San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

10 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW April 21, 190a FRESNO Special Correspondence. Fresno, April 18. — There seems to be a wide difference of opinion regarding the merits of the Jessie Shirley Company that is playing here this week, but the majority seem to think that it is the best of all the popular-price shows that have been here this season, and I quite agree with the majority, except so far as Tuesday night's performance is concerned. That showed very plainly that the company is deficient in the taste for, or else the ability to successfully interpret a play like The Woman at the White Lion. I think that it is rather a stupid play anyway, and perhaps that is why I did not like the way in which it was presented. Doris, which was given on Monday night, was very much better, and gave the people here a very good opinion of the talent in Miss Shirley's company. Tonight we have Trilby, to which many are looking forward with much pleasant anticipation. Miss Neally Stevens, a lady of much talent, gave a concert at Armory Hall last night that pleased every pianist and lover of music who was so fortunate as to hear it. It gave more satisfaction than any recital that has been given here in a long time. T A CO MA Special Correspondence Tacoma, Wash, April 15. — Willie Collier will present Mr. Smooth at the Tacoma Theatre Thursday ni^ht, April 19th. Puddn'head Wilson will be seen at the Tacoma Theatre Monday, April 16th. Have You Seen Smith plays for two nights at the Lyceum Theatre April 20th and 21st. W. W. Hoyt. SACRAMENTO Special Correspondence. Sacramento, April 18. — Frank Thompson's Stock Company opened at the Clunie Sunday night for the summer season, in Monte Cristo. The opening was a success, the company of players performing their parts well, while Darrell Vinton could not be improved upon as leading man for the company. Michael Strogoff is to be the attraction next week. Ward and Yokes in The Floor Walkers on the 19th. Eastern Correspondence ( Continued ) MONTANA Special Correspondence. Butte, Montana, April 16.— Holy Week in Butte was very quiet in dramatic circles. At the Grand, Darkest Russia appeared for the first three nights; the house was dark the balance. Sunday night, April 15th, Harry Glazier, supported by a very competent company of artists, presented The Three Musketeers to a large and brilliant audience. The play has been seen many times in Butte but Mr. Glazier's three nights' engagement was very successful. The costumes were elegant and the general staging of the piece was in keeping with the proper rendition of the drama. The D'Artagnan as played by Mr. Glazier is certainly a very finished piece of acting, and the work of Mr. Barrett is worthy of special mention. The production of Sapho by the company now playing at Sutton's, is the best that has appeared at that play house this season, and the management certainly deserves great credit for the successful rendering of the play, and Mr. Harry Sedley has certainly shown ability in the staging of the piece. Mr. Sedley is stage manager at The Family, and is deserving of great credit for the able manner in which he handles his people as well as scenery. Sapho will run the balance of the week and cannot fail to draw well. Coming attractions at the Grand are Paderewski April 19th, Ward & Yokes in The Floor Walker and Willie Collier in Mr. Smooth. L. Maci.ay Rank. ST. LOUIS Special Correspondence ST. Louis, April 15.— Ideal Easter weather greeted the visiting thespians in St. Louis this week, and each company were favored with crowded houses. William Gillette's comedy, Because She Loved Him So, is Manager Pat Short's offering at the Olympic. J. E. Dodson, Francis Carlisle and Annie Irish head a capable cast. A riot of pretty girls, a tumult of soft laces and gay colored stuffs, a crashing of music and a whirlwind of dancing is an appropriate paragraph in reference to The Belle of New York. She is at the Century this week. Adele Ritchie, Ida Doerge, E. J. Connelly, George Hawley, W. P. Carlton, Tobie Claude, Jas. Darling, Jos. Kane and William Cameron are the featured mirthmakers. Manager Charles Southwell's delightful lyrics after a week's rest opened tonight at the Music Hall in a magnificent production of Tannhauser. Yvonne de Treville, Selma Kronald, Adelaide Norwood, Rose Cecelia Shay, Delia Niven, Harry Luckstone, E. N. Knight, Barron Berthald, W. H. Clarke, Francis Boyle, Miro Delamatta, Rhys Thomas, W. W. Henshaw, Frank Belcherand Francis J. Boyle are in the cast. The Castle Square Company close their engagement next week with repertoire of five operas. Col. John D. Hopkins' Stock Company at the Imperial are giving a creditable production of The Merchant of Venice. Lawrence Hanley is playing Shylock, Maurice Freeman, Bessanio, and Victory Bateman, Portia. Corinne, in Delia Fox's old musical comedy, The Jolly Little Host, is pleasing the patrons of the Grand Opera House this week. She is assisted by R. E. Graham, Louis Delange, John Raffael, Ruth White, Genevieve Reynolds, Emily Francis and the Keystone Quartet. Lincoln J. Carter's spectacular melodrama, The Heart of Chicago, is enthusing the gallery gods at Havlin's. Like all of Carter's productions, the