San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

i6 THE SAX FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW December 18, 1909 Next Week's Offerings at San Francisco Theatres The Orpheum The Orpheum Road Show, always the most delightful vaudeville incident of the holiday season, will begin its annual engagement in this city this Sunday matinee. The headliner honors will be divided between La Titcomb, the singer on horseback, and Ida O'Day. La Titcomb is a beautiful America] girl who created an immense sensation in Europe. Arrayed in a white tight-fitting costume cut a la directoire and mounted on a magnificent white Arabian steed she gives a clever exhibition of high school riding. Her act also includes singing and serpentine dancing. Miss O'Day, a clever young actress who of late has greatly distinguished herself in several important Frohman productions, will appear as Saucers in Mrs. Oscar Berringer's one-act play, A Bit of Old Chelsea, which Mrs. Fiske made so famous. A Xight in a Monkey Music Hall, presented by Maud Rochez. is making one of the greatest hits ever known in vaudeville. It consists of an entire vaudeville performance, orchestra included, given by monkeys. The ape who appears as the Maestro is said to be a wonderful actor. Mac Melville and Robert Higgins, two capital comedians, will indulge in a skit which they call Just a Little fun. Hyman Meyer, "The Man at the Piano." who won great popularity a year ago, will let loose a musical monologue, and Fay, Two Coleys and Fay will introduce a black faced act called The Minstrels. With this programme, Carl Nobel, "The Scandinavian Ventriloquist," Harry Fox and Millership Sisters will close their engagement. Valencia Theatre The last performance of The Gay Musician will take place this Saturday afternoon and evening, and on Sunday night Liebler & Company's production of The Man from Home will begin a two weeks' engagement. The Man from Home will in no wise fall below the standard set by its predecessors. The company is headed by Henry Hall, who plays the leading role and includes such an army of artists as Charles D. Herman, so long featured in the Warde-James Shakespearean productions ; Harrington Reynolds, prominent here in the support of Nat C. Goodwin and T. Daniel Frawley, and acknowledged one of the most capable interpreters of roles requiring carriage, dignity and pose: Mary Elizabeth Forbes, Harrison Fisher's famous poster girl, and who was last seen here with Lillian Russell in Wildfire; Bertha Welby, one of the most famous of American actresses; Mary Moffort. Leonard Howe, Vaughan Trevor, Albert Roccardi, lingual comedian with John Drew for a term of years ; John Martin, Harry Brewster and a group of other Broadway favorites. The Man from Home, as characteristic of all Liebler & Co.'s shows, carries its own scenic equipment complete, and the comedy will be presented here with the every attention to detail which marked its tremendous three year's run in New York and Chicago. The only matinee performance of The Man from Home will be given on Christmas and New Years. Alcazar Theatre A play replete with human interest and thrilling situations is Pierre of the Plains, which will be given its first presentation in California next Monday evening and throughout the week at the Alcazar. Edgar Selwyn adapted it from Sir Gilbert Parker's widely-read novel of the Canadian border, Pierre and His People, and it ran one season in the Hudson Theatre, New York, and another on the road. Pierre, the son of an Indian mother and a white father, is a professional gambler, and when the play opens he is in love with Jen Galbraith, the pretty daughter of a road-house keeper. Her young brother has killed an Indian in a quarrel and is endeavoring to cross the boundary line into Montana, where the dreaded Northwestern police cannot follow him. The girl is loved by and imagines she loves Sergeant Redding of the police, who stops at her home as he is en route to Fort Desire with a warrant for the arrest of her brother, whose identity is unknown to him. Pierre learns of the Sergeant's mission, and with the connivance of Galbraith pere he executes a plan by which the officer is drugged and detained at the road-house, but Jen, who has been kept in ignorance of the plot, takes the sleeping officer's coat, hat and papers and delivers at the fort the evidence against her own brother. The boy is captured and imprisoned, and his sister is half-crazed over her unwitting aid in his arrest. Then the half-breed undertakes to rescue the prisoner. He takes Jen into his confidence, and while they are riding to the fort he tells her of his love, this scene being one of the prettiest in the play. They are overtaken by the police, and Jen hides Pierre in a crevice of the rocks. She convinces Sergeant Redding, in