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Show Hi tOith ihe First-flightier H 1 FLORENCE ROBERTS IN NEW PLAYS. Hi I: Florence Roberts, the foremost actress of the Bj West, and one of the most ambitious and progres- B j sive dramatic stars in this country, will be the HII n Conference week attraction at the Salt Lake The- Hl m atre commencing Monday night with an elaborate Hffj Pi scenic production of "Toss of the D'Urbervllles," B il which will be presented for Tuesday and Saturday Hi' K nights and Wednesday matinee and will be fol- the Misses Louise Royce,, Georgie Woodthorpo, Adele "Worth, Lillian Armsby, Araita Allen and 01-lie 01-lie Cooper. "Tess of the D'Urbervilles,' which was first played here by Mrs. Fiske, is Lorrimer Stoddards' dramatization of Thomas Hardy's famous novel, and is a drama of great intensity and interest. The story of the poor milkmaid who is the victim of poverty and deception, appeals strongly to the sympathies. In the earlier scenes where the rus- H FLORENCE ROBERTS IN "TESS OP THE D'URBERVILLES " B lowed by "Marta of the Lowlands," announced for B Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights and Satur- B day matinee. Miss Roberts began her season with B a four-weeks engagement at the California Theatre B in San Francisco, where she turned people away B at every performance. Her company is the strong- B ! est she has ever organized and includes two lead- B ing men, Hobart Bosworth, late with Mrs. Fiske, B and Mr. Lucius Henderson. Among the other B players are Messrs. Wm. Yerance, Christopher B Lynton, Sterling Lord Whitney, Gregory Rodgers, B Forrest Seabury, Philip Lord, John Woodson and f n tic life of the dairy is illustrated and Tess' wedding wed-ding takes place, it is charming and full of comedy com-edy touch, and later when Tess is driven by cowardly cow-ardly taunts to the murder of Alec D'Urberville, it becomes tragic in its strength and affords an emotional emo-tional artist of Miss Roberts' calibre unwonted opportunities op-portunities to demonstrate her quality. The last incident, where the bailiffs come up with her in her flight, and she surrenders just as the rising sun Bheds his rays over the old Druids' ruins at Stonehenge, is one of the most beautiful and thrilling moments of the play, vtvilss Roberts car- ries a production which is said to be complete in every detail. , "Marta of the Lowlands" is almost a complete novelty to the stage. It was originally produced at the Manhattan Theatre in Nev York last October Octo-ber and achieved an immediate sucoess. It is a Spanish romance by Angel Guimera, a Catalonian poet and dramatist who is highly honored in his own country and whose plays hiVo.been rendered In all the Latin languages for years. The story of Marta deals with a condition in Spain where i the wealthy landowners are the despots of the j poor peasantry. Chiefly it concerns the history of a poor beggar girl, Marta, who is picked up on the ' highway with her aged father by a certain wealthy Sebastian. He falls in love with the girl, and after her father's deatih reduces her to his evil will. Later, wishing to marry a wealthy woman to recuperate his fortunes", but not desiring to lose Marta altogether, he arranges a marriage for her with a simple shepherd who lives in the mountains. moun-tains. He tells Marta that he has paid the shepherd shep-herd for his Wgain, but tells the shepherd nothing noth-ing about the girl's past. The shepherd loves her immediately, but she despises him because she believes be-lieves he scld his honor. Later she learns he was deceived also, and she falls in love with him. In one of their stormy scenes, she tells him the whole truth and he tries to kill Sebastian, but is prevented pre-vented and sent away. Later he returns and in an opportune moment kills him with his bare hands. Then he and Marta retire unmolested to his home in the Highlands, far away from the wickedness and misery of the Lowlands. The play is said to be admirably written and full of dramatic touches and well-drawn characters. The Spanish atmosphere atmos-phere is fully retained in Mi3S Roberts' production produc-tion and the play is said to make one of the most , enjoyable entertainments she has yet offered. ( t dt j "THE OFFICE POTY." j "At last!" And this with a sigh of great relief, for after a month of the theatrical season, which has contained a plethora of the greatness df musical musi-cal comedy which has been thrust upon us, a man and many maids have come to town, who are worthy wor-thy of all the praise that can be given to a real musical comedy with all of the