scenic effects are the feature. Clifford and Huth, Patrice, Mrs. Felix Morris, De Witt and Burns, Mr. and Mrs. Dan Hiatt, Ray Burton, Tegge and Daniel, Kelly and Davis, Leroy Millard, Warren and Howard, and Howard and Moore, make up an attractive continuous program at the Columbia Theatre this week. Manager James Butler's offering at the Standard this week is Rose Sydell's Loudon Belles. Their burlesque on The Turtle is sufficiently coloric to please the Standard's clientele. The underlinings for next week are Annie Russell at the Century, Julia Marlowe at the Olympic, Caprice at the Imperial, My Innocent Boy at the Grand, How Hopper Was Side Tracked at Havlin's and the Vanity Fair burlesquers at the Standard. The new Delmar Garden will open May 27 for the season. E. E. Rice will produce Evangeline for the first week and later on will produce The Girl from Paris and other extravaganzas. The Suburban Garden will throw open their gates May 20. The usual minstrel first part will again be featured. Carroll Johnson, Fred Warren, Lew Sully, Tom Lewis and AJ, Blanchard will be the comedians. The Elks will have a monster benefit next Thursday night at the Odeon. The local members will give a minstrel first part. The St. Louis Transit Company, that owns the majority of the street car lines in St. Louis, have leased the Exposition and Music Hall. They will have a winter circus in the Coleseum, a stock company in one hall and opera in the Music Hall. It will be conducted like Hauierstein's Olympia in New York was run. GaTy Pali«EN. DENVER Special Correspondence. Denver, Colo., April 17. — There is nothing startling in the theatrical line this week. We still have that immoral lady Sapho with us. She opened her second week at the Lyceum on Sunday night to a good house, and as the time passes she gets a little bolder. After this week the company will go on the road for one week, and show the innocent people of our mountain towns what a bad woman can do. She wanted to playSalt Lake City, but the good people of the Mormon City refused to allow her to contaminate the morals of their people. Denver is blessed just now with several of those "Hardly able managers." I mean those fellows that call themselves managers, who delight in taking a company of poor actors out in the country and leave them to get back the best way they can. Well, there are three such companies rehearsing in Denver at the present time, and the funny part of it they all have the Sapho fever. Each one has a version of their own, where they got them is a mystery. Its a shame that there is not a law to punish such people, for they are not theatrical people; they are only hangers-on that are a disgrace to the profession. At the Tabor Grand the Grau Opera Company opened to a week's engagement on Sunday to a good house. They gave a fairly good performance. It will be better when some of the principals get over their colds. Next week The Evil Eye. James T. McAlpin as Hans Hanson is the attraction at the Denver this week. Mr. McAlpin is a clever comedian and is surrounded by a good company. MissDolly Foster deserves special mention for her excellent acting. Business is about the average. Next week Michael Strogoff. Broadway Theatre dark. Frank Readick has given up the management of the Denver Theatre. The house is now under the management of Dan Barton. The professional friends of Mrs. Robt. E. Bell will be pleased to learn that she is once more able to be about after a month's illness. Bon Bell. Benjamin Howard The former leading man of the Macdonough Stock Co., who in the short time of that company's existence made himself a pronounced favorite with theatre goers, is now doing leading business with the splendid Neill organization, and will be seen here during the lengthy engagement of the company in a wide range of parts. Besides being a splendid interpreter of the higher drama, Mr. Howard has decided musical talent and has appeared with great success in musical comedy. Side Lights Leo Cooper, the well-known dramatic teacher, and Henri Fairweather, the vocalist, gave a literary and musical recital recently to the faculty and students of Stanford University that was a genuine treat to those who were present. Mr. Fairweather sang and Mr. Cooper recited, ending the program by giving his stage arrangement of The Silent System, assisted by May Sullivan. The little sketch was handled very ably and pleased immensely. Johnny Ray and his wife, who used to be stars at the old Bella Union, are at Hammerstein's new theatre, New York. This is the way one of the New York papers comments upon the astounding state of affairs: "In its pristine splendor, A Hot Old Time, their play, would have qualified Selden who originally wrote it, for the first row in any responsible asylum for the insane. After Cohan, who revised it, had done his worst, it was left the most horrible collection of idiotic drivel that has ever been foisted upon a long suffering and unintelligent public. It is one of the mysteries of the year, and while Oscar Hammerstein looks surprised, he is making money with it, and Ray is nursing the delusion that he is making a Broadway hit because he is clever." IDA HAWLEY Premier Danseuse, Grand Opera House LOUISE ROYCE Prima Donna, Grand Opera House