San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

October 2, 1909. THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW ThaiS Magrane Is Immense as Du Barry and Billie Burke Takes Her Audience By Storm. All This Happens in L.OS AngeleS LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30.— The biggest thing that is taking the attention of people theatrical this week is the production of DuBarry by the Belasco Company. It surely is a big undertaking, but it is being done and well done at that. This is the last week of the Allen Curtis Company at Fischer's. Next week the company goes to the Walker Theatre. They will be succeeded by Charles Alphin and his company, playing musical productions from Mr. Alphin's pen. The company is now rehearsing for the opening bill, The King of Patagonia. We are told that A. Byron Beasley has received a letter from ''Our Bill" Desmond from New Orleans, in which he says there has been a tornado down there, but that he still has the watch presented to him by the members of the Burbank Company. He is quoted as saying that a tree fell on him, and still the watch was unharmed. Blanche Hall has sailed from Honolulu for Los Angeles. She will return to the Burbank as leading woman, October 17th. Beth Tate, who is playing the maid in The Girl from Rector's this week, has received a signed contract to create the soubrette role in a big musical comedy called Slumming, which will be produced in New. York in January. Miss Tate is to be "featured," which means that she will become a star if she makes good. The comedy will be under the management of Al H. Woods. John Philip Sousa will give his longest engagement in Southern California at the Auditorium next month. Under the local direction of the Fitzgerald Music Company he and his band will give twelve concerts. The Bank Clerks' Show has been announced for November 4, 5, 6, at the Mason Opera House. Instead of the usual minstrel show, the entertainment will consist of a light opera. The libretto is written by Charles Saxby, and set to music by Philip Kaufman. There are several women's parts this year, which is a new departure for this organization. AUDITORIUM— The Great John Ganton, dramatized by J. Hartley Manners from Arthur J. Eddy's story of Chicago packingtown, Ganton & Co., is being presented at the Auditorium this week by a large percentage of the original company, including the one really important figure, George Fawcett, who plays Ganton himself. The play itself is not a very strong one, but it serves to introduce to us George Fawcett, who is really a great actor. His characterization of Ganton is ideal, and one that will not soon be forgotten by any who see the production. An admirable piece of work is done by Allen Fawcett as the packer's confidential clerk. John Webster is manly as Allan Borlan leader of a hopeless fight against the packing trust. Mr. Gray is a typical stage clergyman. Miss Campbell as May Keating shows that she has ability and that she is capable of more than she is called upon to do in this play. Thurston Hall and Lucius Henderson also do well in the roles assigned to them. The geopraphical atmosphere is well instilled. It is the minor note in the harmony of realism which makes the play worth so much. BELASCO. — The company at the Belasco has undertaken a big thing this week in the production of DuBarry. The whole performance does credit to the company. It is most too much for a stock company to do when there is so little time for rehearsals, and the present offering is a surprise to many who did think that the company was unequal to the task. Thais Magrane in the Carter role does wonderfully well. She gives us a consistent forceful and convincing picture of Mr. Belasco's heroine. She works her scenes up well and shows us that she can handle an emotional part better than most stock actresses. The rest of the characters seem small and insignificant beside DuBarry herself and yet they all have their place in the whole scheme and each one is in capable hands. Lewis S. Stone, as Cosse, is forceful, dignified and impressive. Mr. Vivian gives an appealing picture of Denys, the faithful servant. Mr. Camp does very excellent work as the King. Mr. Giblyn as Comte Jean DuBarry, does the.best piece of work he has done since he joined the Belasco forces. There is only one thing which mars his work a little, and that is his propensity for playing to his audience all of the time. The stage settings are beautiful and complete. The elegance and richness of furniture and costumes is truly wonderful and entirely beyond anything yet attempted by a stock organization. BURBANK— Mr. Morosco's company is this week giving us the best performance of Somerset Maugham's Lady Frederick that has been given in Los Angeles. Lady Frederick is not a great play in any sense of the word, and there are times when it is not even interesting, and this is the very reason that it requires good players to make the performance go and keep the attention of the audience. Miss Burkhart plays the lead as if she had played no other part all of her life and her easy, graceful stage presence makes her a very charming Lady Frederick. Her gowns captivate the women, and she is a real Lady Frederick. Mr. Beasley gives a smooth and finished performance of Paradine Fouldes. Harry Mestayer is very good as Lord Meresto. Mr. Hartford and Margo Duffet both have small parts, which they handle well. Mr. Stockbridge' is amusing, in the part of Gerald O'Mara. Mr. Burton returns to the company after his vacation and has a good part in this week's play. Scenically the plav is all that could be desired. MASON — Billie Burke, with her airs and graces, her spontaneity and youth, is once more at the Mason, after two seasons of London and New York successes. On her previous visit to Los Angeles, she was John Drew's support in My Wife. Love Watches is an adaptation from the French, and is a light and extremely frothy