The herald., 1897-06-01
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ences at this house have a decided taste
for plays Of the strong order, pieces in
which there is plenty Of action, where
the villain gets in his deadly work up to
the last act, and where the heroine, af-
ter suffering unheard-of trials and trib.
ulations, at last comes through safely
and lands in the arms of the Juvenile
lead, while the baffled bad man Is either
killed outright or, as is more frequently
the case, is arrested and led off to DUR
the discovery and possession Of certain
papers which always have large red
seals attached, and the rapidity with
which these papers are written and Pc
rused, and the child-like simplicity with
which they are accepted as settling at
once the ownership of large properties
and the legitimacy, or otherwise, of
contesting heirs, strikes the professional
auditor with awe and admiration.
"Erma. the Eli" produced last night,
is destined to be the joy of the Burbank
audiences for the remainder of the week
1t Is good, clean, wholesome piece,
and while, of course, the incidents do
not happen exactly as they would in
real life, yet there are numerous typeg
of character sketched in which the ac-
tors bring out with clever effect. Katie
Putnam has one of her favorite roles
and plays it capitally. The little woman
is the best personator of childish char
acters on the stage today. Her petite
figure, small features, treble voice ana
Juvenile gestures and attitudes combine
to give a certain truthfulness to the
most eccentric things she does. She has
two methods Of delivery; one, which she
uses for the larger part of the time, in
which she is natural and unaffected, her
voice having always a sweet, penetrat-
ing character; but again, when she gets
the pathetic stop on, and starts in on
long-winded speech made up of copy
book maxims, she is, in spite of the deli
cate tremor that accompanies her de-
livery, not quite so convincing. The
lady is an artist, however, to the tips
Of the delicate fingers Of her shapeiy
hands, and has the command of ex-
preston both Of voice and gesture to
an extent rarely seen in pieces Of this
kind; her great virtue being that she is
never tempted to overact her part, no
matter how wild it may be.
Miss Putnam is supported by her own
company and not by the regular stock
of the house. H. B. Emery is a capital
old man and j. D. O'Hara, who played
the part of Bosanko, theatrical man
ager, made quite hit with his topical
song.
The outline of the plot of "Erma. the
Elf" has been already given in these
columns and it will have been seen that
the piece is like the conventional play
of it's class. The title bears strong re-
semblance to Trina, the Waif,' but
whether the likeness goes any further
does not appear. The plot is really Of
little consequence, as the acting runs
along very smoothly and is always in
teresting. The work done by the star
and her company is the best they have
done here this season and the piece
ought to draw we'll for the rest Of the
week..
ORPHEUM.-It is growing a some
what serious, not to say pointed, ques-
tion whether or not the gallery is going
to run the show at the Orpheum. OF
course, on the sentimental side, it Is
important to cater to the gallery person.
because it is so pathetic to think of
him lounging about the streets and in
the saloons, as he presumably would be
il not at the Orpheum. The doubt
arises however, whether any real ben
eft can be gotten by him from the things
he likes most and howls the loudest
over in the vaudeville turns. On the
other hand, he pays less than third of
what the cheapest seat costs in the body
of the house, and less than half the
price of the balcony seats and his pref
erence should not be the only one con-
suited in a management which wishes
to retain its patrons.
All this is said by way of preamble.
and for two reasons. Last night when
Signor Albert and his wife came on
to sing, the gallery arrogated to itself
the privilege of kissing them openly and
pointedly. The entire lower part of the
house promptly rose to the occasion and
drowned the insult in storm of braves
and applause. The gallery did the same
thing two weeks ago. Is it to be allowed
to continue? And If so, why? The other
reason is quite as fragrant and needs
immediate and heroic remedy.
Nothing but mad desire to provide
joy to the gallery would permit sane
management to so offend its decent
patrons as to permit upon the stage that
remarkable aggregation which travels
under the name of George Osrani and
celebrated burlesque pantomime COM
pany." There are five Of them, all men,
all unspeakably vulgar. Their makeup
is namely vapid, their business is a
mixture Of the commonest horse-play
and coarseness that verges perilously
close to obscenity at times, the whole
observation-disclosures. to put it mildly.
The rest of the bill is all up to the
standard. Miss Fleurette Terpsichore
and her four little fisher maidens repeat
their turn Of Last week, and the dolls fail
to come back as usual. Edwin Latell
makes hit with his musical novelty,
played with steel dishes on a marble
slab, and is generally amusing. AL and
Mamie Anderson, gorgeous of costume
and neat of foot, continue to bring down
the house, and Signor Albert
and Madame Orlando reappeared
last night with an aria each from Car
men," in costume, and a duet. Albert
was in magnificent voice, and the Tor
eador's song was given a magnificent
rendering.
Alexander Tocianu, the phenomenal
male Soprano" made his first appear