The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW March 21, 1914. Correspondence NEW YORK. .March 15.—L'n- questionalily the most successful dra- matic offerint^ in vaudeville this sea- son is the appearance of William l-'aversham in a boiled-doun version of The Squaw Man at the CO- LONIAL. The audience rose to its feet and cheered Mr. Faversliani at the conclusion of his act—which is an event that happens very, very sel- dom in a vaudeville house. The S<)uaw Man lends itself ])articularly well to vaudeville purposes. Mr. Royle has managed to condense the third act of his play and to intro- duce enough explanatory speeches so that the essence of practically the en- tire piece is conveyed to the audience in less than half an hour. The en- thusiasm with which tlic audience re- ceived it proves the mistake of tiie often-quoted theory that t)ne-act sketches in variety theatres must have a happy ending. The pathos of tiie situation when Jim tells .\at-u-vitch that he is going to send their little boy away to England with the stranger, has a most p(jignantl\' mov- ing effect upon the spectator. Mr. Faversham's acting siiowed the re- sult of two seasons of Shakespeare. The audience liked it immensely, llis company includes I'Vank ISrownlee as Big Bill, Arthur Elliott as Malcolm Petrie, and Elsie Oldham as Nat-u- vitch. The act is exceptionally well mounted. * * * At the CENTL:RY OPERA HOUSE last week, Verdi's .-\ida, sung in English, was again brought forward. This opera was the one chosen by the Century or- ganization for the opening last Sep- tember of its first season here, and thus far it is the fifth work in the company's schedule to receive a sec- ond hearing. Its presentation served to attract a large audience, which showed no little enthusiasm. The performance was again, as at first, one of commendaI)le achievement. The forces of the hou.se, which, in respect to scenery, costumes, chorus and ballet, are on a scale sufficient in excellence to do good justice in meeting the requirements of these respective fields in the accomplish- ment of the opera's generally large and spectacular ensemble, called for recognition in terms of praise, while the work done by the leading sing- ers was that of conscientious en- deavor and always accompanied by the artistic results desirable. En- rico Clay, a new singer, was the Aida. Morgan Kingston was the Rhadames. His singing was a de- light. Kathleen Ibjward was again the .\mnerio and Louis Kreidler the Amonasro. The orchestra, under Mr. Szendreis' able directiun, did well with the brilliant score. * * * Arthur Ilammerstein has been giv- ing New York a typical Casino show this season, entitled High Jinks, a "musical jollity" written by Otto Hauerbach with a score by Rudolph Frimi and staged under the person- al direction of FVank Smithson. High Jinks derives its name from a new perfume which Dick W ayne is trying to get Dr. Robert Thorne to put on the market. It has the re- markable properties of making everybody very lively as soon as he gets a sniff of it. No matter how depressed he may feel, a few drops of High Jinks on a handkerchief will work wonders in restoring him to a condition of conviviality that Dick Wilbur Co. FOURTH SEASON OF SUCCESS THE BIGGEST REPERTOIRE COMPANY ON THE COAST Back on the Circuit makes iiim an extreinc (ii)tiniist un der the most depressing cijcum- stances. ()f course, the ])lot is one long continuous surprise, beginning with the office of the physician who conducts a popular health resort. Ro])ert I'itkin w:is the handsome ohysician who had great difficulty in restraining the im])etuousitv of his women ])atients in their efforts to thank him sufficiently for restor- ing them to health. ( )ne lady was so insistent that she could not re- frain from kissing him. That kiss was what caused most of the trouble, for tlie lady had a I'rench husband, and he insisted on either killing the American physician in a duel or else having rai eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth—in short, he would be willing to waive the duel if he could pay back the doctor in kind—bv kissing his wife. The ci>mpIications that follow in the efforts of tlic hus- l)and to ])revent this, call for a fre- quent ai5])lication of High Jinks, fn the excellent cast are our old friends, Tom Lewis, a retired millionaire whose health is all run down, l)ut who insists that he can never get well unless the physician will assign to him a nurse both pretty and young. Then there are Stella Mav- hew, Snitz Edwards, .Ada .Meade, Elaine Ilammerstein (daughter of .Arthur) and Ignacio Martinetti, who still i^rouettes in his dances as of y(jrc. A catchy song is entitled "High Jinks," because it seems to make everybody "tingle-lingle." Just to let them see on the Pacific Coast what kind of musical frivolity we like in New York now-a-days, when the extremes of the amuse- ment world has raised the ])rice of grand opera seats to $6.00 and low- ered the price of the movies to fiVe cents, so as to fit the pocket books of all classes, the Messrs. Shubert ought to send High Jinks out to California. * * * Maude Adams in a comedy "only for those who have ever had a mother," entitled The Legend of Lenora, is in the middle of a very successful run at the EM- PIRE Theatre, under the manage- ment of Charles I'Vohman. .As usual with the plays that Aliss .