The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-04-27

Manager Burgess could not have stronger
attraction with which to make the trial.
O'Neill has been seen here once before and
here as everywhere else his Monte Cristo"
is recognized as an attraction of the very
highest standard. The company he brings
with him is nearly the same as that which
supported him here in the same play, and 1t
contains actors of ability. Dumas great
work, Monte Cristo," as Interpreted by
James O'Nelll, is a masterpiece. The plot Of
Monte Cristo'' is one of those prolific
conspiracies of modern French history,
where human lives are destroyed by false
imprisonment, conspiracies and murder for
the purpose of securing title and money.
Were it not that this production is familiar
to the public it would be an exceedingly
pleasant task to review its many sstrlklng
features at this time. AS it is, it is safe to
say that the play has lost none of its thrill
ing interest or melo-dramatic effectiveness.
Its many strong situations and picturesque
tableaux are novel, inspiring and fascinat-
ing. Mr.. O'Neills work is imbued with
great dash, grace, fire and chivalric spirit,
and its artistic and salient points are made
to tell with splendid effect.
Nothing in the world has killed Dumas
dramas but their being played by bad act
ors and faxed scenically. Here is Monte
Cristo,n lively as if it were a new play,
simply because F'echter's widow owned
certain rights which she refused to give to
anybody who would make them valueless.
James O'Neill has lived up to proper pro-
duction of the piece, and if the same thing
had happened to 1.-THE Three Guardsmen,n
there would yet be a fortune in that play.
Itnsed to be said that Monte Cristo'
died with Fechter. John Stetson thought
differently. He engaged James O'Neill
nine years ago to play it at
salary of $500 a week. He made
SO much money out of it that
O'Neill bought it out and is playing it still
The success which has attended him has
made it profitable for him to run the piece
for so many years without once resting.
This is due both TO the play itself and to
his able acting and careful management.
If he had permitted his performance to be-
come cheap and tawdry he would have had
to give it up long ago. But he gives as
fine a production to it as Fechter used to,
and it is carefully east and conscientiously
played. Theatrical productions to-day, in
an ordinary way, are what few years ago
would have been looked upon as remark
ably fine, but the production of ''Monte
Criston promises to be especially sump-
tuous at the opening to morrow evening.
ga Soap Bubble" which, from the class
of its printing and the character of its
press notices, we should Judge to be some
thing on the "City Directory" ''Three of
a Kind 'order, opens out at the theatre to-
morrow evening for two nights run
Those who like the merry gag, the typical
song, the dancing girl, the shapely limbs
and so on, will rally in strong force in the
front stalls
The preliminary boom the WllsonEBar-
rett season is working up in San Francisco
is having the effect of enlivening the inter
est here, and his forthcoming engagement
at the theatre will doubtless be one of the
red letter events in the history of the pres
ent season 1t is not known what the rep
ertory for Salt Lake will be, but the
"Silver King,'' ''Ben Mychree'' and
"Claudlan,' p will suit our people as well as
anything in the list.
During June both Systematically with
Henry Miller) and ''Held by the Enemy'
with Gillette, the author) will be done in
Salt Lake s'Shenandoahn got the biggest
send off ever received by any play the
other night when the news was flashed
over the whole country that General Sher-
man was present at the representation and
was called on by the audience for a speech
concerning that event. Mr.. Charles Froh-
man writes from New York to a member
of THE HERALD staff:
Our original New York company of "Shenan-
dcah,' which has been playing the piece here
500 hundred nights, gave ii for the
last time last Saturday night in the presence OF
General Sherman and an enormous audience
which occasion General Sherman in the