The San Francisco call., 1898-02-01
HAPPY CHINA 1T II TIE. I l T.|IY|0|..L|'..I| ] Il. l .."''The Pearl of Pekin" a z. Notably Pretty Pro- :. duction.
 The .First-Night Hitches Could
 Not Conceal the Sue. ..
 ' ::. < ..::. ... . cess. :.>:* Y 
"victors Durand". at tho Alcazar-- :. ..-. ...~ Exciting Horsenaanship at
 >. ..s. .>. :the Orpheura.

= By. lO-nlSnC, or IO-H1OTrOW. IiSHl. dI the latest: the little old opera house around the corner should be offering entertainment that will please every body who cares for clean nonsense and twinkling music. The company was nervous last night. There were drags and hitches in the performance, and time to die of drink between the acts: but: in spite of these first-nfght debilities there was no questioning the good value in the Tivoli's Pearl of Pekin." ," The production is generous, clever, and in many ways artistic. The play itself is full of jollity; to be sure, some of the jokes and interpolated songs are not making their first ap- pearance on earth, but on the whole the book is better than those acrobatic hair=raisers that; are thrown at us nowadays, and the music-alI of 1t that is :Lecocqs # and some that is Kirker's--is delicate and humorous, as we seldom find the lighter music of to- day. >s.: % :. ...:
 I missed "The Pearl of Pekin" when Louis Harrison presented 1t here some seven years back. and I am not famil- . far with Lecocq's .operetta "Fleur de The: from. which 1t Is Americanized
 by: Gus Kirker, the kept composer of the: New York Casino Reviews" !" so E everything was new; to nae last night,
 that Is everything except a song or two and a. handful of gags that had dallied with my auditory nerves in
 other shows, and I spent an evening of comfortable good nature. Unlike Brian. Boru'' The Pearl of :Pekin'' pretends to nothing: that it is not. You do not come away from 1t with#a griev- E. ance. # can recommend 1t to anyone who wants. to- digest his dinner with |. something thati is light and picturesque. found.1 also a refreshing contrast to The. Girl From Paris: There are legs \. in ...The Pearl of Pekin,'a' of course but they are candidly set. forth in pink
 tights and they. are those trusty Tfvoli |. legs that we have learned to look upon !. openly: and unashamed. Miss Hall is E the one instance; of naughty lingerie, but she: :contrtves to leave something to the: magination Miss Hall: was. one of the nervous ones in last nights per formance, and her symptom was over work; a little less effort will produce more effect, for the part of Finette is right in Miss Halls line think, if she will. only: ease up. a bit and. try to see some of the fun herself. # .:.... *.:= :: \ =: Miss .:Walcott also was nervous. biit with entirely different effect, her natllr- ally timfd temperament at times as sumed the proportions of actual fright. However, modesty is too rare a: stage accomplishment to be- wantonly: dis couraged, and a little of :. it is very pat to the part of the coy little Chi nese bride. .s:. ! ..:..
 If Edwin Stevens was suffering from any of : the ills of an opening, it was: not patent. He was en- tirely himself, and more than half the fun of the performance. .Tyfoo although the longest and slinlmest of the many Mandarfns of comic opera China. is, in the parlance of the ''pur- feshion." a fat, fat part, and Mir. Ste Nens gives to it the best of that i'm: perious mirth. of his. He missed only once last night. and that was in a drunken scene which was long and la bored. MT. Leary is not very fortu-' nately cast. as the Japanese, but at least he does not oyerdo Phil Branson. is the. same old explosion, perhaps varied a bit by his efforts at French dialect. An exceptionally happy. epi- sode is the "Chin Chin quartet sung and danced by Georgie Cooper. Jennie Stockmeyer; Oracle Gray and Hannah Davies. This, Miss Walcott's singing of. Edgar: Kelley's mulberry song and the choruses, were. the especial musical hits of the night. :: - . .:.... :. .... k <: ASHTON STEVENS.