Los Angeles herald., 1891-02-23
THE BUSKINED STAGE
Holding the Mirror Up to
Nature These Days.
The Weeks Doings at the Local
Playhouses in Brief.
Points on Plays and Players Gathered
From Near and Far.
A Barrel of fMoney,-The Sea King, Annie
Abbott, Realistic Banquets on the
Stage, A Tale of Woe, ETC., Etc.


Stage, A Tale of Woe, ETC., Etc.
The Sea King will be put on at the
Grand tomorrow night. This is what
the New York Sun says of the opera:
Twenty managers from New York and
vicinity went over to hear the Sea King
sung in Philadelphia last Monday night,
and at the close OF the second act all of
them had made up their minds to offer
the new opera the best dates at their
disposal next season. Thus the tour OF
the work was made profitable certain
ty almost before the first-night audience
had pronounced its final verdict. The
opera reveals distinct improvement in
it's composers art. 1t is filled to over
flowing with catchy airs, of which at
least six will be whistled in the Phila-
delphia streets all summer. Stahl, the
composer, has ventured to treat the
more important solos in a forid style
that suggests his close study of familiar
grand operas. and the charge of reminis-
cence may also be laid against several
of the concerted numbers; but in the
main the score is graceful, smooth, and
even captivating at times where its au-
thor's fondness for Won Suppe has led
him into making dance movements.
The popular taste will easily be charmed
by this opera, and when it's libretto shall
be one to prove factor in next falls
A foot nf ho ,,f
looked for by most of its auditors was
that it developed star role that seemed
to have been cut to the exact measure of
DeWolf Hopper. Every joke, all the
business, the entire by-play suggested
the peculiar and broad methods OF Hop
per; yet the comedian who played the
part did not suffer by this mental COM
parison on the part of many of the spec
tators. He made success that will ad-
vance him considerably as an actor in
comic opera.
The announcement of Frederick Warde
and Mrs. D. P. Bowers in series of
Shakespearean productions at the Grand
opera house. commencing Wednesday,
March 4th, calls for more than pass
ing mention. Two such great artists
coming together and interpreting Shake
speare's famous characters, is source
of congratulation, and McLain & Leh-
man are most certainly to be commended
in securing such dramatic treat. Ever
since Frederick Warde made his first
appearance IN Los Angeles he has estab-
lished himself as a prime favorlte.
When he came here last season he
played an enormous engagement, and
gave performances that will long be re-
membered. This season he has not only
associated himself with the foremost
actress in America, but has surrounded
himself with company of twenty-three
people carefully selected and unusually
strong.
Annie Abbott, the little 9S-pound
lady who was reported dying in San
Jose last week, has entirely recovered,
and her illness was not so serious as re-
ported. Such peculiar constitution as
hers makes it apparently impossible for
physicians to form diagnosis. When
DIR. Bangs was called at her bedside and
found her delirious, with a pulse 100 and
temperature Sc, he said: make your
peace, while l order the cofiin," but
when her peculiarly was explained, he
concluded it was necessary to study her
standpoint, and by hard work he had
beauties of San Jose in less than twenty
four hours. In less than a week
she resumed her tour, and will
be here the last three nights
of next week. To reporter in San Jose
she remarked that she intended locat-
ing either in San Jose or Los Angeles,
and her manager, who is now here, said
he was sure she had not decided on San
Jose. She will in all probability take a
trip to England and France, as she has
had so many oyertures to appear before
a medical academy of London, as sci
entifc study, that she has concluded to
accept this courtesy. This force or pow
er is as much of a mystery to her as to
anyone else, and she is equally as anx-
ious to find it out. The sale of seats for
her engagement, which opens on Febru-
ary 26th, is now in progress.
E. II. Sothern relates bit from chat
which he recently enjoyed with Mrs.
Kendall, and which illustrates how care
tully the English actress works up the
details of her roles. "You know" said
the artistic, "that Unreal life one always
acts naturally. Nature on the stage,
slightly emphasized, if you will, is what
makes an audience kin with you. And
yet most actors lose sight of this fact and
do, in most unnatural and artificial
way, little things which win no response
from their audience, but which, if done
as they would do them in real life, would
strike responsive chord at once Take
stage kissing, for instance. You don't
kiss your mother as you kiss your sweet
heart, and you don't kiss your sweet
heart as you kiss your sister and your
cousin; and, again, people of different
nationalities have peculiar osculatory
methods of their own. This one subject
forms wide field for study to the actor
who strives for perfection in stage art.
Your love for your mother prompts you
to tenderly caress her hair, her cheeks
and her hands. Will your sweetheart
there is quite a different mode of pro-
cedure-something ecstatic, sweet and
lingering. On your sister you don't
waste great deal of time. and as for
your cousin, you are generally satisfied,
and 20 is she, with hurried little peck
as you pass her by"
John H. McCabe, at one time very
prominently associated with the theat-
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