San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

8 January 6th, 1900 Correspondence and Comments NEW YORK Special Correspondence. New York, Dec. 31.— The first week of the new year finds a prosperous midwinter season for all kinds of amusements. Grand opera is of course the most expensive form of amusement to which the public can got unless it is pugilism that will not let women in. But besides these two extremes of public delight, we have had in abundance light opera, comedies, farces, minstrels, tragedy and plain plays. A few companies have returned from the road after some rather perilous undertakings, but upon the whole theaters and all kindred interests have enjoyed marked prosperity. * * * Manager Grau of the grand opera company has brought joy to all the patrons of the art of singing who do not have money to burn and have to select their favorite operas and artists with some eye to economy. Heretofore, no matter how many times an unexpected opera had to be substituted for the one on the program, there was no redress for the person who had gone to hear a particular singer in opera. Mr. Grau has announced that hereafter whenever any opera has to be substituted for the one scheduled, or when any principal singer with a cold has to be absent from the cast, the management will refund the money to all who wish it, or will exchange tickets to another performance desired by the disappointed ticket holders. This is as it should be. It is not likely that much money will ever have to be paid back or that much trouble will be caused by the exchange of tickets. It is generally conceded that Mr. Grau has always tried to give the best opera possible for the money, and it is known that many of the snbstitute performances have been better than some of those originally on the schedule. But it is only fair that when one pays to see Calve in Carmen, for instance, and Susanne Adams is put on in something else, the purchaser of a ticket should have a right to get his money back if he should happen not to wish to seethe substitute performance. Singers can not afford to appear when in bad voice. Changes of program will always be necessary more or less, and the mere knowledge that persons cau buy their tickets long in advance, with the certainty of getting their money's worth, is going to make grand opera more popular than ever in this city. liven Mr. Grau must be ch.'ckling to himself at the success o this season's opening. Getting your money back from a theater box office is something like with a bank; when you know you can get your money back you don't want it. * * * Christmas brought three new plays to Broadway theaters, which seem to be doing well: My Lady's Lord at the Empire; Three Little Lambs at the Fifth Avenue; and Nat C. Goodwin and Maxine Elliott at the Knickerbocker in The Cowboy and the Lady. My Lady's Lord is one of H. V. Esmond's best plays. It is full of romance, full of adveuture, contains plenty of comedy and enough travesty. The cast includes William Faversham, Jessie Millward, Sidney Herbert, W. H. Crampton, Blanche Burton, Sarah Perry, George W. Howard aud Joseph Wheelock Jr. My Lady's Lord may be the means of ridiculing such plays as The Prisoner of Zenda off the stage, but as such plays have seen their day the advent of My Lady's Lord may be a good thing. * * » Nat Goodwin's cowboy and Maxine Elliott's lady at the Knickerbocker make a very clever combination as wrought into a play by Clyde Fitch. The cast also includes Burr Mcintosh and Minnie Dupree as fun makers. The Cowboy and The Lady is a kind of dramatized Bret Harte, although the story is original. But it deals with frontier life, with plenty of cowboys and Indians. Thomas Oberle, Cuyler Hastings, Gertrude Green, Clarence Haudyside, John Flood and E. Lewis contribute to the success of the play. * * * The Three Little Lambs which was brought to the Fifth Avenue last week was called The Queen of the Ballet when R. A. Barnet wrote it for the use of the Boston Cadets. As an amateur production it attracted the attention of Augustin Daly, aud he was to have produced it last year, but the success of The Runaway Girl kept it off". E. W. Corliss put to music the operatic portion of Mr. Barnet's story. Marie Cahill, Raymond Hitchcock and Edmund Lawrence were the little lambs. Adele Ritchie, Nellie Braggins, William T. Carleton and William Philip carried off the vocal honors. Others in the cast are Thomas Cohiffen, Harold Vizard, Ida Hawley and Clara Palmer. The show has plenty of dash and will be a go. The music alone ought to be enough to carry it, because no prettier new music has been heard here this season. Marcella Sembrich made her first appearance this season last week in Rossini's II Barbiere de Seviglia, and she revealed the same exquisite velvety quality of tone which enables her to sing like no other woman on the operatic stage. Her singing is a source of unmixed delight. She never has to reach for notes. No matter how high, they are always at her command. Piui-Corsi, Europe's greatest basso-buffo, also made his first appearance last week in Mozart's Don Giovanni, but he did not have as good an opportunity for the display of humor as Edouard De Reszke had. He will probably get better opportuuities as the season advances. Antonia Scotti was the new baritone in last week's production. He has a genuine baritone voice — none of your tenors short on their upper notes nor your bassos shy on the lower register. But he was so nervous in his opening performance that he had to hurry so as not to lose breath before the close of his phrases. This is a fault which will no doubt be remedied in time. Rob Roy. ST. LOUIS Special Correspondence. St. Louis, Dec. 26. — During Mrs. Leslie Carter's engagement at the Olympic Theater, Dramatic Critic Kline of the Post