San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

8 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW April 21, 1900 W Uasfviyy livings sJ \\ .^Correspondence and pfpf^ ^^;:ii^;r-__ Comments " NEW YORK Special Correspondence. New York, April 15.— Two rival companies produced Quo Vadis in this city last Monday night. The version of Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel at the Herald Square was by Jeannette L. Gilder, and that at the New York Theatre was by Stanislaus Stange. Both versions resembled The Sign of the Cross which had previously been seen and which was also inspired by the same novel. At each play house demands were made for a speech. Miss Gilder did not respond, but Mr. Stange did. In the course of his remarks he said that he had as much right to dramatize the novel as any one else, but that neither he nor Miss Gilder had any particular authority to do so. Miss Gilder's version was called, in electric light letters over the Herald Square, "the authorized version." It is hard to make comparisons. Some persons appeared to like Miss Gilder's version better than that of Mr. Stange's, but Mr. Stange had the advantage of having his version produced by actors who had had ample time in which to get up in their parts. The Gilder version suffered somewhat at the opening performance because her piece was put on with a rush. But time ought to improve the Gilder version. On the opening night the Stange vers'on of Quo Vadis made the most noise. The following actors are opposed to each other in thirteen of the roles in the two plays (Herald Square first, and New York second in each instance): John Blair and Joseph Havvorth, Edward J. Morgan and Arthur Forrest, Bijou Fernandez and Roselle Knott, Hattie Russell and Alice Fisher, Frank J. Currie and Horace Lewis, Harrison Armstrong and Elma Grandin, H. V. Ranous and W. T. Melville, Willarri Simpson and Edwin Varry, Engel Sumner and Carolyn Kenyon, Robert Fletcher and Edmund D. Lyons, T. B. Bridgmand and William F. Clifton, William Herbert and Leonard Walker. Grace Scott and Maude Fealy. The Boston ians who have already been seen in San Francisco in The Viceroy opened at the Knickerbocker in that one of Harry B.Smith and Victor Herbert's operas. Some of the critics here do not think The Viceroy is up to the standard of the Bostoniaus' former operas. Nevertheless, on the opening night they got a good reception. Victor Herbert himself led the orchestra, and that fact added interest to the performance. Harry Smith left last week for Liverpool. His physician said that if he remained in New York he could not write another opera for a month. So he took his typewriter and shears aboard the steamship and it is said he made a wager with Oscar Hammerstein that he would on the way over to England complete three new operas— one for Alice Nielsen, one for George Lederer and one for Jerome Sykes. It is said that Victor Herbert is getting lazv— he has composed but four scores within a year. * # f * A duel with knives between Elita Proctor Otis and Mabel Eaton is one of the features of Woman and Wine, a melodrama which William A. Brady brought out at the Manhattan Theatre last Wednesday night. It wras a realistic scrap with cold steel which ended by the death of Miss Otis (in the play only). The two women were playing the parts of Parisian outcasts. There is no mistaking the fact that Woman and Wine is a powerful and blood-curdling melodrama, and in bringing it to an upper Broadway Theatre, Mr. Brady has merely followed the example of the late Augustin Daly when he brought out The Great Ruby at Daly's Theatre. George Osbourne, the California favorite, is the principal male figure. He enacts the part of blind father. The scenes include a race course with a four-in-hand, a dance house with revelry in full blast, and a court of justice. The Great Ruby is packing the Fourteenth street. Even in Holy Week the attendance was all that the management could have desired. I saw Rose Coghlan in the cast the evening of the day on which her younger sister, Eily Coghlan, the singer, was buried. She and her husband, John T. Sullivan, gave an excellent performance. Minnie Seligman, in her favorite role of the adventuress, showed that she still possessed all that fire and charm which made her reputation as an actress before she and Robert Cutting decided to form an alliance between society and the stage. Both of them having regretted their early endeavors, she is now free to devote all of her time to art, and it may be said that as an adventuress she has no superior on the American stage today. Handsome Louis Masseu, formerly husband of Marie Burroughs, was conspicuous as the diamond merchant who owned the great ruby. Miss Ola Humphrey, a pretty Oakland girl, has the leading ingenue role, and acquits herself admirably. James K. Hackett, in The Pride of Jennico, is playing to excellent business at the Criterion Theatre. All the girls who admired him in the Prisoner of Zenda will rave over him again when he goes to California. The Pride of Jennico gives him a splendid opportunity for love and heroic action. Lent had very little effect on the theatres in this city until perhaps, Holy Week, when there was a slight falling off in attendance, so that some of the theatres which have been jammed for several months were last week merely filled comfortably. Uncle Tom's Cabin has at last gone and done it. It has gone into the vaudeville not the continuous, it is true — but nevertheless the vaudeville. The hazardous attempt was made by Harry Webber at Miner's 125th Street Theatre. The version lasted for threequarters of an hour. Way Down East, with California's favorite actress, Phcebe Davies, as the