OCR Text |
Show With The First Nighters Hj "THE GIRL IN THE TAXI." K Most of the people who went to see "The m Girl in the Taxi" expected something salacious HI, and they certainly got it. Hundreds of them, as H they filed out of the theatre, were shaking their M heads and audibly wondering why such plays H were put on the stage, and among the hundreds H were many who, during the performance, were H winking, and nudging, and laughing their heids H That is the reason why "The Girl in the H. Taxi" and every other play akin to it is pro- H duced the people fight to pay their money to see H, it because through billboards, newspapers, and in H every other way they are given the suggestion H' that something naughty is going to be seen or H heard. Under such circumstances there is little H reason to censure an author, producer, or player H for the public makes such things possible. H Both directly and by inference the lines and H situations are unblushingly immoral, but with all H of the rottenness considered fully, it must be H admitted that "The Girl in the Taxi" is a screem- Wm ingly funny farce, and even if the wit Is not R wholesome, there is a great deal of it that is irre- H sistibly amusing. H The spectacle of a father and son and a vis- H ' iting relative sneaking from the house after their H wives have retired, and making a night of it to Hd (he limit with other men's wives, followed next BlJ morning by the ready forgiveness of the people Hil in their own households, and the laughing con- Bf donement of the husband of one of the wives who B' was also out, is not one calculated to be of much H ' assistance to the cause of decency of the uplifting H ' of the drama, but 'the farce is put together with H ' such expert construction that the purest minded H must admit that most of it is screamingly funny, H$ though there may be a note of regret while mak- H. ing the confession, that the author did not turn W his talents to a better purpose. H A great part of the audience expected to see H ' a musical comedy instead of a French farce and Hgj were disappointed, aB the only features that ap- ij: proached anything of the kind, were the can-can- - p esque terpscichorean efforts of the Misses Esmer- 4 alda and Yeola, who were dressed for spring or j even summer, and the near-Cohan specialty of H Bobby Barry. M By the way, Bobby Barry Is exceedingly clever 1 In the role of Bertie Stewart, though hardly call- MU ing for a justification of a dollar and a half per, Kf considering that Carter Pe Haven, the original, 1 is playing the same role at the Grand Opera house H in New York at present with a dollar asked for H the highest priced seat. H Probably all of the people who should have 1 seen "The Girl in the Taxi" managed to get into 1 the house on Wednesday and so the washout 1 which delayed the company, was more or less for- HI tunate. The pity is that more of the lines in the HI PlQy could not have come out in the -same wash. HI Even the expurgated edition that Salt Lake paid HI for has never been exceeded in suggestiveness by Hi any farce ever staged here, and it is doubtful if H the east was ever treated to one that exceeded it! HI unless we may except "The Girl With the Whoop- HI Ing Cough" as presented by the brazen Valeska HI Suratt. For the company, it must be said that H practically all of them with one or two exceptions HI were excellent. HI The performance moved with a rapidity that H was unbroken except during the siesta of the or- Hl chestra when, after a vain effort to arouse it from HI its lethargy, Bobby Barry was obliged to call for Hi a chord. I ORPHEUM. t- The Clover-Conly drama, "What Every Woman Wom-an Wants," -as produced by Lillian Burkhart and her company at the Orplfeum this week, is one uf those rarities in vaudeville which may be classed with the few sketches really worth while. The burden of the work falls on Miss Burkhart, but she is ably assisted by Maud Odell, Norman Feusiour and Benjamin Ford. The little drama Is just long enough, the lesson is not overdrawn, and there is a ring of truth combined with a sparkle in the lines that instantly appeals to everyone. The trite expressions and now and then slangy aphorisms which come from the ALESSANDRO BONCI Famous tenor who will appear at the Salt Lake Theatre, Tuesday, March 28. heart of the maid, who has seen some life herself, her-self, give Miss Burkhart an opportunity for very effective work, and it was an easy task for her to win her audience. Julius Tannen is a little funnier than ever. He Is one of the very best performers doing a monologue in vaudeville, and the beauty of his v7ork lies in the fact that he never allows a line to get mouldy. When it shows signs of decay he cans it. A clever cycling act is nothing new to Or-pheum Or-pheum patrons, but the five