The Theatre (September 1907)

230 Comic Opera in a prologue Music by Harry KNICKERBOCKER. “THE ALASKAN.” and two acts. Book and lyrics by Joseph Blethen. Girard. Produced August 12 with this cast: Richard -Atwater...css0.7 5¢ Harry Girard; *-U. S$. Mail. Driver... -.. M. V. L. Smith Totem Pole Pete..... Edward Martindell Esquimau Chief.......... John Wheeler Smallberry Strander....... Teddy Webb Arlee Easton........ Agnes Cain Brown Meadowbrooke Blazes..... Harold Vizard Mrs. Good-Better-Best...... Anna _ Adair PEOGVse CARO tx ce hasan William Fables Claudie Cluster.......... Amy Leicester EP PERTES Sone water k au ee Jessie Brown “The Alaskan” is no better and perhaps no worse than any of its kind. It is a string of gewgaws and beads to which primitive minds attach importance and for which multitudes of people will exchange their valuable time for what is practically nothing. In common with all pieces of its kind, novelty is the ingredient counted upon to please audiences who would be soon sated by repetition and emptiness. Perhaps no other “comic” opera has had a Totem pole song, with grotesque figures nine feet high. It is all grotesquely new and eminently adapted to childish minds. The present degeneracy in American comic opera is evidently due to the preponderant influence and activity of the stage manager and the ballet master. The action, such as it is, is a mere excuse for song and dance. That many of these songs and dances are allur Dede det ALP oR Be MAG AZINE ing, we must admit, but the absence of real story and connected action leaves no impression that remains in the minds of the spectators for much more than a passing moment. There is no true sentiment, no substance, no reality in these operas; and this is amazing in view of the enormous energies combined to make such an entertainment. It is water spilled in the sand. It is the yellow journalism of music as well as of drama. Yellow journalism may be defined as that which cares nothing for truth and facts so that the elements of novelty and momentary sensation are provided. The vitality of youth in dance and song are always pleasing, and this opera provides these things, as do all pieces of its kind. ASTOR. “A Yanxee Tourtst.” Musical farce. Book by Richard Harding Davis. Lyrics by Wallace Irwin. Music by Alfred G. Robyn. Produced August 12 with this cast: Copeland Schuyler..Raymond Hitchcock innkeepet ans cee oe M. W. Rale PSI @r WARE CMA sao s oedie oer e Harry West Grace Whitney............ Flora Zabelle Wire Hewitt. isce cesttctn Wallace Beery Blanche-(Batleyiins. a's co.csacs Helen Hale Captain Anstruther...... Phillip Smalley Mrs. Sybil Schwartz..Susie F. Cawthorn Mig t= Gri ges. ici. oss ce. Herbert Cawthorn Chiefs Stewatd.ic.s.0 307 owe Eva Fallon SMU VRPA SHG centr cisag one ects Be Rea boilips meg Greele=Ginly teen eae Mabel Breen Captains, Ot Malley os. 3 2242 Harry Lane Captain Mouzaffer..... Frederick Corbin Colonel Osten......... E. Percy Parsons Crown Prince of Greece, W. M. Cheesman (Continued on page «x) Billie Burke— John Drew’s New Leading Woman fo N English leading woman for John Drew! How re A markable!” cried the gossips of the footlights. They, as most other gossips, were inaccurate in their statements. The young woman who is about to tread that charmed path which the proverb of the Rialto declares begins with being John Drew’s leading woman and leads straight to stardom, they citing the route pursued by Maude Adams, by Isabel Irving, by Ida Conquest, by Margaret Illington, is Miss Billie Burke. She comes from England to play the leading female role in John Drew’s latest vehicle, “My Wife,’ but she had gone to England from America. She is, in fact, an American girl. The family annals recorded in the ponderous Bible heirloom prove that she was born in this country... The -reeordfurther proves that she is of the delightful age of twentytwo. ‘The latter part of this statement of the family record is corroborated in her photographs. The face is genuinely youthful. Its Americanism is also revealed by a _ piquancy we may seek, but rarely find, in an English woman’s face. But the charm of Billie Burke has broken down international _ barriers, has defied international prejudices. In token of this is The King’s statement: “If some enterprising newspaper were to take the vote of its readers for the prettiest actress at present on the English stage, beyond oubt &¢; y a doub Copyright F. C. Bangs, N. Y. Miss Billie Burke would take a high place in the poll, if, indeed, she did not come out at the head.” An English writer sends greetings to American theatregoers and says: “You will be sure to like Billie Burke. She is brilliant, beautiful and bewitching. And she has earned her successive advancement by grit, ability and hard work.” Miss Burke made her début in Vienna six years ago in a pantomime sketch. Subsequently she toured the Continent. At Moscow and St. Petersburg they called her La Belle Petite Americaine. Her first appearance in London was at the Pavilion Music Hall, where she enjoyed the same sway so long enjoyed by Cecelia Loftus, known to the poetic of its frequenters as “The Princess Regnant.” George Edwards came to the music halls, saw the little American, and enpaged: her for “The School Girl’ His prophecy, “The little Burke will capture the English upper, as she has the lower, classes,” was verified when she sang Leslie Stuart’s lilting, little song, the best ballad he ever wrote, My Little Canoe. As laundry maid in “The Duchess of Dantzig” she won further success. She succeeded Edna May in “The Belle of Mayfair.” From musical comedy Billie Burke evolved into refined legitimate comedy, appearing with Charles Hawtry in “Mrs. Ponderbury’s Past.” X. WRIGHT LORIMER In his new play, ‘The Quicksands”