The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-12

y n w NtbASSS d performance VI a
play that you are familiar with
in the book is becoming more diff
cult year by year. Ask the actors
why, and they will tell you that 1
the. people have tired of the standard
drama; ask the people and they will
tell you that they are tired of the imi-
taticn standard actor. The actors
blame the people; the people blame
the actors; and so the masterpieces are
neglected, and bad authors grow fat.
and bad actors buy real estate and
father respectable families. And vet
after all, seeing any kind of per-
romance of play that you know by
the book is an agreeable way of spend
ing an evening, and 1 don't wonder
that so many persons are now crowding
to the Columbia to see Shakespeare
and Sheridan exploited by Louis James.
Kathryn Kidder and Frederick Warde
Time and again l have heard actors
who were down on their luck say that
the public was tickle and ungrateful,
that ii forgot and forgave them their
successes and. remembered and treas
ured their failures. But this triple
plated star season of ours doesn't lock
that way. The last visit but this of
Mr. James was a frightful failure. MI.
.Warde's, ditto. Now that these actors
have Siamezed again and sandwiched
around the unique talent of Miss Kid
der their season seems one glad round
of applause, sunshine, fruit and flow
ers. People rush to the Columbia as
though James Kidder- Warde We're the
greatest actors extant and Brinsey
Sheridan and William Shakespeare the
most popular playwriters. Why, actu
ally these plays and players are doing
greater business than Frank Daniels
and his dude-pursued beauties did in
the silliest, frothiest comic operas ever
written. And the press agents and
dramatic critics are rivalling one an
other in congratulating the town on its
good taste. Personally, I don't take
much stock. in these congratulat
because l have noticed very little
change in the crowd at the Columbia;
. the same hands and heels that now
storm applause for Kathryn Kidder
and Messrs. Warde and James in clas-
sic comedy and tragedy did just as
much for little Mr.. Daniels and his
lovely girls in The Idols Eye" and
The Wizard of the Nile" Good taste
is very versatile in San Francisco; it
takes in everything from vaudeville TO
the ossified gentleman at the Chutes;
all it wants is a show that is good in its
Kind. We have here, as 1 have said be-
fore a certain little crowd, mostly
women. that turns out only when some
thing fine, iterate and distinguished is
TO. be seen on the stage. l have grown
to know this crowd, and have seen very
little of it the several nights l have
spent in the Columbia this past week
There is no especial reason why it
should stay away, butjit does, and the
thousands who go are the jolly. we'll
dressed, well-fed thousands who attend
everything that develops the proper
symptoms of popularity: By some
graceful throw of fortune this classic
season has landed on its feet and
caught on like a rafting farce comedy.
or better still, like Mr.. ScheePs SYM
phony. concerts. Everybody who pre-
tends to. be anybody goes to the SYM
phony performances, with or without
a knowledge of the difference between
Beethoven's ninth and Ernest Hogans
forty-seventh. And this solemn tribute
to fad and fashion supports the con-
certs and provides you and me and that
learned band of exclusives that I men
toned before with just the sort of mu-
sic we like to listen to once in fort
night Long live the fads! My only
regret is that the exclusives have not
fallen in line and enjoyed these actors
at the Columbia, who really give not
unamiable performances of several of
the best plays in the language.
At any rate tickle San Francisco.
who not so long ago would have none
of Mr. Warde or Mr.. James is now
standing in a long line to buy seats
in the stray corners and last rows.
Shrewd managers have made US tickle.
and our fickleness,. in turn, has. made.
managers shrewd.
.-: In the modern drama one season
success may be the next seasons fail
ure;. in the legitimate the plays never
change the actors seldom change. and
yet there is no telling until the house
is. counted whether the legitimate is
going to win or lose. Talk about the
lottery of untried plays, it is as moth
ing compared with the chances man
takes nowadays in sending a company
on the road in the approved master
pieces. The rising generation is re-
ligiously educated in the notion that
with the exception of Modieska we
have no player in this country who is
worth seeing in Shakespeare. Tragedi-.
an. in America to-day is practically a