly expres- sive. Thus equipped there was rea- son for Herod's agitation when this modern Salome danced. But aside from the sensationalism of the dance, there was much art in Mme. Aguglia's performance. She Avell denoted the irrational, sensual, vi- cious nature of the daughter of Her- odiade, and her rendition of the apostrophe to the head of the Proph- et John was particularly effective in conveying the sense of reason un- balanced by passion. G. Cecchini was a picturesque John, and he too acted with distinction and repres- sion. As for the Herod of G. Sterni and the acting of the others, it well illustrated what Hamlet meant when he spoke of out-Heroding Herod. * * * Eva Tanguay entered upon the third and last week of her extreme- ly successful engaement at the 44th .Street Music Hall last Monday. A numl)er of new acts were added to the bill that pleased immensely. The l'"ive Connor Sisters, Jane Dara & Co. in a condensed comedy, entitled The Telephone Girl; the Kremo I'amily, in an acrobatic novelty, and Fritz Walton and Meta Brandt are among the new comers. This was the last week of this form of enter- tainment at the ]\rusic Hall. Here- after it will be known as the 44th Street Theatre, and will inaugurate the new change in policy with The Girl on the Film. * * * The sixth week of the present season at the Metropolitan Opera House was be- gun last week with the performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute. The distinguishing feature of last night's I)erformance was that in it Mme. Gadski appeared for the first time this season as Pamina, and Carl Jorn for the first time as Tamino, other- wise the cast was the usual one. Carl Braun was again the Sarastro, and Frieda Hempel the Queen of the Night, while Otto Goritz and Bella .Alten were the Papageno and Papa- gena. The others w-ere the Messrs. Reiss, Grisvvold, Murphy, Schlegel and Bayer, and Mmes. Curtis Eu- bank, Robeson, Sparkes, Cox and Mattfcld. Mr. Hertz conducted. * * * Last Monday was moving day among the theatres, two dramatic attractions being transferred to other playhouses to make way for new pieces for holiday consumption. Lawrence Eyre's pretty little com- ed)'. The Things that Count, was moved from the Maxine Elliott The- atre to the Playhouse. There is a Christmas tree in this play, which is more Christmassy in spirit than any of the season's offerings. Wm. Hurlbut's comedy of a Parisian bred woman's reception in a small Iowa town, entitled The Strange Woman, was changed from the Lyceum to the Gaiety. Elsie Ferguson is the featured player in this comedy. * * * On Tuesday, Jan. 6, W^m. Collier will appear at the Hudson Theatre, New York, in a new farce written by Mr. Collier and Grant Stewart. This will be Mr. Collier's second New York appearancc in one season. The scenes of his new piece are laid on Long Island, in and about St. James, where Mr. Collier has a summer home. * * * By a sudden change of plans, Chas. Frohman decided that Billie Burke should make her first appearance in New York this season at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, Christmas night, when a double nov- elty was revealed—Miss Burke cast for a role that does not depend upon frocks or millinery and W. S. Maugham, the playwright, set forth as the author of a serious play of North American frontier life, The Land of Promise. Miss Burke's new play is a vigorous, unvarnished hu- man story in four acts that has to do largely with homestead life in Canada. The first act is laid in England and the last three tell a story typical of the lives of those who come out from England "to begin all over again." Chas. Froh- man, fastening upon Miss Burke's performance of the third act of The "Mind the Paint" Girl, is deliber- ately advancing the actress into more .serious endeavors in her pro- fession, with The Land of Promise as the medium. Just as Ethel Bar- rymore eventually graduated from "personality parts"—thanks to her acting in Pinero's Mid-Channel— Mr. Frohman believes that Billie Burke will cross the bridge from frocks and frills to genuing acting, thanks to Mr. Maugham's The Land of Promise. At any rate, he be- lieves the goal worthy of the strug- gle. * * * May de Sousa, the musi- cal comedy soprano most recently seen in the leading feminine role in Lieber Augustin, becomes leading woman in support of Donald Brian in The Marriage Market, singing the part for the first time last week at the Grand Opera House. Miss de .Sousa succeeds Venita Fitzhugh who sang the role of Mariposa Gil- roy during the run of The Marriage -Market at the Knickerbocker Thea- tre until transferred b)- Chas. Froh- man to the role of leading comedi- enne in Mr. hVohman's next musical comedy production, The Laughing Husband. A long term contract has been negotiated between Miss de Sousa and Chas. Frohman. The actress, long ago an established fa- vorite in this country and more es- pecially in London, is intended by Mr. Frohman for future important work in c(.)ming Frohman London musical comedy productions. For the present. Miss de .Sousa will re- main probably throughout the sea- son leading lady for Mr. Brian in The Marriage Market. She will add a number of new features and par- ticularly several novelties of her own contrivance during tlie second and third acts of The Marriage Mar- ket. The piece, with Miss de Sousa as Mariposa, is scheduled for a re- turn engagement of four months in New York in February. In Venita Fitzhugh Mr. Frohman believes that