San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

4 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW December 23rd, 1899 DRAMATIC REVIEW ( Sixteen Pages ) San Francisco, Dec. 23, 1899 dramatic review publishing COMPANY, Publishers 22$ Geary Street Telephone Grant li8 Wm. D. WASSON Editor CHAS. H. FARRELL . . Business Manager C. H. LOMBARD Secretary and Treasurer EASTERN EDITOR ROB ROY 1840 Seventh Avenue Drive, NEW YORK CITY; To whom all Eastern News Matter for the Review should be addressed. Ten Cents a Copy — $3.00 per Year For Sale at all News Stands The Review has the largest circulation of any theatrical paper in the United States outside of New York. The Dramatic Review is entered at the postoffice at San Francisco as second-class matter and is supplied to the trade by the San Francisco News Company, 342 Geary Street. ONLY TOO TRUE This world is but a fleeting show, And sorrows must engage The people who with words of woe Would elevate the stage. Hut they who greatest comfort win Upon this rushing earth Are folks who do not fret, but grin And get their money's worth. A club man's being sued for heavy damages by an actress whom, it is said, he boasted of having kissed, carries a suggestion with it, that when kissing is indulged in, the lips should be kept shut. It is alleged of the manager of one of the popular extravaganzas now running in New York, that he wrote a number of supper invitations to the girls of his chorus, and then discharged those who answered them. How the famous French actress can differently move her audience at times is apparent in the statement that Bernhardt in Milan presented her Hamlet to a tremendous audience that walked out of the theater before the play was half finished. Two weeks ago the leading features of the shows in town were horses and plenty of 'em. Last week and this the features have been "coons" — the Georgia Minstrels, Black Patti's trou badours, and The Hottest Coon in Dixie aggregation. Surely, the theater-goer can't complain of a lack of colored amusement. Wonder what it will be next ? * ¥ A dummy figure formerly represented in The Queen of Chinatown the chap who fell through a roof into an opium den. Now a live athlete is used, and the possibility that he will break his neck increases the popular value of the incident. The new party goes through his part naturally much better than the old. ¥ ¥ One prominent player thinks that Zangwill is wrong in saying that the stage has degenerated. It is not the stage, but the people who are degenerating. Degeneration simply means a going back, and if the people are going back their very extensive attendance in front of the footlights shows at least they are not going back on the stage. ¥ ¥ New Light is expected to be shortly thrown on another of Shakespeare's most important tragedies. A wellknown author of lurid melodrama has conceived the idea of presenting Macbeth with a grand scenic investiture in which extraordinary electrical accessories will play a most important part. In time, when it comes to the works of the great bard the light of histrionic genius may be the last thing thought of for their illumination. THEKEcan be noquestion that many a good play fails simply because its writer is entirely or comparatively unknown. Bearing on this fact there is a proposition to give a series of performances this year at the Berlin Theater without divulging the dramatist's name until after the tenth performance of a piece. If the play is a failure no name will be made known, and the author will receive compensation in the shape of a small royalty. The object of this new plan is to save the reputations of dramatists who are meeting with so many failures. ♦ ¥ Chari.es Coghlan's death attracted so little attention and received so little comment in the newspapersexcept in New York, where he was remembered as a local favorite twenty years ago — that we must conclude that he already belonged to the generation past. Yet he was only about 55 years old and it is safe to say that there are few left upon our stage to compare with him as an intellectual comedian of the highest type, a forceful, graceful, accomplished actor who gave dignity to every fitting role he undertook. It was Coghlan's misfortune to encounter, in the very midst of his career, that break up of the old theatrical organization that stranded so many good actors and brought so many poor ones into prominence. His first starring tour with his sister in Diplomacy was entirely worthy, but chance then brought him in with Mrs. Langtry, and the moral as well as the artistic associations of that enterprise injured him in every way and made him known to a public that had not known him before as an apparently bad actor and an irresponsible person generally. He never really recovered from the depressing effect of his Macbeth and he never afterwards assumed the place upon the stage to which he was entitled. It is pathetic to think of such an actor dying on a barn-storming tour down in Texas, and leaving absolutely no one entitled to rank in the same class. * ¥ In connection with more or less condemnatory remarks of late concerning the alleged immoral tendency of a certain class of modern plays, Joseph Jefferson, at a reception in St. Eouissaid: "If you go to a play of this sort and expect to find it immoral you will not be disappointed. If you go solely to see its beauties, its perfection of acting, its scenic completeness, again you will not be disappointed, and you will have viewed it in the right light. Don't ask yourself whether the play is immoral; ask whether it is well done. That, and that alone, is the test." The Bishop of London has been talking about the theater. He said: "I think the drama is an admirable form of popular teaching as well as amusement. I do not often go to the theater myself, however, for personally I prefer good plays, by which I mean plays that have a literary merit in them, and these are not numerous. Most modern plays do not lay themselves out for literature, but in this respect they are only like a good deal of modern literature which deserts the broad line of human interest and character, and goes in for small situations." ¥ ¥ The early days of the career of Henry Irving are rarely thought of in view of his present fame. Only eighteen when, on September 29, 1856, he left a business desk for the stage, his first part was Orleans in Richelieu at the opening of the new theater in the small provincial town of Sunderland. A story is told that on one occasion, when young Irving's acting of some character had proved unsatisfactory, two other members of the company, Mr. Mead and Mr. Johnson, prevailed upon the management to forego his dismissal. Both of these actors later became members of Irving's company. From now on the years were made up of never ending days of hard work and study. He went from town to town, from theater to theater, from part to part, building slowly but surely a solid reputation as an actor of unusual magnetism and originality. The culminating success of this period of his life was attained when in the latter part of 1878 he became manager of the Lyceum Theater, London. His opening play here was Hamlet, with Ellen Terry as Ophelia and Mr. Chippendale as Polonius. Laertes was acted by Frank Cooper, Osric by Kyrle Bellew, the Ghost by Mr. Mead, and Rosencranz by Arthur W. Pinero, now so well known as the leader of modern English dramatists. The career of Irving and the Lyceum Theater from that time forms an essential and generally wellknown part of the history of the English stage. Don't overlook this point. The Dramatic Review's circulation is not confined to members of the profession and managers. Already more than five hundred theater-goers of this city read this paper every week, and are influenced by its correct reviews of current amusements, and therefore attend the best that is offered by the managers. Heretofore the dramatic paper has never attempted to go beyond the confines of the profession. Why shouldn't the public read dramatic papers if it would learn something of the people who bring laughter and tears, and make us the better for having seen and heard them ? The public must be interested, and to that end the Review will, from time to time, add features that will increase its circulation among the musical class and among the thousands who go to the theater for amusement only. Watch us grow. ♦ * An apparently observant and wellinformed writer on matters theatrical remarks that with our modern stage methods, playing is not hard labor in these days of long runs. An actor in a successful piece can rest all day in his preparation for his effort at night. His actual task requires only three hours of endeavor, for which he can fit himself by twenty-one hours of repose. Mechanics work eight hours a day, merchants often fifteen. In former times when stock companies changed their bill almost every night the actor was compelled to study constantly. It was hard work and poor pay in the early history of our drama. This change in his condition adds to the actor's longevity. Relieved from the strain of perpetual study and surrounded by every luxury that wealth can command, the popular actor has greater expectancy of life than is possessed by most of his audience. * ¥ Stock Company for Honolulu T^he Orpheum at Honolulu will soon ■ put on a stock company, playing standard dramas, in addition to a specialty first part. President Cohen is displaying a great deal of zeal and enterprise that should be bountifully appreciated by the Honolulu people. The Dramatic Review contains all the news. Subscribe now.