The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-01-02
GOING DRAMATIC EYENTs:

COMING DRAMATIC EVENTS.
Eugene Blair will bring "A Lady of
Quality" under the direction of Henri
Gressft. 10 this city on Thursday. Janu-
ary 3. for the engagement at the New
Crawford.
Miss Blair's success with the play in
the east at the beginning of this sea-
son, including the ovation she received
in Baltimore during her weeks engage
ment there at FOrd's theater, and her
cordial reception and appreciation in
TorOnto-that stronghold of Julia Ar
hurs-win add considerable glory to
her other engagements throughout the
season.
staged, from costumes and scenery
down to the merest detail, all under
Miss Blair's personal supervision. The
cast selected. by Miss Blair for the pre-
sentation of the different parts includes
many well known names, among them
James CareW, late of Frohman's, and
Eleanor Monten, who made such sue
cess as Lady Betty TantilliOn at Miss
Blair's opening in New York this sea
son. The entire production has been
taken on the road exactly as produced
in New York.
Miss Blair's costumes this year are
more elaborate than the new ones she
had last season. Many women of posi-
ton in society in New York. Baltimore
and Toronto have freely commented
upon their elegance and beauty. In this
connection an interesting story is be-
ing told of the beautiful light blue gown
Miss Blair wears in the third act. A
poor sewing girl in New York. employed
by the cOstumers and modistes who had
charge Of the work of putting the gown
together from the materials Miss Blair
had imported earlier in the year, came
one night and asked for Miss Rlair's
representative. To him she told the
story Of having worked on some small
detail in connection with the creation of
the gown. and asked for a pass that she
might see Miss Blair wearing the COS
tune. She had not money enough to
purchase a seat. Needless to say. her
request was granted.
What is one of the largest co1ored at
fractions that has visited the west is
the Hottest Coon in Dixie" the latest |
rag-time musical comedy traveSty, /
which viii be seen at the New Craw- /
ford tonight This organization in |
cludes in its personnel many of the fore |
most of the cOlored singers. comedians /
and specially artists OF that race, names I
that have been prominently identified /
with about all Of the big coon" shows I
in the east for the past five years In 1
the cast of comedians and condolences 1
will be found the names Of Bob Kelly, I
VIM H. Proctor. Billy Cole. the Grun- 1
dies, Fred T. Carey. VIM. Dixon. Eddie +
Harris. James and Sailie Douglass, Nor 1
ris Smith, Mss Neale G. Hawkins, Clara /
Bell Carey. Bessie Hamilton, Mollie /
Minor. George Dobbs, Bessie Kinney,
"Ciorindy" chorus Of colored male and 4
female singers, that for sixteen weeks
was the rage at the New York Casino
roof garden, Is also a feature Of THE
Hottest Coon in Dixie" and viii be
heard in nearly a score Of the catchiest
OF the coon" melodies. The costuming
is rich and tasteful and the girls pretty
No one need wonder why Mrs. FisIxe
who comes to the Crawford Friday
night, has achieved in her new play
Becky Sharp" a greater triumph than
that by common consent conceded to
her in Tess of the DtUrbervilles2 -
the Hardy story, with the ere
alton of the novelist 50 opposed phys
ieally to anything at first apparent in
this great actress, she so asSimllated
the humanity and so mastered the psy-
chology OF the character that at once
her PRESERVATION was hailed as a creation
not second to that of the novelist, al
though not physically like that Of the
novelist's description. It proved again
the dominance Of a great artist over
the material and the superficial. Mrs.
made known the very kernel of the
characteS- In Becky Sharp" on the
other hand, the actress has a character
that fits her as though created to her
order ATtistically and in fact she
seems the very Becky.
Hall Gaines great play. ''The Chris
tian.'' is announced for an enga cement
at the Grand opera house, Friday night.
The play is not in an ordinary sense a
dramatic version Of 1.-THE Christian"
The author has taken the two principal
characters Of the novel, as well as the
motive of their relations to each other,
and made an Independent drama Of new
Incidents and fresh surroundings-jus
as he might have taken two characters
from history and constructed thereon a
play which would otherwise have no
claims to historical truths The two
characters OF this drama rep
resent. the author thinks. types which
have been brought into existence by the
latter half of the nineteenth century:
the educated girl who has to fight the
battle of life in professions which are
usually controlled by men. the young
clergyman who makes an effort to re-
alize in a liberal sense the precepts of
the Sermon on the Mount. But the So
eial and religious problems which sur
round the steps Of these characters in
the novel are not dWelt upon in the
play, which is simply a story of love"
we're the words by which Hall Game in