The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-10-15
Music AND THE DRAMA.
John Drew Makes a Great Hit
in New York.

MISS Maude Adams Sundenly ZONES &c
the Front-Lillian Lewis in g Lady
LiI''-Miss Margaret Mather-Sal-
VIM as Don Cesar Stage Notes.
A. P. Dunlop. writing from New York
under date of October Sth, says:
1.-The great event of the week was al
Palmer's Theater on Monday, where
John Drew, who for nearly seventeen
years has been favorite with the metro
politan public, made his debut as star.
1t was a red letter night in this era OF
New York theatricals, for seldom has SO
brilliant an audience been crowded into a
theater and seldom has any audience on
upper Broadway shown so much en-
thusiasm. Mr.. Drew appeared in The
Masked Ball. three-act comedy adapted
from the French of Bisson and Carrie by
Clyde Fitch. and ten minutes after the
curtain rose his success was a foregone
conclusion. Mr.. Drew was received with
affectionate favor. and his venture as q
star was found to be well justified. There
IS little need at this late day TO an
alyZe John Drew's admirable art. It
Is well known to all our playgoers,
but l doubt if it has been ex-
erted to much better advantage than
polish and drollery find excellent ex-
preston in the Bisson- Carre piece. Mr..
Fitch has turned it into acceptable Eng
lish, and it is played by Charles Froh-
mans compact company in the true
spirit of banter and gayety. The play
won instant approval. The action
is brisk. the characters are deity
drawn, and the complications really in
genious and clever. Among those who
distinguished themselves and almost
shared the honor with the successful star
was Miss Maude Adams, young actress
who until Monday evening had only
been seen in minor roles. Her perform
ance was a revelation. There is one scene
III the second act where IN order to pun
ish her husband for some anti-nuptial
remarks of his she has to pretend that
she is drunk. 1t was just touch and go
whether this scene ruined the play or
not. It would have been hard to devise
more crucial test for an actress of even
the widest experience and greatest skill.
In order TO carry Off this scene success
fully it was necessary to appear drunk
and yet be a gentlewoman at the same
time. Miss Adams did this, and did it so
artistically that the applause lasted for a
full minute after she made her exit. If
Miss Adams had done nothing else
throughout the entire play than that one
scene II would have established her as a
CNAl1CliCilAlt VI Vic llISG hoSCls IOuI IlcI
scenes of tenderness were equally good,
and her alternate raillery and contrition
forsher artitice in the final scene were
given with delightfully."- delicate touch.
Both John Drew and The Masked BalP
are unqualified hits, and Charles Froh-
man is again TO be congratulated.
''At the Columbus Theater in Harlem
John l.. Sullivan was alone seen on Mon
day in That Man from Boston, The
piece is described in the bills asa 'beauti-
1ul four-act romantic comedy drama,
and il was undoubtedly a mixture of
some kind, but its purpose and meaning
were not very clear. The acts were not
very clearly marked, owing to the inter-
ruption of some variety artists who sang
quaTtets and attempted, very badly, to do
some high kicking. In one act Mr.. Sulli-
van wore a tennis suit with the effective
ness OF a real bank clerk, and in another
act he appeared in dress suit, which
brought out uncomfortably the slimness
of his legs as compared with the rest of
his body. From financial point of view
the performance must have been great
success, and if the play itself and the re-
manning actors in it had only been equal
to Mr.. Sullivan in careful and conscien-
tious effort it might have been a greater
success in other ways.'
SALvINI AS DON CESAR,
At the end of this century people of
correct taste worship an abstract quality
called repression, which has various de-
lectable and exalted mani festatIons, in
Guiding starched collars, rigid silk hats
and personal composure so perfect that
1t might be mistaken for insanity. but nv
all means shouldn't be. The stage, which
finds it profitable to reflect the vanities
and small ambitions of the times, caters
nlmbly to this taste for thesunruffted and
presents US with scenes which tlatter it.
a gentleman in irreproachable dress list
ems, with immaculate politeness, while
his wife contesses that she has felt de-
moralIZlng loneliness for another
man. The despoiler of a home.
when charged with all sorts Of
wickedness, elevates his neat eve
brows and toys with a cigarette, conf
dent that the injured husband is too
much, OF a gentleman to -jab him
in the nose or kick his head
ure might do. The plunger in the stage
Wall street, with schemes on foot in
volving vast pecuniary and social out
comes, chances casually at the ticker.
turns away and says pleasantly: 3D.,
J.. Il W. has dropped point. / have
lost S27 100000. fear that l
am ruined, my dear boy. MAY 1 trouble
brains afterward, but he goes alone to do
it, so as to avoid intruding his personal
discomforLS upon other people. This is
repression, and it is popular upon the
stage because 1t is the keynote of modern
society.
But if we find repression an admirable
and agreeable social attribute, it must be
because there is something to repress.
Mr.. Kelcey's suavity, with the wolf nos
ing about his domestic door, is Interest,"
ing because we imagine that Mr.. Kelley
is inwardly raging and boiling with
emotion. Mr.. Wheatcroft's insolent COM
poSure would not be fascinating if we
didn't know that hatred and chagrin
were seething in his wicked heart. Re-
preston may be the keynote of conduct
and our social salvation, but the vitality,
and the strength and the life of society.
after all. depend upon the loves, the
hates, the emotions, the impulses which.
at this end of this century we have
agreed not to exhibit if we can help il.
The noisy. clustering, laughing, crying,
boyish, bloodthirsty savage within each
of US demands audible and ocular ex-
preston sometimes. The Kelceys and
the Wheatcrofts are well enough in their
way, but the refined air grows oppres-
sive once in a while. Satiated with our
polite idol, we yawn.
There is clatter of arms
and a clashing of swords in the street.
Shouts and cries come in through the
window. ChallengerS and braggartS are
battling for the mere human fun of it.
Roysterers are drinking deep and laugh
ing loud like great schoolboys There
is a breath of bold intrigue, a whisk of
plumes, a glimpse of staggering shout
ders in picturesque cloaks. of defiant
hands IN g2untlets, of stalwart strides in