o (iing Auroras top all others to date about 50 per cent. Most quartettes are a bore, but not the Victoria Vic-toria Four, whose performance is one of life and good music and who come in just the right place a,. in the bill to wake up those who, sitting through the preceding offering, "Blossoms," were sorry that they had not brought their knitting. In "Blossoms," Emma Berg, "soprano," and T. W. Eckert, "tenor," are heard. In fact it would be surprising if they were not heard at each performance per-formance as far as Kaysville on the north and Sandy on the south. There ought to be a local society for the prevention of unnecessary noises. The Kennedys and Gerty De Milt can dance, but they Insisted on trying to be runny also. The attempts at humor were very serious for the audience, but most every one lived through. Arthur Borani and Annie Nevaro, who open the bill, are among our leading twisters, and they carry a clever purp with them who is a real headliner. . a "TILLIE'S NIGHTMARE." "Tillio's Nightmare," with Marie Dressier, was everything that wao promised in advance, and this Is saying a good deal of a production on tho road. It was announced that the entire company, with all of the scenic features and embellishments embellish-ments seen in New York, would be seen here, and the writer can testify that every promise was faithfully carried out. Marie DresBler is most of the show, but she is surrounded by a company such as is very seldom sel-dom seen away from Broadway. The sceneiy was perfect down to the very last detail, and the costuming had been planned and carried out in accordance with every precedent set by Lew Fields in former productions. There was hardly any individual in the company who could sing well, but this was made up for in the tout ensemble, en-semble, and the dances and action went with a snap and perfection that eloquently told of -pert stage direction. The book and lyrics are by Edgar Smith and the music by A. Baldwin Sloane, and the lines are " full of rare fun, while Mr. Sloane has contributed a good deal to the current musical hits of the day. Miss Dressier is truly a wonder. She is getting along in years, but no one would ever know it by seeing her go through "Tillie's Nightmare," Night-mare," which makes more calls on a woman of her bulk than it would seem possible to meet. She is an actress, too, and her changes of expression ex-pression in the scene on the yacht (which, might be curtailed to advantage) were remarkable. Then, too, the pathos she gets out of the last scene when she awakens to find that it was only a dream, is an unusual bit of work and totally unexpected in a musical comedy. The packed audiences which greeted her ut every performance surely got their money'o worth, and it is too bad that more producers have not the courage to send such splendid or- i H ganizations to the west as that headed by Miss I ,H Dressier. Tho performance was one of the real H delights of a rather dull theatrical season. ' H M BONCI COMING. ! Alessandro Bonci will make his eagerly await- H ed appearance on March 28 at the Salt Lake H Theater, under the management of Fred C. H Graham. He was asked the other day in an in- terview why he showed such great preference H for love songs. "Ah," he replied, with a smile, JH (Continued on page 18) H WITH THE FIRST NIGHTERS. , (Continued from Pago 13.) , "love is tlje greatest thing in the world, so tcom-posers tcom-posers write the most beautiful things ajout it, and artists love to sing them because they, too, want to express this great emotion in their art. Besides, their lyric quality is best suited to pure, lyric tenor voices." Alessandro Bonci has sung in every musical center in the world. From his first triumphant appearance in Verdi's "Fal-staff" "Fal-staff" at the Royal Opera in Parma to the Del Verne in Milan, immediately afterwards promoted pro-moted to the great La Scala, this supreme artist art-ist has sung wherever the love of music is strong enough to create opera houses. He has been heard and acclaimed in his native na-tive Italy; he has sung and been praised in Berlin; Ber-lin; he has appeared and been wildly applauded in Vienna; he came and conquered the untamed Hungarians in Budapest; he has had immense success in Madrid, whose audiences regretfully admitted that he even excelled their own beloved be-loved Gayarre; he won the Portuguese in Lisbon; Lis-bon; he was declared the greatest living lyric in Paris; he is beloved and hailed as the most marvelous singer ever heard in Buenos Ayres; and now, in our own country, the critics and audiences have voted him one of the most gifted artists in both opera and concert ever heard in America. He comes here from San Francisco, where he has scored one of the greatest triumphs of his career. "ON THE QUIET." The