\dams has made popular in this country, The Legend of Lenora is by J. M. I>ar- rie. It is an l-^nglish play in that the scenes are laid in London, but in its comedy effects its humor is uni\ersal. It tells the story of a woman of the ])resent day who might ha\e ste])i)ed out of one of the old novels of Troll()i)e. The first act is in the hcnne oi the Toveys. There is to be a dinner party for the jnirpose of honoring Cai)t. Rattray, just returned from a scientific trij) to Patagonia. The Captain, through some mistake, gets to the home of his host a little earlv. He wants to know .some of the characteristics of some of the other guests so that he may talk to them without embar- rassment, because he has been away so long that he feels a little rusty in his conversation, llis host tells him about one man but he wants to know about the women. So Mr. Tovey describes the various women to him. mentioning no names. ( )ne Send for New Catalogue Stating Kind Desired THEATRICAL CATALOGUE of Sh»« Print- ing) Repertoiro. Stocli. Circus, Wild W«st, Tint Shows, Etc. FAIR PRINTING. Fairs. Hun. Aviati«n, Autc. Horse. Stock Shows, Etc. MAGIC PRINTING, Hypsotlsm, lllusioMi, Mind Rsadino, Etc. MINSTREL PRINTING. While or Colored. With or Withoui Title. Etc MOVING PICTURE PRINTING. Etc. WESTERN PLAYS, Etc. FOLDERS of Non-Royalty Plays with Printing. f and Tlnatricil IVs^^w-al Stock Hangtrs and Show and Thiatrical Printers Litiiograpliers, Engravers Stock Hangers and Posters on Hand for every Kiid of Amusement Eatirprise WRITE ST. LOUIS OFFICE - 7TH AND ELM StS. IS a "\'ery woman.' (hie is a "suf- fragist," another "a woman with no .sense of humor," another "a wom- an with too much sense of humor," etc., ending with "one murderess." W hen the first woman appears in the reception room, Ca])t. Rattray en- deavors to find out which one she is by her characteristics as displayed in conver.sation. I'iist he thinks she is one, then another, and so on un- til he has made five or six guesses, then he is forced to the conclusion that she is the murderess. So she turns out to be; at least, she is the \Yoman .soon to be tried for having pushed a man out of the window of a moving train merely because the boor insisted on o])ening a window "when her daughter had a cold." W hen Capt. Rattray asks Mr. Tovey where the other women are who were going to dine with him and .Mrs. '1 ovey he is told that there are no more; that "Lenora" is the only one—she who was all eight woman rolled into one, including the mur- deress. The second act is taken up with a trial of Lenora for murder. Here the i)lay of course has to merge from pure comedy into legitimate farce, although the efforts of every- l)ody in a trial to save a l)eautiful woman — even the prosecuting officer—is no great exaggeration of what we sometimes see in our .\merican courts. The third act ends with the betrothal of Capt. Rattray to Lenora with her seven children, including the little .girl who had a cold. .\o one but a liarrie could have written such a delightful travesty; none l)ut .Maude .\dams cciuld play it with such won- derful charm. Another feather in Miss Adams' cap. * * * Take off your hat to (leorge M. Cohan, who, like one William Shakespeare, has the art of handing us the much- condemned melodrama in such de- lightful doses that we actually pay big prices to see it. This obser- vation could not help forcing itself upon you while witnessing that most interesting "mystery farce" called Seven Keys to 15aldi)ate, which -Mr. Cohan dramatized from a story of the same name by I'"arl Derr I>iggers, and which has been running all season at the .A.ST()R Theatre under the management of L'oliau and Harris, il is very prop- erly called a mystery farce, becau.sc at no time is the audience com- pletely "wise" to the manner in which it is being hoodwinked into enjoying melodrama, which if pre- sented in undisguised forms might be highly condemned. Yet witii great skill the authors of this amus- ing farce take the audience in hand and gently lead it into the green pastures of melodrama as e.xcitin!^ as anything ever seen on Third Avenue in the old days when that was considered a paying form ot entertainment. It wasn't but a few years ago—about the time the moving pictures began to encroach.; upon the preserves of the cheaper forms of melodrama—that certain authors began to say that there was "no longer any money in melo- drama." Mr. Cohan has proven to the satisfaction of everybody who has analyzed the situation that there was no truth in that asser- tion. The fact is that the theatre- going public like melodrama just as much today as when Shakes- peare dressed up Hamlet in poetic form. Hamlet was melodrama, pure and simple. Cohan has gone .Shakes- neare one better, for, instead of mak- ing his melodrama tragical, he has made them farcical and that is per- haps why, at the age of .v^ years, he could—if he cared to—retire with a snug little fortune of $.300,000, after having settled enough on his father and mother to make them in- dei)endent for life. The central fig- ure in Seven Keys to Ualdpate is Wallace Kddinger, who will alway.-^ be remembered on the Pacific Coast as the Little Lord Fauntleroy of the original production that so delighted California. Like in Little Lord I'auntleroy, "Wallie" still has a part that exceeds in length the part in Hamlet. Well, all it is necessary to say is that what he did as a kid he duplicates admirably as a younj; man. He is ably assisted by Mar- garet (ireene, Lorena Atwood Carleton Macy, Martin L. .Alsop Iose])h .Allen, Roy h'airchild and (lail Kane. Seven Keys to I>aldi)att seems destined to have a record run. * * * The Things That Count bv Laurence Eyre, at William A lirady's THE I'LAYHOCSE .seemr