The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW May i6, 1914 Send for New Catalogue Stating Kind Desired: THEATRICAL CATALOGUE •! Sh»« Print- ing, Rapertoiro. Stock. Circus, Wild Wtst. Tint Shows, Etc. FAIR PRINTING. Fairs. Russ. Aviation, Auto, Horse. Stock Shows, Etc. MAGIC PRINTING. Hyp*otlsin. Illiisions, Mind Reading, Etc. MINSTREL PRINTING. White or Colored, With or Without Title. Etc MOVING PICTURE PRINTING. Etc. WESTERN PLAYS, Etc. FOLDERS of Non-Royalty Plays with Printing. Show afld Thtatrical Printers Ltthographers, Engravers National stock Hangers anil Posters on Hand for every Kind of Amusement Enterprise WRITE ST. LOUIS OFFICE - 7TH AND ELM StS, Correspondence NEW YORK, i\[ay 10.—For the benefit of the United Catholic Work- ers Wriglit Lorinier's Bibhcal play. The Shepherd Kinsj, was acted last Monday at the GARDEN Theatre, limmett Corrigan produced the play, and it was witnessed by a large audi- ence, composed of a public which does not often go to theatres. The drama- tized story of King David, however, lias the indorsement of many religious bodies. Various Catholic societies are to witness the p\ay during tlie two weeks at the Cardcn Theatre, which has been illuminated after its long darkness for these performances. William Farnum, Edward ]\Iacka> and a company of competent actors appeared in the leading roles. What was announced as the .scenery of the original production was used. This transfer of historical material from the r.ible to the stage has had a singular experience. Wright Lorimer, who wrote the play and acted it here at the Knickerbocker Theatre some years ago, was not famous as actor or i)lay- wright in any other way. Nor was the drama, on its original production, received with any great enthusiasm. Hut it gradually won its public, and when Wright Lorimer died, the play had been profitably acted for several years. Thus the charm of the Biblical story and the human interest that the author contrived to impart to his .scenes made their impression on a less sophisticated public than the first that heard it. Emmctt Corrigan, who is now acting in The Yellow Ticket, ar- ranged the present revival and trained the actors for it. The performance was greeted with an enthusiastic audi- ence and considering that it was a first-night the action ran evenly. There was an unusually large number of extra people w-lio had been care- fully drilled, and the chorus .sang well the few musical numbers. William Farnum made an excellent David. Mis reading of the Twenty-third Psalm brought the greatest applause of the evening. Robert McWade apjicared as Saul, Edward Mackay as Jonathan, \'irginia Hadley and Edna .\. Craw- ford as Saul's daughters, and Evelyn ]\Iarlowe as Adora. The attendance was not all that could be desired. It was explained that a large number of tickets had been sold without date and that many of the purchasers had remained away the first night expect- ing that the theatre would be crowded. In the audience were many prominent priests and members of the church. Many well-known actors also attended the opening performance. * * * Twin Beds, a new farce bv Margaret Mayo, author of Baby Mine, had its first production last week under the direc- tion of William Harris, Jr., at the NIXON Theatre, Pittsburg, before a large audience. Prominent in the cast were Madge Kennedy, Ray Co.x, Georgie Lawrence, Mabel Acker, John Westley, John Cumberland and Will- iam J. Phinncy. * * * One of the most successful productions given at the IIIPPODRO.ME for .several years has been none other than our old and familiar friend, Gilbert and Sullivan's Pinafore. But it is no ordinary pro- duction. In fact, it is the most ex- traordinary production of that op- eretta that I have ever seen anywhere. Of course, I have seen Pinafore with ■'real water" before. We did it that way once in the old Meclianic's Pavilion in San Francisco and it was greatly appreciated. l>ut the way Pinafore is put on at the Hippodrome in New York is without comparison .scenicly. The stage of the "Hip" is the only one in the United States thai affords enough room to put on the o])era in such amplitude. Not only arc there plenty of row boats to the fore, l)ut the rigging is full of seamen wljo go up and down the masts with the agility of regular sailors. The ship is of the old iiroadside variety of man- of-war of which the only Gilbert wrote, and although some car])ing critics in the New York newspapers have at- tempted to show in what way the shi]) and its rigging differed from a real war ship of the period intended. n(» theatregoer not looking for trouble would discover any nautical flaws in the manner in which the resident .stage director, William G. Stewart, has presented the opera. But after all, the cast is the thing that makes or mars an opera musically, no matter how well it is staged ])hysically. On this score the public has also been well pleased with a cast that includes not only Eugene Cowles, of fcjrmei Bostonian fame, but ^\'illiam Hinshaw and Josephine Jacoby, formerly of the ^Metropolitan Grand Opera Com- pany. It is in fact necessary to have plenty of alternates, owing to the mag- nitude of the house and incidental strength of voice required of the sing- ers to make themselves heard to the best effect. For this reason, in addi- tion to those already mentioned, the cast and alternates included Ruby Cutter Savage, Elsie Marryett, Harri- .son Brockbank, Earl Waldo Marshall, Vernon Dalhart, E. Percy Parsons, Harry l"'airleigh, Daniel Dawson, Marie Ilorgan, Helen Ileincmann, Grace Camp, Albert Hart, John Bard- sley, Bertran Peacock, Wm. G. Gor- don, John Foster, Harry La Pearl and John Philips, the delightful tenor who became such a favorite last year at the Tivoli in .San Francisco. His voice is a splendid addition to the well balanced lot of singers. * * * Tn the cast sujjporting John Drew and Ethel Barrymore in .