The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

January 24, 1914. THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW 7 ME YE i=»'S- GUARANTEED AKE-UP BEST MADE FOR THE BEST SCENERY FOR VAUDEVILLE THEATRES, OPERA HOUSES, VAUD- EVILLE ACTS, ETC. The Ghas. F. Thompson Scenic Co. 1529 FRANKLIN STREET, OAKLAND, CAL. Scenic Advertising Curtains E X o R A P R E P A R A T I O N S A R E B E S T Burnt Cork YOU MIST MAKE UP SO MAKE-IP WITH THE BEST MAKE UP MEYERS Grease Paint, "10 and 25c a stick" Ezora Powder, Roug'e. Cream, Cerate, Balm, Brilllautine, Sbampoo, 50c. If your dealer will not supply you, we will, and pay all charges. Meyer's Clown White E X O R A P R E P A R A T I O N S Meyer's Exora Preparation 104 W. 13TK ST., N. Y. C. Meyer's Grease Faint Correspondence as a dramatist. As an actor he at once made his way into the sympathies of his auchence, who were quick to appreciate his attractive and magnetic personality and his method of acting, which is as concise and clean cut as our own John Drew's. There is an electrical quality about JMr. Esmond which makes him seem more like an American than an Englishman. It was in one of his own plays not hitherto seen here that Mr. Esmond and his wife, known to the .stage as I'-va Moore, elected to appear. Eliza Comes to Stay is a delightful little comedy in three acts. The story is simi;Ie, with kindly touches here and there,, and several well defined charac- ters. It is on the shoulders of Eliza that the main responsibility of the coinedy rests. Eva Moore appears in this role, which is essentially girlish ; her ])crformance is a genuine delight from beginning to end. Eliza is an orphan Ijequcathed by her father, late of the Salvation Army, to a young bachelor, whose life he once saved in an Alpine lieight. The bachelor ex- ])ccts an infant and is surprised to find a marriageable young woman. .She is consciously and intentionally dowdy in order to escape temptation, but her association with the nice young bachelor awakens the eternal feminine in Eliza, who makes herself so attractive that .she wins the heart and hand of her guardian. Slight as the i^lot is, Aliss Moore finds in it abundance of o])portunity for the most winning comedy. With constantly changing inflections, sprightly illumin- ating gestures and a constant jilay of facial expression, she makes the role of Eliza a constant .source of plea.sure to the spectators. Fred CJrove, as a comical uncle, who lo(jks like an ec- centric character by Dickens, and 1 larry .\sford as an old flirt, were the other leading figures in a small but I very cajjable cast of b'nglish actors, who came direct from the Criterion Theatre, in London, for this Ameri- can engagement, under Chas. l-'roh- 1 man's enterprising management. * * * It was probably inevitable that the Rubaiyat of Omar should reach the stage in one form or another. They have long since passed into the Rogers statuette school of poetry, but there mu.st have been a time before they had become as common as the Barye lion on the youthful bachelor's bookcase or the burnt leather cushion. The frenzied progress of the mad, bad, .sad, glad Liza Lehmann cycle of Omar's verse throughout the country should have had its eloquence for the manager with his ear to the ground. But it was not until last week Omar arrived in dramatic form. It would have taken, of course, a brave person to attempt the task. It would seem to the unprejudiced as easy to make a play out of the Rubaiyat as out of his algebra. Hut it has been discov- ered by the inquisitive R. W. Tully, who wrote this play as well as The Rose of the Rancho and The Bird of Paradise, that the life of a tentmaker of the Middle Ages possessed just the qualities that have made stage heroes of other men. So in the first act the tentmaker, impersonated by Guy B. Post, is a young student weary of a theology that is bringing him no satis- faction. Mr. Tully has contrived an ingenious melodrama about the figure of the famous poet and for three acts it held the interest of the audience. But the dramatic scenes of the play, episodical as they are, made their ef- fect with certainty. The imaginative manner in which Mr. Tully's ideas were presented played, of course, the most important part in the success of the i)lay. Mr. Tully's highly colored melodramatic episodes, the beauty and imagination with which they have been placed upon the stage and the l)0]:)ularity of Omar's verse—very ex- pressively and eloquently spoken by Mr. Post—should bring to Omar the Tentmaker the success it deserves. An ap])eal to the senses of sight and sound is constantly made to establish the feeling of the .scenes. And this re- sult is almost invariably accomplished. So the task has been well done. Guy Bates Post was never a plastic nor imaginative actor in the past, but he incarnated the poet last night with variety and a deeper feeling than he has ever displayed before. The rest of the ])layers were adequate and the groujjings nicturesque. Augustus Post made his dramatic debut in the third act. * * * When the lu.scious melodies that