Dispatch and myself after seeing the reudition had a discussion as to what could be the finale of problem plays. Mr. Kline writes the following in his paper which I think will interest the readers of the Dramatic Re vi kw : "The query was put to the writer during the Zaza engagemeut : •'We have had The Turtle and Sappho, and now we have Zaza. Later, I suppose, we will see The Girl from Maxim's, which is reported to be the worst of all. What are we to have after that. It was a question to set one to thinking. Of couise, we all admit that there must be a line somewhere, which cannot be crossed by the stage, because the public will not follow. But where is that line? And if we really have not crossed it, are we not perilously near it? Were not Sappho and Zaza about the limit? "That is a matter for argument. We thought Camille was bad, but now, beside some of the things offered us, we send young girls to see it, and call it 'A lesson in morality,' aud term it a classic. Perhaps, some day, we will do the same for Sappho, .who knows? "The series of Problem plays offered us a short while back were railed at as beyond excuse, yet they are pale aud insipid these days. Now, we do not want social perplexities veiled in their presentation to us. Suggestion some time ago was all that we would permit; broad and undisguised exploitation is none too bald for us now. Really, after all, is there much more we could have? • 'One is inclined to agree with Miss Nethersole in what she declared when she was here that she had to give this sort of plays because the public demanded it. You cannot make the public see what it does not care to witness. Many an actor has tried that, to his sorrow. "The fact is, the public wants to see the risque play, and it is going to have it, so long as there are persons to play that kind. Call it a low tendency, a perverted taste, what you will, the fact remains that both players and playwrights are but supplying the demand — as any good business man does. "There is this to be urged in extenuation : We may have become so secure, so .'strong, in our ideas of wrong and right, that we can touch pitch and not be defiled; that we can see a Sappho or a Zaza and get no ill effects. When a people is able to look upon sin with impunity and with no fear of consequences, it is a highly moral race. Truly, it is better to be tempted and to resist, than never to be tempted at all, and if — 'if,' mind you — we are so settled in our morality that we can exemplify on our stage the lowest as well as the most insinuating and fascinating forms of vice, and escape contamination when they are presented to us in most appealing guise, truly, we are a strong and a good nation. But — can we? Aye, there's the rub. We are certainly favored with delightful Christmas offerings by the local managers. Pat Short, manager of the Olympic, is presenting Charles Frohmau's brightest star, Maude Adams, in The Little Minister. It is indeed a wholesome contrast to Sappho and Zaza, and the splendid patronage that the theater has been receiving conclusively shows that a majority of the play-loving public are in favor of decent and respectable plays that have not to bank upon filth and immorality. George W. Lederer's latest production, Rounders, has made a personal hit with Manager Short's patrons at the Century. Dan Daly, of course, is the featured artist, and his droll monologue and grotesque limbs are as laughter-provoking as ever, whilst the Kissable Phyllis Rankin has taken into camp our ever-increasing army of chappies. Among the other spirits in the cast are Richard Carroll, D. L. Don, Fred Urban, Marie George, Christine MacDonald, and Sarah McVickar. Managers Middleton and Tate of the Columbia have an attractive array of vaudevillians in Cora Tanner, the brilliant and distinguished comedienne who is presenting a pretty sketch entitled, My Husband's Model. Caron and Herbert, Houdini, the Hagi Lara Family, McCale and Daniels, the Three Schingler Sisters, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton, W. B. Moseley, Ahearu and Patrick, Leonard and Center, aud Frank Hall. Manager Jim Butler of the Standard is giving his patrons a caloric performance with Phil Sheridan's City Sports' Burlesquers. It embraces a dazzling bunch of beauteous femininity. Murray and Mack, coterie of comedians in Finnegan's Ball, is the attraction at the Grand Opera House. Manager Garen of Havlin's Theater, is compelled to put out the "3. R. O." sign this week. The magnet that draws the money is The Guilty Mother. Manager Sam Gutnpertz of Hopkins' is pleasing his clientele this week with an excellent production of Camille. The vaudeville features are Almont and Dumont, Tyrolean Quarfet and Stover. The Castle Square Opera Company are resting this week and rehearsing for their double bill next week, which will be Cavalleria Rusticana and Pinafore. The uuderlinings for Christmas week are: The Bostonians at the Olympic, Kelsey and Shannon in The Moth and the Flame at the Century. Rose Coghlan and her husband John T. Sullivan, in The White Heather at the Grand, King of the Opium Ring at Havlins', Little Lord Fauntleroy at Hopkins', and Harry Morris' Twentieth Century Maids at the Standard. Managers Tate and Middleton of the Columbia have offered the St. Louis World's Fair managers of 1903 $30,000 for the amusement privileges. Maud Lillian Berri is making the hit of her stage career with the Castle Square Opera Company. GaTv Paukn. CANADA Special Correspondence. St. John, N. B., Dec. 25 — The Valentine Stock Company opened their six weeks' engagement with All the Comforts of Home at to-day's matinee, aud Young Mrs. Winthrop in the evening to two capacity houses. In the afternoon the company had to stand comparison with the company that presented All the Comforts of Home on the