The San Francisco call., 1904-10-10
GRAND OFFERS
PLENTY OF FUN
"Burgomaster" Proves In
teresting Musical Comedy
With Mirthful Dialogue
MAJESTIC BILL WINS
Japanese Drama Pleases.
Orpheum's Show Delights
Large Other Plays

An eminent barrel organist of my ac-
quaintance has long been insisting that
THE Burgomaster" is better opera
than THE Prince of Pilsen." After yes
terday's performance at the Grand
Opera -house-as our sporting editor
puts 1.-THE money is his. The success
of 1.-The Burgomaster" is ancient his
tory in the chronicles of musical COM
edy. In the dark ages of five years
ago it was achieved in Chicago, by the
way. Boston also approved 1T, While
New York passed it by. But with this
opera Luders and Pixley gathered the
nest egg of the fame that is now theirs,
and to my mind have not since so well
deserved it. Most of the music has been
barrel-organed, pianoled and warbled
into ones consciousness long ago. The
listener will find it, like Hamlet" full
OF quotations, and will be the reader to
enjoy the opera. But even II he has
miraculously escaped it so far, he VIII
not the less enjoy it.
W. H. Cullen presents" the opera.
Oscar L. Figman is the chief presenter.
The two wandered into town yesterday
unknown. To-day they are identified
with some of the funniest loot OF the
season. They tell me at the theater
that The Burgomaster" has been play
ing all through the country at the 81 90
houses. Well, we usually ask more here
in the shape of gowns and pictures Tor
that Otherwise 'twould be cheap at the
price. The production rather reminds
of the Tivoli in it's questionable days.
1t is little dusty, fusty- -throated, too.
But it has the vim. the cozy all-in-the-
family fun-the heart and JOY OF those
same old Tivoli shows.
ITnop New Amsterdam date 1860
the audience is urgently requested not
to worry about historical inaccuracies.
anachronising, and lapses from logical
sequence and common SenSe"-the cur
tain rises. These are the strenuous
days of New York's history, and our
Stuyvesants, De Peysters and Wander
bilts are discovered making it. An
Indian attack, with a fascinating In
dian chorus and solo. and George Nc
Kissock, capital as a noble red man.
caught the house first, and the grip
never relaxed. Peter Stuyvesant, the
burgomaster, with the first dramatized
wooden leg of my acquaintance, makes
his first appearance. Mr.. Figman.
long, lank, and 1.-THE, brings a dry vint-
age of fun to the enactment. But Mr..
Figman is hardly a parsonage. There
is in fact no one touched with race
as Henley has it-in the cast. The
sheer fun of the idea and the dialogue
carry THE Burgoma aSter.
In the next act Peter. after doing
the Rip Van Wrinkle stunt-but for 200
years, and with his friend Doodle Won
Kull as sleeping partner-finds himself
in modern New York. The old Dutch
man has grown a new leg during his
nap, by the way. Pugilists, soubrettes. /
down-at-heel actors, the union. theoso- !
phists, all kinds of modern improve |
ments, Stuyvesant is brought into con-
foo xr-ifh M iG in he
process. Plot, properly speaking, there |
is none, but the lively incident lavishly |
compensates.
Miss Won Hatzfeldt does a little sing !
ing and as a male Astorbilt wears the I
trews with the art of Melville Ellis. (
Oscar B. Ragland, who carries the /
voice of the company, is funny as the !
pugilist, and R. ]. Moye as the fore
man of the Street Gang" looks as If |
he had carried pick from birth. AS
theosophist lady Miss Harriet Sheldon |
sees fun and makes it. and Louise !
Bracket wears pink as well as Ruth. |
the girl from Chicago The singing
in chief is done by the chorus. the male /
end of it mostly. And in the female /
quota young and pretty-pretty. one I
finds token of the pocket chorus girl
now in fashion in the East. Mr.. Fig !
mans osculatory lecture, with chorus /
exhibits, rivals Frank Daniels own.
but there is fun for all throughout. The /
house signified its feeling in the usual
way. The opera goes but a week and /
the fun-loving should by no means miss
it.
A Japanese play by Japanese wom-
an is certainly timely fare these days. /
They have it at the Majestic this week. /
with Onoto Watanna's "A Japanese
Nightingale" produced here for the first
s<-I-L 4
tized by William Young from the lady's
novel of the name. Comedy -melodrama
perhaps comes nearest its genre.
How far the play deviates from the
novel I do not know. AS 1t stands, the
story of a Nippon maid who ran away
from distasteful suitor to tea house
and there fell in love with an Ameri-
can, who married her, 1t is rather re-
markably interesting. The complica-
tions are ingenious. The rejected suitor,
in order to get hold of the lady, muir