The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-17
FRANK DANIELS
SCORES A HIT
IN COMIC OPERA
Good Company, Good
Fun, Good Music.
THE TIv0LpS "WEDDING DAY"
ANOTHER HoYT PIECE OPENS
AT THE ALCAZAR.
Farces at the California and Com
edy and New Vaudeville
at the orph-
cum.
THE TIVOLI'S "WEDDING DAY.
ANOTHER HOYT PIECE OPENS
AT THE ALCAZAR.

After an objectionable absence Of
something like five years our little
farce-comedy friend, Frank Daniels,
came back last night a full-fledged
comic opera star and gave in the Co.
lumbia theater more spangled, music
shot fun than that theater had ever
housed before. Frank Daniels is even
more than his old self, his company is
comely, competent and impeccably
stage-managed, his settings are works
of art, and his piece, THE Idols Eye"
is bursting with the glad, irresponsible
frolic, tune and picture which now
adays go to make up what we call
comic opera. There are two kinds
and as many more as you like-of
comic opera: the pieces that are writ
ten around the traditions of the bust
ness and the pieces that are written
around the personal peculiarities,
charms and SO forth Of the star pro-
prietor. THE Idols Eye" was built to
measure for Frank Daniels by Harry
B. Smith and Victor Herbert, and it
fits that condensed comedian without
wrinkle. 1t keeps him constantly in
the calcium, and incidentally gives
several others in the cast chances to
the good, and the background is al
ways lively and colorful and rich with
amiable sound.
That 1.-The Idols Eye" has a plot I
will not swear, but there is at least
some sequence in the jokes and lots of
fun clustering about the RajahS ruby,
(after which the piece is named), the
possession of which causes man to be
beloved by all who come near him. And
another comical idea finds character in
the Scotchman who attempts suicide,
and whose life, according to the custom
Of the Rajah's country, is thereafter
reckoned non-eXistant, while the res
cuer is held responsible for all and any
of the live corpse's misdeedS. Frank
Daniels in the part Of Abel Conn, an
aeronaut, does the rescuing in the first
act, and the Scotchman haunts him to
the end of the piece with something of
the effect of links Hoodood in Little
Puck" The magic ruby, of course is
constantly changing hands and hearts,
and there Is seldom a lag in the whirl
of nonsense.
Mr.. Herbert's music is for the most
part light and tinkling. The f1nales and
choruseS are frequently full Of the
smash and hardware Of ambition, but
the solos are nearly all fleet and frothy.
In word, the music fits the book; it is
spontaneous and taking and really
beautifully scored.
The company is good to listen to and
good to look upon. A beautiful young
woman, by the name of Helen Red
mond, whose neck and arms were the
sole topic of conversation with the
Johnnies between acts last night, stalks
ravishingly through the principal fe-
male part, and the wonderful Scotch
man is wonderfully played by Alf. c.
Wheelan. To turn to Scotland for
funny foil is a timely idea, and it is
hard to think of any one else who could
give this fellow as splitting presenta-
ton as Mr. Wheelan does. And then
there is VIII Danforth, who does a cap
ital bit of fierce humor as Don Tobasco,
the Cuban planter.
Put the others down unlisted as good
company, and praise the chorus for it's
tone, beauty and stride. These are
the handsomest, healthiest, happiest
clad and highest-stepping chorus ladies
that have westward hoed in many a
day. and they will have no trouble in
winning the flowers and freedom Of the
city.
Frank Daniels, for all that he is now
a better actor, is practically the same
funny little fellow we laughed at in the
farce comedies. He seems to have ac-
quired none of the vices of the comic
opera business. Being small he can do
things on the stage that his more mas
sive colleagues would not dare to do,
and there is hardly more than SAVIOR
Of vulgarity in his whole performance,
which is saying a good deal these days
His humor is quaint and almost effort
less-you seldom see the wheels go
round. He is magnetic to the last inch,
and even when his comicality is purely
of the physical sort, there is something
ingenuously genial in it, something
that makes 1t a goodnatured personal
affair between you and him.
ASHTON STEVENS.