The San Francisco call., 1899-07-03
FRAWLEY AND
MISS BATES
COMING HOME
The Company Will Soon Com
menCe a Season in the Cali
fornia, Where StoCkWeII Ap-
peared Last Night in "A
Midnight Bell"
/ v Ashton Stevens


fact that L. r. Stockweu and his
company of rOadsters were giving a
performance of Mr.. Hoyt's Mid
night Bell" Good news was being whis-
pered about; namely. that Timothy Dan
iel F'rawley and his company and Il wish
the linotype had italics for that last
"and"D Blanche Bates would soon be
playaCting in that very same theater. On
Thursday the 18th inst. the opening takes
place Mr.. Frawley is superstitiously
enamo?ed of the number 13; hence the
midweek opening.
1t seems we can't lose the Frawleys any
more than they can lose us Here the orig
inal thirteen OF them made their start;
and, after deserving US for the joys of
Eastern applause and the pains of East
ern summertime, it is here they come
back to house in the California and com
plete their circle of San Franciscos first
class theaters The Frawley company
has won a reputation that is more than
Western, and Blanche Bates-wen. she is
now acknowledged to be what | had the
audacity to call her some time before she
stirred up the adjectives of the New York
and Washington critics: one of the few
absolute artists on the American stage.
1t was her performance in The Dancing
Girl that called out my superlatives. and,
happily enough, it is as DTusilla Ives in
this same play that she will make her
temperance in the California on the
Thursday night of the 18th inst.
Providing we don't get as much of il
as we are having now in the operate
line. there is nothing like good honest
competition in the theatrical business.
With the return of Frawey, Miller will
not be the only blossom on the bough:
there will be two playhouses instead of
one that a sensitive person may enter
with safety. Frawleys list looms we'll:
Blanche Bates Mary Van Buren,, Kath-
leen Chambers, Edith Miller, Rose Whit
ney, May Starkey, Mrs. F. NJ. Bates.
Augustus Cook, Harrington Reynolds,
Charles w. King. Alfred Hickman Harry
TurnbuI, Frank Wilmot, j. R.
Armory, J. B. Hollis. George CASTOR,
Frank Matthew and T. Daniel himself
For pieces they have, besides "The
Dancing Girl" Madame Sans Gene"
The Master of Woodbarrow, "An
Enemy to the King and some new ones,
whose titles Mr.. Frawley elects to
keep secret until his arrival next Wednes-
day. The season will last six weeks at
least, possibly eight, but Miss Bates
will not be here all of that period, as she
has to return to New York in time for
rehearsals in the leading role of Zang-
Wills Ghetto play.
How history inverts itself! Several
years ago when the FraWleyS
were gathering in all kinds of wealth and
flowers the Frohmans sent Herbert kel-
cey and a crack company to the CaIifor-
MIA. Now, MI Frohman is prospering at
the Columbia. and up pops Frawley in the
California.
The ever busy Mr.. Friedlander had been
working on the deal for some weeks, but
not until last night did he clinch the final
arrangements. Mr.. Friedlander is a
brother of the blood but not of the syndi-
cate, and it is a plume in his headwear to
have secured one of the few first-class at
fractions that are not controlled by the
theatrical trust.
In view of the good things coming we
may deal briefly and gently with Mr..
Stockweus season of one week. "a Mid
night Bell is mild melodrama set to L
funny HOyt accompaniment, principally
accompaniment. Realism finds expression
in the externals; real children, real sleds
and several instances of almost real dia-
lect. The play could have been written
nowhere but in America; but even So,
there is no particular reason why we
should be proud Of It. Still, ii has consid-
erable Of the Hoyt snap; the jokes, though
no longer young, are characteristically
sappy. with a little wisdom tucked away
in many of them-and anyway, why go
back on q piece that we voted pretty
good entertainment when it was young?
The same applies to Mr.. StockweIl. l, for
one, would like to see him change a bit,
step up with the procession; any change
would do But while he is just the same
that old same, as Deacon Tedd he seems to
delight the crowd as much as ever. Miss
Pearl Landers getting a big girl now is
the little Tivoli lass of yesterday is truly
formidable as the minister's sister; and
Scott Seaton, a recently reformed capt.
talist, or something like that, of Oakland
is very beautiful and very pathetic as her
clergyman brother.
The others of the company have no in
terest for us beyond the way they play
their parts, and the least said about that
the better. Even a dramatic critic has
the right to be good-natured on Sunday
night But l am too soon to finish. In
saving Master Gus TAFT for the last and
best, I had almost left him out entirely
This young gentleman's performance of
the boy Martin is the one rich characte
in the production, a capital study that
makes me wonder how Tom Sawyer
would do for the stage. Given the proper
dramatization, I am sure that Master