Emerich Kalman has sprinkled so plenteously through the The Butler-Nelke Academy of Dramatic Arts Now located In Golden Gate Commandery Hall, 2137 Sutter St. Most complete and thoroughly equipped dramatic school on the Pacific Coast. Courses in Dramatic Art, Voice Development, Vocal Expression, Pan- tomime, Literature, French, Dancing, Fen- cing and Make-up. Amateur clubs re- hearsed; entertainments furnished. Send for catalog. Miriam Nelke, director; Fred J. Butler, principal (stage director Alcazar Theatre). new operetta. Sari, floated through the Liberty Theatre last week the au- dience was carried away into a tropical atmosphere far away from our present zero temperature. Mizzi Hajos is Sari, and she is the breeziest little prima donna that ever blew into success. She is a little package of real Hungarian paprika, spicy enough to season the operetta for a whole sea- son, and even longer. Her dance with Charles Meakins in the first act is called Hazazaa, and the name fits it exactly. Nothing could be funnier than this quaint little dance, with its comical birdlike hopoings, in which Miss Hajos got her most amusing ef- fects. In the last act, laid in Paris, Sari appears in Hungarian finery that makes lier look like a veritable pea- cock. Her absurd struttings carry out the illusion even further. "Humph!" she says at one point in regard to present fashions, "Tight skirts display such good form and such bad taste!" As if to make her sayings true, Henry W. Savage has dressed some of his chorus girls in costumes that are an amusing satire on present-day exces- ses in women's gowns. Van Rensse- laer Wheeler and J. Humbird Dufify were the rival musicians. Mr. Wheel- er's adieu to his violin is a pretty num- ber with plenty of sob stuff in it. Mr. Duffey was not permitted to be so mushy, but he made up by singing plenty of high tones, a task in which Blanche Duffield assisted. Mr. Mea- kins was Gaston, Count Irini, one of those singing and dancing stage counts that are rarely absent from light opera, and Harry Davenport was Cadeaux, his shadeaux. Or should it have been spelled Cadow, his shadow? Sari is a delight and one of the sea.son's succes,scs. GAVIN D. HIGH. PORTLAND, Jan. 19. — Heilig Theatre (Calvin Heilig, mgr.; W. T. Pangle, res. mgr.)—Robert Mantell, in Shakespearean plays, has charmed the patrons of this theatre for the past week. He ofifered King John for the first time, and captivated all by his rendition. His Hamlet, Shylock and Richard III. we have seen on ])rcvious occasions, and therefore any comment is unnecessary. Thais Lawton is a charmiMg actress with a well modu- lated voice; the rest of the roles are creditably |)erformcd and the produc- tion in detail is sui)crb. The Blindness of Virtue, an English play, presented by an English company, opened last night for four nights and a matinee. It is a .strong, gripping drama, and an indictment of the habit of permit- GOLDSTEIN S CO. GOSTUIVIERS "1^^'' and Wig Store Make-up. Play Books. Established 1876. I.incoln Bulldlnr, Market and rifth MM: Theatre Chairs and School Desks at One Dollar Each Write for Particulars Whitaker & Ray- Wiggin Co. "Evarythinr In ■•atlnr" a±jx pxAircisoo H. Lewin H. Oppenhelm GORDAN TAILORING CO. 933 Market St., t^t. Powell and Maaon TINS CXOTHES XOSBKATE PmiOXS No Branch Stores ting boys and girls to grow to man- hood and womanhood in ignorance of certain natural impulses and condi- tions that will later confront them. Coming: May Irwin in Widow by Proxy, who will round out the week, and Little Women will be the attrac- tion for the week beginning Jan. 26. Baker Theatre (Geo. L. Baker, mgr.; Milton Seaman, bus. mgr.)l—James Forbes' funny comedy. The Traveling Salesman, is being presented in an ex- cellent manner. Louis Leon Hall as Bob Blake, the salesman, who is left in a country town on Christmas day, fits the role physicalh'. and keei)s the audience in a condition of hilarity whenever he is on the stage, which is most of the time. Dorothy Shoe- maker is Beth Elliott, the telegraph ooerator in the little town where Blake is stalled. She is a lovable country girl. William Nolte, Walter Gilbert and Carl Strousse are a trio of travel- ing salesmen who play a game of poker. The play is presented in rapid time and is one of the hits of the sea- son. Next, The Woman in the Case. Lyric Theatre (Keating & Flood, mgrs.)—Rosinski's Dream serves as the vehicle for Ed. S. Allen's return. He will be ably assisted by the other members of the Princess Musical Comedy Comi:)any. Or]ihcum Thea- tre (iM-ank Coffinberry, mgr.)—Eddie Leonard, assisted by Mabel Russell; Willa Holt Wakefield, Dr. Carl Her- man, Claude and Fannie Usher, Mc- Cormack and Irving, Nelson and Nel- son, and Coleman's European Novel- ty. Pantages Theatre (John Johnson, mgr.)—The Pollard Opera Com])any, Gertrude Forbes & Co., Krcxco and Fox, Roche and Crawford, and The De Forrests. l-jiipress Theatre (H. W. Pierong, mgr.)—Big Jim, dan- cing bear ; Maurice Freeman & Co.; Fro.stick, Ilinnc and Thomas; Wil- liams and Warner, and Chas. C. Drew & Company. A. W. W.