color, and life, and music and fun that can be stuffed into three hours' enjoyment. We were almost ready to give up In disgust, but decided to press the button one more time; and in stepped "The Office Boy," and nobody regretted that pair of plunks with pay day still two days off. And what a relief it Is to be able to say nothr ing but things that are nice, about a theatrioal performance, per-formance, to make no excuses oh account of the "long distance from New York," or listen to the silly twaddle of the steam sifter who is usually introduced as the press agent. The Frank Daniels engagement establishes two facts very clearly. One is that there is absolutely no reason why Salt Lakers should pay New York prices for a poor imitation of something that is "just as good," and the- other Is that this prattle about Salt Lake being a one-night stand is utterly false, for this same Salt Lake is good for three big nights when the play is just that good. But that happens to he another story. For the present "The Office Boy" is all absorbing, and in this delicious concoction, Daniels has a vehicle with an axle made of a funny bone that will wear a long time. Daniels like our old friend, the milk maid, still has his fortune in his face, and every contortion of his features, every wriggle of his unique perspective, perspec-tive, was the signal for a general roar. Not in years, has" anything been written for him, to which he is so well suited. Catchy music, speedy repartee and a, dazzle of good-looking chorus girls to back him up in his enterprise of fun-starting that is the story of The Office Boy" a good story that boars repeating, if vyou have the price of another an-other performance. But pardon me that is not all the story. Sallie Fisher, our own Sallie Fisher, sweet of voice, charming in personality, graceful and dainty, filled with the enthusiasm of youth, and with the dash of the professional stage, which was all that she needed formerly to make her what she Is, was there to receive her welcome home, and share the honors with the great comedian. And this she did, for we are not stingy with the prophets of our own country, when they come back to show us what they have accomplished, and hundreds of friends of this accomplished girl were there to greet her, and hear again the voice that sang Its way through their heartstrings before its owner took It away from here. To speak of the individual song hits would bo to hire a hall, for there was an embarrassment of riches, but Mr. Daniels' "I'm on the Water Wagon Now" is the best thing ne has ever had put In his .mouth, and "Plain Mamie O'Hooley" will keep a man awake nights. Let us keep this rich morsel called "The Office Boy" very much in mind, and when some theatrical theatri-cal mortioian comes along with the ghost of some musical comody that he has resurrected and which he graciously offers to dispose of at two per, remind re-mind him of Noah. Little's lovely expression about it being all over but the hissing. & & & ' "THE TENDERFOOT." The tuneful "Tenderfoot," with Phil Ryley iu Professor Pettibone, was worth more patronage than it received, but this was due as much to the inefficiency of the advertising as anything else. Very few people knew what was coming, others did not oven know that the musical comedy was in town, and nobody is willing to take a chance nowadays on a practically unknown quantity, especially es-pecially if it is labeled musical comedy. And in consequence, theater-goers missed an awfully clever performance, for Phil Ryley is funny every minutes, the music of the "Tenderfoot" "Tender-foot" is splendid, the chorus was fine, and there was a "go" about the action that exhilarated. Edward Crawford's "magnetism" was a great bore, Arthur Wanzer's Hop Lee was about as close to Chinese as the North Pole is to Newport, and George Romain has the same license to be an actor as the company cook with" a section gang, but one can stand a little of the rotten with so much of the good, and the "Tenderfoot" has enough laughs and good music in it to please even "Well Wisher" or "Old Subscriber." "Arizona," the greatest of Western plays, comes to the Grand the first of next week. The old original company seen here last season, and the one preceding, and containing Farnum, Cam-peau, Cam-peau, et al., is now playing in "The Virginian, which will be seen at the Salt Lake Theater later in -the year. It is said, however, mat the company which will present "Arizona" at the Grand is an excellent excel-lent one, Francis Justice plays Lieut. Denton, Bscamillo Fernandez, , Tony, and Jame3 Kirkwood, Canby. |