The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-04
.ERAWLEYS
IN A DAILY
ADAPTATION
"The Last Word" Is a
Success.
BUSH STREET PATRIOTISM
NANCE O'NEIL AND RANKIN IN
FEARFUL DRAMA.
TivoIi's Bohemian Girr'-Domestic
Strife at Morosco's-"The Glad
iator" at the ALEXANDRIA.
The Others.

When 1t was first announced that the
Frawleys were going to move around
the corner to Market street l shared
the doubt Of the many and trembled
lest the Baldwin-our only hope-should
go down to the F'rawleys rather than
that the Frawleys should come up to
it, Last weeks performance of cos
tune play was, even with Miss Bates
we'll to the front and one or two others
doing finely not a complete assurance
But last nights performance of the
Daily adaptation, 1.-The Last Word
was really a comfort and surprise.
In the past Mr. Frawley always seemed
opposed to sane stage management ana
human ensemble. He sanctioned a sys-
tenn Of stage-manners that would nave,
and 1 dare say often did, shock a police
man. It was only the individual spell
Of Frank Worthing, Miss Bates and
other good members of the company
that lent any sort of conviction TO the
social pictures that were presented.
Every fellow did and dressed as he
pleased, and the general result was a
picnic of astonishing clothes and wild
department.
I don't know that the actors are any
better now; 1 don't know who manages
the stage, but certainly this DAILY
comedy was given last night with meas
ures Of harmony, polish and easfness
that were undreamt of in the old FraW-
ley days. 1t was not a f1awless perform
ance, but it had the atmosphere, some
thing of the fanciful elegance that Mr..
Daily usually gives to his productions
And Blanche Bates in the Rehan part
of the Baroness Vera added still an
other to her little bunch of first rate
presentations. In that scene in the third
act where she pleads with the stormy
papa and tells him the good old Sunday
school story about her little brother
who died, she impressed me as being
much more vivid and much less comical
than Miss Renan. In chronicling Miss
Rehans performance during the last
Daily season at the Baldwin protested
politely but strenuouSly against the
business" in this scene. Just as Miss
Rehan reached the heart Of the little
brother story, which she was telling in
order to melt papa, she turned away
from his cold gray head, rushed down
to the lights and addressed the rest full
front to the first violin and the audi
ence. And all the Illusion went to
smash. Now Miss Bates is not beyond
copying any Rehan business and man
nerism that will help along the show,
but in this scene at least she works on
her own lines, and TO the immense adj
vantage of the play. Her whole per-
Torrance is one of distinction and
imagination. These DAILY heroines are
essentially capricious and fanciful, and
Miss Bates Vera is the essence of
caprice and fancy. In real emotional
work Miss Bates can be unfiinchingly
strong and earnest, but in this, which
merely dances over the surface feelings,
she never. forgets that the character
49, 0l4x hi 10 hc-
lieve, and she is always delightful. l
am not much of an authority on Rus
sian dialect, but hers, with its revolv-
ing RS and winding Tvs" is at any
rate melodious If not authentic; and 1t
may interest the women folk to know
that Miss Bates gowns are, with the
one exception of the st. Petersburg
kimono in the second act, quite beauti-
full and becoming.
Mr.. Roberts plays the proud papa
and plays him just as Mr.. Clarke did
with DAILY, too proudly and too solemn
ly for the texture of the part. But the
musician brother is an unobtrusively
clever piece of character as Mr. Keefe
presents him; and Mr.. Edwards does a
brilliant fifteen minutes with Moses
Mossap The young dude is the best
work l have seen at the hands of Mr.
Hickman. 1t Is comic to the impossi-
BILE, with it's gilt hair and infantile vi
vacity and decorations of floral cock
tails, but it gives you the fun, and you
almost forgive Miss Wells, the opposite,
for playing up to it in her most goo-goo
key. Mr.. Payne makes a fair adven-
ture into Russian dialect and passion as
the suspected brother of Vera and Mr.
Frawley is solemnly himself as papa's
son. I was cheerfully struck with Miss
Adora Andrews, who played the wait
ing maid with all the affability and ele-
gance of a real leading lady. There are
some lights that can't be busheIed.
But as whole, you will find The
Last Word" to be an exceptional Fraw-
ley performance Almost a crowd was
in attendance last night and success
seemed written all over the house
ASHTON STEVENS.