The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

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6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW January 17, 1914. Correspondence Dick Wilbur Co, FOURTH SEASON OF SUCCESS THE BIGGEST REPERTOIRE COMPANY ON THE COAST Open in Eureka in stock, hej^inning January 3—indefinitely. Send for New Catalogue Stating Kind Desired THEATRICAL CATALOGUE tf Show Print- ing. Reoertoire. Stock. Circui, Wild Wost. Tint Shews, Etc. rAIR PRINTING. Fain. Racot. AviatiM,^ Aut«, Horee. Stock Shawt, Etc. MAGIC PRINTING, HypnotUm, lllusiena. Mind Roading, Etc. MINSTREL PRINTING. Whitt cr Colored, With or Without Title. Etc MOVING PICTURE PRINTING. Etc. WESTERN PLAYS, Etc. FOLDERS of Non-Roralty Playt with Printing. Slow aad Theatrical Printers Lithographers, Engravers National Slocl( Hangers and Posters on Hand for every Kind of Amusement Enterprise WRITE ST. LOUIS OFFICE - 7TH AND ELM StS. Salt Lake City, Utah w ill ir the I'uisiin- and (.'abarot are tlie Cf)e jWecca'of K. I>. Wll.lj:, Mgrr. NEW YORK, Jan. 11.—.\ jolly lit- tle comedy, full of lu^liter and amuse- ment and with just enough moral not to hurt it, served to bring the Taliaferro sisters for the first time to Broadway as co-stars. It was no ea.sy matter to fit these two aspiring young women with satisfactory parts in the same play, but Rachel Crothers in Young \\'is(lom has succeeded most admirably. The sisters are both on the stage when the curtain rises, so there is no question of precedence in their entrances, and from then on the situations are evenly portioned out and the lines are divided as if with a tape measure. There were no scenes that Required any very heavy acting in the comedy, so that the powers of the young stars were not unduly strained. Both looked very charming and both obviously enjoyed the triumph which the pleasant success of the play and the warm ])ersonal welcome they re- ceived meant to them. Miss Crothers had fitted them out with Tempest and .Sunshine roles. Tempest, falling naturally to Edith by virtue of her lirunctte coloring, was self-willed and determined, while Sunshine, being of course the blond iMabel, talked a great deal about freedom for women and a lot of other things, and subsided when the proper time came. There was a quaint plot, which the author adju.stcd to her stars, and it was well handled and was rarely talky. The jilay moved briskly, the lines were bright and the situations amusing. The story dealt with the practical ap])lica- tion to her own family aft'airs of half baked feminist doctrine picked up by the young Victoria Claffenden, the blond sister, while at college. Her young sister, Gail, has eagerly ab- sorbed all this unclerdonc philo.sophy, and on the eve of her wedding to her childhood sweetheart she suddenly de- cides to make a stand for freedom, whatever that might be. At the mo- ment this decision took the form of eloping with her lover and launching a trial marriage rather than undergo the conventional wedding march and white veil affairs that had been planned. Into this scheme she dragged her reluctant sweetheart, Peter, who consented to the arrangement only when he had induced Victoria's lover, Christopher, to bring the si.ster and follow them, the idea being to give the girls a dose of their own medicine and frighten them into returning home and being married conventionally. The four met at the summer studio of a startled and highly disapproving young artist whose failure to under- stand the utterly incomprehensible situation supplied much of the comedy of the second act. \'ictoria had com- pletely lost her nerve and tiiought only of getting back home, while Gail still stood out for the "larger freedom." At the end both were gathered u]) bodily and carried off in a motor car to no one knew where. The third act returned to the Claffenden home, back to which the young men had brought the girls to face the wrath of an ex- ceedingly old-fashioned and conven- tional father. But the "trial marriage," brief as it was, had been a success, for Gail and Peter had discovered their mistake and Victoria had been brought to a realization of the uses of a mar- riage ceremony. A second elopement in the one night, with a kidnapped motlier as a chapcrnnc furnished a solution for the difficulties and an es- ca|)c from the father and his red dressing gown. A|)art from the roles of the Taliaferro sisters, the best act- ing chance fell to Richard Sterling, with the ])art of the simple, dull, slow- witted, honest-hearted Peter. Hay- ward Ginn was Christopher an<l Regan Hughston was the arti.st. * * * The Legend of Leonora is a sheer delight in New York. At the Empire Tiiea- tre. its charm came floating over tiie footlights, delicate and gossamerlike. Now fanciful, then .satiric, at times tender to the point of tears, and then skip])ing off with a new fantastic ab- surdity, the little jilaj' disarmed criti- cism and won its way into immediate favor. Wise Barrie! He knows that although the modern, practical woman, with her votes, her clubs and her ex- ecutive boards, may be professedly an object of admiration, it is the old- fashioned woman who is really loved. And so he creates Leonora in old- fa.shioned colors, makes her a thing of beauty and a joy forever. .A,nd lucky Barrie, who, after creating this character with as many moods as there are moments in the play, has been fortunate enough to have ]\Taude .