\ Scrap of Paper, which will be revived next week at the EM- PIRE Theatre, will be Charles Dalton, who has played every male role in the play and who will now appear as Baron de la Giaciere, and Jeffreys Lewis, who has played every female l)art and who will now appear as Mme. Zcnobic. She made her first appearance on the stage as Pauline in the original production of the play made by Alfred \\'igan in Edinburgh. William Seymour, who is staging the piece, was the original Anatole when the play was produced in this city by Lester Wallack. * * * H. B. Warner was one of the first actors to have confidence in the dramatic genius of Cioddard and Dickey, authors of The Misleading Lady. It was at the LYCEL'M Theatre that he appeared in their first acted play, The Ghost Breaker. It was a successful jumble of mediums, pleased the jHiblic, made a success and established the reputa- tion of the writers. ^Ir. W'arner came down to the ACADEMY OF MUSIC last week to appear as the stock star and brought this play along. The Fourteenth Street public enjoyed it as much as any other, and with Pris- cilla Knowles as the heroine, The Ghost Breaker won a new public. * * * One of the gayest productions seen in New York this season is that of The Belles of Bond Street, which has been holding the boards at the new SAM S. SIIUBERT Theatre on Forty-fourth Street ofif Broadway, with a large cast headed by Sam Ber- nard and Gaby Deslys. The Iklle of Bond Street is a musical and up-to- date version of The Girl From Kays, in which Mr. Bernard and Hattie ^\"illiams were the central figures when it was originally produced as a comedy without all of the spectac- ular trimmings now included. The part of Mr. Bernard as the rich Max 1 loggenheimer, remains essentially the same in the new version, because Mr. Bernard does not delve into music. The part played by Miss Williams is now essayed by Miss Deslys, whose reputation for frequent changes of gowns of striking originality made her peculiarly fitted to the present version, which aims at pleasing through the existing craze for tango and other mixlern dances. Among the cast of The Belle of Bond Street are Forrest Hufif, a tenor who has been in light opera, and Fritzie Von Busing, a contralto of equal merit. Then there is Lottie Collins, a dancer, one* of the daughters of the original Ta-ra-rah-boom-de-aye Lottie Collins. Harry Piker is the dancing partnei of Gaby Deslys, and in fact does most of the dancing while the fair Gaby is changing from one daring costume to another. Lawrence D'Orsay, who has hiuLself starred successfully on more than one occasion, plays the part of the Hon. Percy Fitzthistle, a friend of "Piggy" Hoggenheimer. Nor should we overlook Grace Orr in the almost silent role of "Miss Slender' in her bathing suit of yellow and black stripes running perpendicularly from shoulder to knee. Miss Orr was the envy of a hundred corpulent women in the audience the night I saw the production. I don't know how the Messrs. Shubert manage to keep her .so thin. I .suppose she could make a mint of money advertising some anti- fat remedy. Then she would perhaps grow fat with prosperity. But in the meantime she will be a delight to the eye along with all the magnificent costumes of Gaby Deslys and the other spectacular features of this sprightly new version. * * * The movies, which have given the dear old drama such a jolt, last week began a most successful campaign against vaudeville, which has so far been less sensitive to their attacks. The FUL- TON Theatre was the scene of the strategetical move. There were dis- played for the first time \W>bb's Elec- trical Pictures, which promised "vau- deville, minstrels and grand opera." There was not only to be satisfaction for the sense of sight, but for hearing as well. .Mthough Nat Wills was among the vaudeville actors on the program, it was the minstrel part which proved most successful. The old-fashioned minstrel "first part" was shown on the screen. Pictorially the representation of the players in action was quite perfect. The ad- mired veteran, Carroll Johnson, was there; so was Sam R}-an with other black-face celebrities. The singing of popular rags, the recital of the more or less familiar wheezes, the whole vocal phase of this performance, in a word, was quite as well delivered as the part that appealed to the eye. This was a novelty in the attraction of moving pictures so well carried out that the audience welcomed the perform- ance with delight. Voice and gesture corresponded as they never had before to appeal to two senses instead of one. Thus, was the .synchronization, to use a word of this new art. made so com- plete as to seem miraculous. Will future audiences be satisfied with pic- tures that do not speak as well as move? Faust was given as a speci- men of what this invention may ac- complish in the operatic line. Certain scenes were acted and numbers sung by the records of Signor Caruso, Miss Farrar, M. Plancon and Journet, who divided the music of Mephistopheles between them. The jiictures were ade- quate, although there seemed to be an uncommonly high wind in Marguer- ite's garden on the day of the tragedy. But here the correspondence between voice and action was again astonish- ing. Then there was an orchestra, just as there had been in the minstrel show, playing the accompaniments. The popular success of the program might be increased by giving the op- eratic selections after the minstrels. The mechanism of the whole affair is less noticeable when there are min- strels and not singers to be considered. But as a whole it was miraculous in its ingenuity and advance over similar eflPorts. The Webb pictures are, we are inclined to think, what is known in theatricals as "a case of must." Perhaps even if they must not be seen, tiiey at least ought to be by all who want to be entertained and incidentally astonished. * * * Frank Craven, the actor, who is appearing in his own play. Too j\Iany Cooks, aiKl H. R. Durant have arranged for the imme- diate dramatization of Mr. Durant's Novel, A Man and His Mate. The new play will be a four-act comedy drama with a Western setting. The production will be made earlv next .season. * * * The GRAND OPERA HOUSE presented last week Excuse ]\Ie, which is so far the most effective claim of Rupert Hughes to the laurels of the dramatist. It is a very strong evidence of his skill in this field, since J this farce has already been played with ■ success for three seasons. Some day J