Collier farce has never had a better production pro-duction in stock than the Garrick has offered this week. In fact, if Willie had dropped into the Garrick any time after Tuesday night he would have found a show that very nearly equalled his own presentation of the Thomas comedy four or five years ago. The play Is so well known and ad- mlttedly enjoyable that an extended review of it at this time is unnecessary. James Durkin as Bob Ridgway is excellent, Miss Wheatle is the charming Agnes Colt, Miss Collier a quaint little i Phoebe, and Margaret Dills a striking Duchess. Mr. Seymour and Mr. Herblin as Horace Colt and Hyde are almost all that could be asked, and on down to Mr. Crosby, Mr. Schuster, Niel Pratt, Jack Held and the other members of the company, there Is scarcely a flaw in the various characterizations. New Haven, Conn., March 17. Madame Fritz! Scheff appeared at the Hyperion theatre here tonight to-night in a new Victor Herbert comic opera entitled en-titled "M'lle Rosita." Star, company and opera made a distinct impression and If New Haven's verdict proves general then Madame Scheff and her managers, the Messrs. Shubert, may rest assured that "M'lle Rosita" is primed for a long life. Victor Herbert's score is capital and both star and composer were compelled to answer many curtain calls. THE NEW BILLS. The Orpheum iheads its new bill beginning tomorrow to-morrow afternoon with Harry Tate's delightful satire on automobiling entitled "Motoring." The Tate company of English comedians were, seen 'it the Orpheum last season and scored one of the comedy hits of the year. With its headline feature will be found Porter J. White and company preser ng "The Visitor." The story hinges on the murder of a club man, and Mr. White is an actor well known for his emotional work. The sketch is the work of Mr. White's brother, Oliver White, who has contributed contrib-uted several very excellent sketches to the vaudeville vaude-ville stage. A novelty from Europe will be found in the living pictures provided by Maxim's models, and the act is said o be one of the best of its kind ever Drought over from the continent. Seymour Brown and Nat Ayre, composers of popular pop-ular songs, are on the bill in "The Undiscovered Genius," and Salt Lakers will have their first opportunity of hearing the two new compositions written by the performers, entitled "Chantecler" and "Ohio." The Kuma family, an aggregation of Japanese who present an act that includes magic, mystery and juggling, is expected to be another an-other feature of the new program. It is claimed for Elsie Durand, who is billed as "The Female Caruso," that she can sing soprano, tenor and baritone. Ferry, the frog man, is too well known locally to necessitate an extended mention of his act, which is always good. Of the utmost interest is tho announcement that Edward Terry, with a company composed entirely of English players direct from his London Lon-don theatre, will he seen at the Colonial Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening of the coming week in a repertoire of those delightful plays which have endeared him to English theatregoers theatre-goers for a generation past. This is the first time in six years Mr. Terry has visited this continent, and though at that time he was not seen in Salt Lake, his success has been too pronounced for local playgoeis to require much of an introduction to the actor. His repertoire during the coming four performances perform-ances at the Colonial will includo "Sweet Lavender" Laven-der" as the opening bill, one of the best known of all of Sir Arthur Pinero's plays, and which was first produced at Terry's theatre in London twenty years ago; 'The Magistrate" by Austin Story and R. C. Carton's domestic comedy 'liberty 'lib-erty Hall" and "Flander's Widow," the comedy of Sydney Valentine and M. E. Francis. Particular emphasis is laid by the management of the Colonial on the fact that every member of Mr. Terry's company comes direct from Eng-and Eng-and with him and that all of his productions will be staged exactly as they are put on at the Terry theatre in London. For one performance on Sunday night tho Colonial will offer the dialect comedy "Olo Olson." "Pierre of the Plains," Edgar Selwyn's story of the Canadian borderland, will bo the bill at the Garrick beginning Sunday evening. The production will be the first in the west for many years of the story, and while its construction construc-tion .s pecuMar, it has long been recognized as one of the strongest of those stories evolved from that part of the west and of Canada, where tho activities of the northwest royal mounted police are most numerous. Jan Whcatley will play Jen and Mr. Durkin, Pierro, the nam, part of tho play. The Garrick promises some unusually striking stage pictures. |