\dams present the character. Since London did not have that pleasure and privilege, so much the worse for Lon- don—and for Leonora. Miss Adams makes Leonora one of the most be- witching of all the P>arrie heroines she has played. Barrie and Miss Adams are again a happy combination. So whimsical and fantastic is the story that to recount it is to spoil it. A fond mother kills a man by throwing him out of a second-class railway car- riage because he insisted on having a window open, and Leonora's little daughter had a cold—on such an in- cident is the play built! Would any one but Barrie have dared to do it? Old Justice Grimdykc, before whom Leonora is tried, describes her in un- forgettable terms. Says he: "You are one of those round whom legends grow even in their lifetime. * * * This is the sort of thing you might have done had your little girl had a cold. And this is how w'e might have acted had you done it. * * * You are not of today—foolish, wayward, unself- conscious, comnnmicative Leonora. The ladies of today are different and —wiser. Jiut as we look longingly at you we see again in their habit as they lived those out-of-date, unreason- ing, womanish creatures, our mothers and grandmothers and other dear ones long ago loved and lost—and as if you were the last woman, Leonora, we bid you hail and farewell." All through the four acts Barrie's humor shines. In almost the first lines after the cur- tain has risen an anxious wife says to her hu.sband: "I do so wish you wouldn't try to be funny tonight. I want the dinner to be a .success." But he does try to be funny. He explains to a shy guest that there are to be seven women at the dinner—a woman with no sense of humor, a woman with too much sense of humor, a very wom- an, a suffragette, a mother and noth- ing else, a coquette—and a murderess! The shy guest meets one of these women and tries to guess which she is. Blundering through the list in a capi- tal comedy .scene, he finds that she is Leonora, and that Leonora is all seven women, and ever so many more rolled into one. The play pro.gresscs, and in two acts the trial of Leonora is shown. There never were such to])sy- turvy scenes on the stage. The Jus- tice regrets the absence of Leonora, who has been away for a cup of tea for three-quarters of an hour. He complains that the Court is dull with- out her. Leonora has so charmed him that he refers to her crime, not as murder, but as a rash act. Inci- dentally, he explains about golf. "Were there small red flags," he asks a witness, ".stuck in holes in the ground? There were? Well, that is golf. I understand when they all jilay together it is called a fearsome!" Of course, Leonora is declared not guilty by a proud jury, nearly all of whom are fathers, and every one of them wearing a flower that Leonora stuck in their buttonholes while she shared their deliberations on her own case. The scene is the wildest travesty, with little touches of ])athos, irony and sen- timent shot through its wildest mo- ments. The ac(|uitted Leonora in a .scene of most delicate humor and sen- timent is wooed and won by the shy guest, who was also her counsellor. Aubrey Smith played the role in a manner worthy of association with Miss Adams' Leonora. Arthur Lewis, as the whimsical old Ju.stice; Morton Selten, as a prosecuting attorney; Robert Peyton Carter and Fred Tyler, as jjrejudiced defendants of Leonora, were the leading figures in a big cast in which all the members united would form a most praiseworthy ensemble. .\nd that ensemble were united in fur- thering The Legend of Leonora. Long life to her! * * * Harry Lauder, the Scottish comedian, began his sixth American tour la.st week, ai)pearing at the Casino Theatre under the man- agement of William Morris, who has directed all his .'\merican appearances. Mr. Lauder did not arrive from Eng- lantl until the last moment, and had no time for a rehearsal, but he was greeted by a large audience. He sang some new songs and repeated some of those already heard here. The rest of the program consisted of several interesting vaudeville acts. 'I'iie i n- gagement at tiic Casino was one we k- only. GA\TN D. HIGH. TACOMA, Jan. 3.—C. H. Herald, manager of the Tacoma Theatre, was married on Dec. 31 at San I-'rancisco to Ida Platter of tliii State. They will return to Tacoi ia to reside. The present company ofi players at the Princess Theatra closed here this week, giving an t x- cellent renditi(.)n of the well-known comedy, Mrs. Temjile's Telegram, the leading \r,\.ri being well taki 11 by I)(^rcas ^latthews. Before si p- arating the vvht)le company will Ix.' seen in a monster benefit bill "f vaudeville on Sunday, Jan. 4—afu r- noon and evening. .\s many of the company have been seen in llii! "two a day," a good entertainnu 1 it is sure to result. The Stanford (iK e Club was at the Tacoma Theatre > n New Year's night and gave an en- joyable concert, in which they werO' assisted by Harold Broomell of this city. Alice Lloyd comes to the Ta- coma for two nights on Jan. 8. fni- lowed by Gaby Deslys on Jan. 14 and the great Pavlova cm Jan. i'>. I'jn])ress Theatre: The Six Diving .\vmphs were a stirring attraction this week and on b'riday eveningj. challenged well known local swim- . mers to a contest. One of the local ^ contestants was Hazel Bess Lang-j ^ enour, now of the ]^"incess StocW *^ Co. and last season identified with 1; vaudeville. Whyte, Pelzer and Whyte were back with a good line|, of comedy. Herman and Shirley had a clever act. The Three V(js-j carrys proved to be various types oflj^ funny men, and Orville Reeder, withi his excellent i)iano playing, and fun-j*' nv Jimmie McDonald, make up an altogether excellent bill. I'antages Theatre: The Eight Berlin Mad- ' caps, the ;\lpha .Sextette and Chas , Reilly were about ec|ually divided , for excellence. La I-'rance and .Mc- . Nab were comical in a blackfact *kit. and the comedy new. Rena } .■\rnold was a pleasing singer and the ' .Aerial Lafayettes skilled tranez« ' artists. A. H. ^ "Gunboat" Smith, the latest of th? » heavyweight white hopes, has signed s > Pantages contract. *