OCR Text |
Show Hj "SALOMY JANE." IB! By T. G. 4 Paul Armstrong has performed a singularly in- BLj teresting foat. Not especially in the fact that in "Salomy Jane" ho has written a big, strong, beautiful play, but he has done so much more. Really of the east, though, to properly speak, of the whole wide world, he hadn't the chance to Bl know his west, especially the early west as so BB many other who have grown up almost in the Hf shadows of the firs and redwoods. He hadn't B the chance to know his Harte, to learn it as most Bf of us do, from the lips of our sires who knew tho B days of "Poker Flat" and "Roaring Camp," and B yet he has caught the spirit of their poetry, and B without exaggeration has put it before us as com- B pletoly as if he had dreamed his early days B away lying in the ferns and "Indian Carpets" B tljat spread about the roots of the aromatic giants B of the Sierras. iB . There has never before been a truly western jB idyl put upon the stage. Overdrawn pictures of Bl the primitive life out here and beyond; impos- Bl sible affairs about as real as some of the Lili- B puts who approve them as typical, have been at- B tempted, but there has been no reason why they Bjj should not fail. They served no purpose, not B I even one of royalties, and it is easy to see just why. For instance, read a story of Bret Harte's. B I You will be interested, but after you have fin- IB lshed stop a 'moment to consider how it would B j look upon the stage, and then try to think how B many men could put it there without making a B fearful botch of things. B What a fresh breath of life this new play Ini- parts. There are nd rotten problems to discuss, Bf . and how refreshing to note the lack of necessity Bi for a diagnosis of some filthy case in so-called B society, where the lady early in life has stepped B off with tho left foot and then, turning on the B tears to their maximum pressure, explains for Bf a couple of acts that she is beating it for tho Bt presidency of the Society For the Hesitancy of Vice. No, no, trepanning is not necessary in or- Bl der to send your mind to the cleaners after this Armstrong play which is out of doors and whole-some, whole-some, and the people in it are real, even if those Hjf who represent therm here did their best to spoil Bm the good impression. B In "Salomy Jane" there is an entire absence B ' of famHlar situations, a' disregard for many stage B i conventions,-that instantly serves it purpose in Bj concentrating the intoreit, and making it thor- BJj , oughly Armstrorgosquo. Bf The staging Is wonderful tho effect of great B" height in the redwoods in perspective bolng a tri- B ' umph in stagecraft, and no small part of tho sue B; cess of the play Is due the one responsible. B The one bad scene, or, rather, a disappointing Bir place in the play, is the parting of Hod Pete and BI;'' Lize, before the hanging. There sooms to be Bt some unfinished business, that can scarcely be Bfj blamed to the participants In the scene, though B there were very few of the principals who had B any intelligent conception of their parts, or, hav- B , ing, that could express it. BI Compare In your mind the idea Eleanor Rob- BI son would, convey, and then think of the blood- B thirsty Jessie Izett. She saves herself too much B ' in preparation for her grand jnelodramatic ef- flj! forts, and really no one It greatly concerned In B' ber love as she portrays it, except when she B pleads with Jack Marbury for her lover's life, B ! and again when she finds her lover after the kill- B ing of Larrabee. The Impression she gives Is B that of a lady lunatic, and there Ifi nothing' in BL her face at any time that one would like to find BT there. As Colonel StarbotOe, the5 Bacchanalian boab-tor, boab-tor, Spottiswoode Aitken's buffoonry defies description de-scription and all competition. Just how a man with ordinary, extremely ordinary, intelligence can bo such a bore is a little beyond the average aver-age mortal. Florence Gerald's "Lize Heath" was very poorly done. Just imagine Ada- Dwyer in that part where she turns on the different men and Red Pete alternately before they take him away to hang him. There was nothing subtle in her changes, no impression of latent strength, but one of a common scold working at her spark plug in a vain endeavor to develop into a hurricane. FRITZI SCHEFF. In the company, A. S. Lipman was distinctive as Jack Marbury. His part, that of the early day gambler is one easily idealized