The San Francisco call., 1898-12-25

soutH oI MdrRet nave reason TOT
 shedding a tear or two over the
 < coming of 1899, for the Grand
 Opera House closes down for re- pairs after next Sunday nights per formance. Then good-by to the old Morosco's; good-by to the old tattered carpets, to the old seedy seats with the broken springs, to the new art gallery cafe with its old masters hand painted | by the scenic artists, to the thrilling | scenery, the patriotic curtain, to the | old company and to the old play that 1 under this title and that for years has l been the weekly delight of Morosco's 1 faithful following. Expansion is the order of the hour, and Mir. Morosco has concluded to expand. In gold and precious stuffs will he refit the theater, and house everything from grand opera to tragedy. There will be a season of melOdrama, too; but the company that presents it will be largely new, the prices will be new, even the play may be new, and new people will compose the attending crowds; and the old faithful south siders will wonder where they are at. For thirteen lucky years has Morosco given the south side pre- cisely the sort of show it wanted: now he will try to do as much for the hills and avenues of the northern 400. Next Sunday night means farewell to the old Morosco regime, and it will be a night of sorrow on Mission street.
 They were playing Mrs. Stowe's anti slavery masterpiece when I went to Morosco's the other night and for once the acting did not play second-fddle to the scenery and effects, as 1t usually does in productions of Uncle Toms Cabin" The actors had the show to themselves. The scenery and the prop critics were only incidental; they were very incidental, casual, in fact, and real acting ran riot all over the place Only 1 once before had I seen Uncle Toms i Cabin" with the actors in the fore | ground, and that was in performance | which bOasted two Topsys, two little | Evas, and three lawyers Marks, and | forced the scenery into subsidiary con- sideration. MT. Morosco presented the i piece last week with only a single-b bar reled cast, but he attended to it that | nothing should detract from the feals of the actors. The blocks of ice that supported Eliza's flight were all wood | and yard wide and as safe as a side walk. Lawyer Marks umbrella had no mechanical complications to lessen that | characters personal spell, and the five ! fiendish bloodhounds were three em- barrassed bowwows of any other breed. | The only material features that inter fered with the efforts of the players | were the new S799 mounted over coat in which the escaping George liar ! ris was disguised and the all-leather | blacksnake whips yielded by the sev- eral slave spectators. especially by | Simon Legree. The overcoat and the | whips worked something of a disen- chantment. The identity of MT. Brophy | was but indiferently concealed by the bargain garment, and MT. Stevens, while perhaps as successful whip as any of his colleagues, was in perpetual difficulty getting his weapon to give out the proper crack have seen other "U. T. C." performances, in which Har- ris' charms were concealed by a much less expensive and modish garment and Simon Legree was more of virtuOso in whip-cracking, that were notably stronger than this one. Still these are | minor faults, easily forgiven in the ex- cellence of the rest of the presentation. | The part of George Harris was child's play for MT. Brophy, who in voice and |
 
 physique is always equal to at least . five acts of continuous heroics. In the . dramatic version of Mrs. Stowe's story | George Harris has even less to do than | in the book His days work is over | when the curtain goes down on the | second act; so when an actor is | assigned to this part he can consider ! himself on a vacation. 4 peculiar thing | about the play of Uncle Tom" is the ! way the actors take it up in shifts, | dropping out act by act until the piece | is finally wound up by players who are | fresh and vigorous for the task. Now | the real larded star part is that of ! Simon Legree, who lasts only two acts, | for he does not come into the play until | the opening of Act " Simon is an ! intensely violent character, full of pas sion and profanity and fierce facialisms ! to say nothing of the cracking of the ! whip-and I should imagine him to be |