command of the squad, that she is alone, and the men leave her. Pierre emerges from his hiding place and is consulting the cards as to what his next move should be when an old enemy of his, Jap Durkin, a police guide, returns and discovers him. Here occurs what has been pronounced a most sensational hand-to-hand knife fight and Durkin's defeat. Then conies the usual happy ending. The boy escapes to Montana and Jen and Pierre are married. Evelyn Vaughan will play Jen, and John Ince, Pierre. Howard Hickman is cast for Sergeant Redding, Will R. Walling for Jap Durkin, Louis Bennison for the elder Galbraith and William Garwood for his son. Savoy Theatre The last performances of that comic-opera delight. King Dodo will take place on McAllister street, near Market, this Saturday afternoon and evening, and on Sunday night. Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, George M. Cohan's musical production, will begin an engagement limited to one week. The story of the piece is an PICKWICK THEATRE— SAN DIEGO Charles King Stock Company Supporting Marjorie Rambeau All High Class This Week ROYALTY PRODUCTIONS | THE ROAD TO YESTERDAY amusing recital of the doings of New York suburbanites, with a plot that develops interestingly and Forty-five Minutes from Broadway is easily Cohan's best effort in the line of playwriting. The cast includes such favorites as Charley Brown, Elizabeth Drew, Ninon Ristori, Louise Gardner, Joseph Kauffman, Susan Chisnell, May Newman, James H. Manning, James A. Davett, Harry Gwynette and others. New Rochelle, which is just three-quarters of an hour from Broadway, is a typical small town, where visitors notice standing around the railroad station the local yokel, straw in mouth, waiting to see the trains pass and discussing the political situation of ten years ago. A bargain matinee will be given on Thursday, with the usual performance on Saturday, Christmas afternoon. That delightfully droll comedian, Ezra Kendall, will follow Forty-five Minutes from Broadway at the Savoy Theatre, in his bucolic comedy, The Vinegar Buver. Spotlights San Franciscans who have been abroad will find especial delight in the first act scene of Fritzi Scheff's production of The Prima Donna. It represents the interior of one of those little cafe chantants that are visited by everybody whoever sets foot in Paris. The gaiety, the sparkle, the general air of careless pleasure seeking, are all communicated in some subtle manner to the audience. At every moment the stage is full of life and action. The soldiers sing and drink and make love to the pretty girls. The artists who act as entertainers do their various specialties, and then pass through the little audience on the stage soliciting money. The versatility of Estha Williams is a delight to her many Peoria admirers who appreciate her genius. In the Old Cross Roads Miss Williams as Parepa, the octoroon, played an emotional part and played it well. As Colonel Billy in As the Sun Went Down she carries a very dissimilar role, and carries it with a dash and verve that is all her own. Whether the part was created for Miss Williams or Miss Williams created the part, matters little — they fit to a nicety. The play, which opened for a three days' run at the Majestic last night, is a melodramatic comedy of the better order. Dead men are not scattered around promiscuously, but there is love and adventure deftly interwoven in a fasciating story well staged with elaborate scenic embellishment. Miss Williams is well supported, among the principal characters being W. A. Whitecar in the part of The Tarantula ; A. E. Chatterton, Edwin Walter and others well known in the mimic world. The play through out has a twang and breeziness of the West, depicting its vices and its virtues. Its interest is fascinating and the verdict on its first appearance one of unqualified approval. — Peoria Journal. Shub erts in rresno The Shuberts have made arrangements with Manager Hoen of the Empire Theatre of Fresno to play his house twice a month. J. B. REIGHLEY Theatrical Hauling Promptly Attended To Telephone Market 1601 660 Guerrero Street, Bet. 18th and 19th Time May be Booked in San Bernardino ty companies coming as far as San Bernardino and wantto make dates for one night Is or for one week, can do so xiting to J. W. Leonard, manof the Unique Theatre. Seatcapacity i,ooo people, 5-piece drchestra and plenty of scenery. The house will hold about 1,400 people and never failed to have a packed house. Andrews Opera Chairs General Seating School — Chureh — Bank Office and Steel Rod Furniture Purchase direct from manufacturer THE A. H . ANDREWS CO. Pacific Bldg.. Son franclsco Chlrjoii. New York, Tacoma Opera, Folding and Assembly Chairs Full Line See Samples at 770-776 Mission St. Bet. id and 4th Sts. SAN FRANCISCO Whitaker & RayWiggin Go.