comedy, of the sort that the French pen so well. Miss Burke, as Jacqueline, is all that her looks belie, and brings her fascinating voice into good play, as the playful, jealous, whimsical wife of one Count Andre De Juvigny, who is well portrayed by Vernon Steele. Ernest Lawford, as the book-worm, Augarde, was most convincing. Maude Odell gave a splendid picture of Lucie de Morfontaine, also Kate Meek as the worldly-wise Marquise de Juvigny. The rest of the characters were equally well cast. MAJESTIC— Mr. Morosco is playing The Girl from Rector's. The scat sale is one of those record-breakers. The plot deals with the wife of an American diplomat, stationed in China. The action takes my lady from Battle Creek, Michigan, to the wicked and fascinating "Great White Way" in New York, where she finds solace and entertainment at "Rector's." "The Girl," Carrie Weber, makes the most of all opportunities, and is the center of all the fun. The music is tuneful the chorus all that could be desired, and the entire cast is all that it should be. GRAND— Adrift in the World is the melodramatic offering at the Grand for the week. This is a really interesting play which is more than can be said of many of the thrilling things that are put before us nowadays. There is both good action and bright comedy in the piece and the members of the company are all well cast. George W ebb appears this week as the hero, while Robert Leonard plays the villain. Lillian Ha\ ward is playing one of her familiar "heavy" roles in a genuine manner. Arthur Witting supplies most of the comedy of the piece with his excellent characterization of the Jew Abraham Jacobson. Margaret Davis a new member of the company, does good work as Martha Pickings. Grace Rauworth is convincing in the leading feminine role of Mary Elliott. Harry Oaks and Mayme Charlson both do good work in character parts. The performance is most satisfactory. ORPHEUM— The bill this week is much better than the average both as to new turns and the hold-overs. Leila Mclntyre and John Hymans have a well-written sketch dealing with the often-used situation of the stage manager and the aspiring one who desires to be initiated into the tricks and wiles of the land beyond the curtain. Catharine Hayes and Sabel Johnson are well fitted in a merry skit, The Dream of Baby Days. George W. Cunningham and Herman Marion get away with a good many laughs in their mixture of comedy and some very good acrobatic stunts. Rose Royal brings many rounds of applause with her posing horse, Chesterfield. Jack the Giant Killer is still appealing to the youngsters, and Joseph Hart and his Bathing Girls to the grown-ups. Carson and Willard, and The Thalia Quartette complete the list of holdovers. The moving pictures are, as always, a finishing touch to a very good bill. LOS ANGELES— Come Back to Erin, a sketch act, heads the bill at the Los Angeles Theatre this week. It is a well conceived and ably acted sketch, being put on by Charles Mack and a company of three. The rest of the bill is made up of good acts. The Wood Brothers are seen in a double-ring act. J. K. Emmett and his company appear in a comedy entitled Artie's Dream. 5 Alfred K. Hall does some eccei dancing. J. Warren Keane is 01 u the younger masters of sleight-of-hand tricks; his work is very clever. Cogan and Bancroft can skate, and dance on skates. New motion pictures complete the bill. I'l SCHICK'S — The attraction for the week at Fischer's is An American Princess — a one-act musical satire on foreign noblemen, German professors and SttflFriagettes. Annie Hauman plays the I'rincess. C harles Fig"', who has been passing his vacation in a mountain retreat, is cast as Mr. Wise, a shrewd and polished adventurer. Mayme I'raeger is the woman suffragette. ;'.!•> d Fstelle I'raeger is the Mimi, the mai \. 1 enry Auerbach is an English du '" ; Arthur damage a German professor. The chorus is attractive in new costumes and the dances are pretty. Among the song numbers arc Move On, Mr. Moon, When Women Get Their Right, My Word, and Oh! Miss Malinda. Owing to the illness of Hobart Bosworth, Mr. Morosco has been conducting the Morosco Dramatic School, pending the arrival of a new director from New York. Mr. Morosco has seen fit to select two pupils from the school for important roles in the forthcoming production of When We Were Twenty-One at the Burbank. SACRAMENTO. Sept. 29.— The Girl from Rector's had poor houses at the Clunie, 19-20. Dustin Farnum in Comeo Kirby drew a full house, 25. The Clmax, to fair business, 26-27. Coming to the Clunie: The Time, the Place and the Girl, 30 ; Blanche Bates in The Fighting Hope, Oct. 1 ; Kolb and Dill in Dream City, 3 ; A Knight for a Day, 4. After the performance of Cameo Kirby, Dustin Farnum was entertained by the Camellians, a local dramatic society. At the Grand, week commencing Sept. 19th : The Three Rohrs, looping the loop in a revolving globe ; George Edward Murphy and Walt Whitman, assisted by Florence Bates Norsfall, in the sketch, A Prodigal Girl ; Vera De Bassini, operatic prima donna, and wonderful human violin; William Mitchell and John J. Cain, The Frenchman and the Other Fellow; Wood Brothers, athletes, in their double flying rings ; Clarence Sisters, the Australian Nuggets. At Pantages, week Sunday, Sept. 26th : Menetekel, the mystery of Babylon, phenomenal illusion ; Montague's cockatoos ; Arthur Deming, the minstrel man ; Jones and Walton, Our Country Cousin ; Rivell and Deery, Roman ring artists. Negotiations are afoot for a presentation of King Lear, under the direction of Wm. Stoermer, at the Greek Theatre, Berkeley. This will probably be one of the best attractions ever launched from a bay city. The company will play a limited number of guaranteed engagements about California before embarking for Eastern territory. Charles King ANNOUNCES Marjory Rambeau & Company At the PICKWICK THEATRE, San Diego, for an indefinite season Producing Only Royalty Plays