by a western audi-ience, audi-ience, but even so, he played it perfectly with rare understanding of its requirements. Stokes Sullivan as Tho Man was fair; Daniel Gilfothor's Yuba Bill sufflcod, William Nugout's Red Pete was typical and not overdono, and Burr Caruth as Madison Clay lived up to expectations. & j$ ORPHEUM. Frederick Voelkor, the Four Golden Graces, and the Eugene Trio have made the performances at the Orphoum boamblo this week. They are delightfully situated on the miscellaneous menu, sandwiched as they are, where most needed, at crucial points, where wore It not for their saving sav-ing grace, the audience would necessarily suffer from aciuto ennui. Nothing finer than, the -Voelkor music has been hoard at tho vaudeville house this season, and the distinguished violinist has in Mrs. Voel-ker Voel-ker an accompanist of . rare accomplishment, and more than the average beauty per capita distributed dis-tributed over the globe. The. lady is fully aware of the fact, but most anybody would be with the same attractive endowments. Voelker's possibilities with his Strad seem to be illimitable, and lie was particularly happy in the Fantasie Caprice, 'the Gipsy Melodies, and the Russian Folk Song. Far tfnd away above othor performors on the horizontal bars are the three men styled the! Eugene Trio, and just as far above everything 0 else to the extent of about eighteen feet in the5 air every moment of their act Tho statuary stunts of the Golden Graces posed by Ernest Brengk were daring and true tp clay. Most people do not know it, but the Graces were neither in tights, nor anything else, but the covering they wore born with, except for the the rather brief draperies in one or two of the poses. They are bronzed and silvered so artistically artis-tically that they looked like real statues, and there was nothing vulgar in the unique effect. But in tho act which preceded them that of a dozen black birds who wiggled through an act called "The Sunny South" there was very little which was not vulgar and disgusting. It was just Q, one of those periodical dinge acts led by a repulsive female and an effeminate buck, neither I of whom was any too far removed from the abys- ,M mal. ' Guyor and Crlspi were worth seeing at tire finish, fin-ish, and if the act could be inverted it would be an instantaneous hit But the ten or fifteen tragic minutes leading up to the finale seemed a lifetime. Brother Guyor's conception of comedy is a weird hallucination, and his pantomine about as funny as a bread famine. The Holdsworths are banjo exports all right in a season surfeited with strumming, and he can dance cleverly enough while attached to the instrument, but the lady's voice "you will please excuse." Her voice was entirely unique, being a fair imitation of a cross between a well worn sot ok veteran bagpipes, and the love Jilt of a paroqueten, longing for her mate. i$ FRITZI SCHEFF. Charles Dillingham will present Frltzl Scheff at the Salt Lake theatre for three nights, starting Monday, Nov. 4th, in the comic opera triumph "Mile. Modiste." Mme. Scheff is Viennese by birth and boforo joining the Metropolitan Grand Opera House forces as one of tho prima donnas, was the prima donna soprano at the Grand Opora in Frankfort and In Munich. She is a woman of great personal charm and seems to have the knack of making her vitality and love of life go over the fooftights. Her voice is a soprano of oharming quality, and tho artiste has been termed-the termed-the queon of light opora on account of hor great success in "Mile. Modiste." f It is said that Charles Dillingham is sending j to Salt Lako City precisely the same big cast that ' was soon with Mme. Scheff during the New York runs. There will be a largely augmented orohestra as the musicians carried by tho Fsltzi Stfhaff Opora Company will bo added to the regular the- . atro orchestra. Honry Blossom wrote tho book and lyrios of "MJle. Modlsto," and Is said to have turned out a clean-cut and compact libretto, which tells a oharming little story. Victor Herbert wrote the music, and is said to have outdone himself. "Mile. Modisto," in faot, has been termed the host light opera at present on the Amerioan stage. Mr. Dillingham Dil-lingham has given the play a fine production, and it is as nearly perfect as to costumiiiff and"26ii'' ery as it could be made, & & & ' $u SOUSA ADVANCES. John Philip Sousa has certainly prepared a , nun.ber of bristling programmes for his present! tour. f |