heroine, continues to crowd the big Academy of Music. It looks as though Way Down East were going to give The Old Homestead a tight race for the longest record in the Academy. Joseph Grismer, the author and manager of the play, has a gold mine in it. Although it does not in any way attempt to imitate The Old Homestead in plot, it is a strong rural drama which appeals to every one who sees it once in such a way that he is never satisfied until he has seen it several times. * * * Tim Murphy in The Carpetbagger, who was recently forced out of the Fourteenth Street Theatre on account of a previous engagement of The Great Ruby at that house, returned last week to the city, having secured more time at the Bijou. This play by Frank Pixley out of Opie Read's writings, contains abundant material for the display of Mr. Murphy's humor. The phase of political life which the play portrays is not thoroughly understood by persons who were never in the South in the days of the re-construction, but it is true to life and is therefore interesting from a historical standpoint, besides being laughable from start to finish. * * Trelawny of the Wells was revived at Daly's last week with the same players which made it a success in its former presentation. It contains much shop talk and action about actors and theatres. There was no performance at Daly's on Good Friday, although no other New York theatre closed for that night. Daniel Frohman is having a series of revivals. Tomorrow night he starts Wheels Within Wheels for three nights only and then on Thursday night will give Maneuvers of Jane another run. * * * Reports from Rochester, N. Y. , where David Harum was tried on the dog by William Crane last week say that the play founded upon the novel will be a great success. All of the funny speeches of David Harum have been transplanted into the play and in fact nearly every funny incident has been wrought in with surprisingly few liberties. On the opening night Crane had to respond to eight curtain calls. Among those who shared the honors with Crane was Miss Percy Haswell. * * * Olga Nethersole resumed her production of Sapho with crowded houses. Later in the week there was not the rush which had characterized the performance when the police were threatening to stop the play. But it is certain that Miss Nethersole and her managers will coin much out of the unsuccessful efforts of the various societies for the suppression of vice to suppress her and her play. In this connection it may be noted that William A. Brady and some other managers have brought suit against the owners and lessees of theatres in other parts of the country for having cancelled Sapho engagements merely because the New York police arrested Miss Nethersole. The plaintiffs have the best of the argument, especially if Sapho never visits the cities in which it was to have played. But if it does go to some of the quiet cities from which the theatrical managers barred it out, juries might say on general principles that the owners were justified in cancelling the engagement until after the trial of Miss Nethersole. Rob Roy. DENVER Special Correspondence. Denver, Colo., April 10.— Well, Sapho is here and she ought to be ashamed of herself, to come to a nice clean moral little city like Denver, and shock the morals of our unsuspecting public, who turned out en masse, so many of them that hundreds were compelled to return home disappointed, for the theatre only seals one thousand. I am glad to see the management of the Lyceum get something that could wake the public up, but for their sakes I wish it was something besides Sapho, for I am really afraid it will hurt their business in the future. As for the company, it is the very best thing they have done since their arrival. Every part in the play is well done, and the Sapho of Miss Hope was perfection, she looking and acting the part with a perfect naturalness. Jim the Penman will follow. At the Tabor, we have pretty Belle Archer in A Contented Woman. The house was full to the doors, and the large audience enjoyed the witty lines and funny business of the play. Miss Archer will enjoy a good week's business, being a favorite of long standing in Denver. Next week The Grau Opera Company. Little Miss Frisco was so bad that the management of the Denver Theatre shut the company out after Wednesday night. The theatre remained closed until Sunday, when Quo Vadis was put on by the Riggs Company. The scenery is splendid, but the company only fair. Next week, Hans Hansen. Charles Frohman's company opened at the Broadway Theatre last night in William Gillette's comedy, Because She Loved Him So, and gave the best of satisfaction. House dark next week. b0b Bell. NORTH DAKOTA Special Correspondence. Fargo, N. D., April 14.— Richard and Pringle's Minstrels played to rather small audience April 10. Who Is Who drew a large house April 13. The performance was just fair. q_ SALT LAKE Special Correspondence Salt Lake City, April 16.— Ward and Yokes had two large audiences at Salt Lake Theatre April 12 and 13. Their new skit, The Floor Walkers, made a good impression. Paderewski appears April 21. * Knobs O' Tennessee, with George Germaine featured play at the Grand 9-1 1. * The Real Widow Brown 12-14. * Quo Vadis week 1620. John K. Hardy. HONOLULU Special Correspondence Honolulu, H. I., April 9.— Hogan's Minstrels expect to leave for British Columbia on the nth, provided the captain of the steamer will take passengers from this port. Allan Dunn leaves with them as manager, having been engaged by Hogan aud Dante, proprietors, shortly after their arrival here. Dunn will fill the bill in first class order. I'ncle Tom's Cabin was put on by the minstrels at the Orpheum 5th to 7th with