The San Francisco call., 1904-04-25
SINGS SWEETLY
TO OLD FRIENDS
Beatriz Bronte, a San Fran
cisco Girl, Makes a Hit as
Prima Donna at California
GRAND'S MERRY CROWD
Fiddle Dee Dee" Retains
FayOritism New People
at Orpheum Well Received

anything else that can think of is A
! Girl from Dixie" presented here for
| the first time last night at the Califor-
mia Theater. The onus Of description
is left to the audience, but the piece is
| presumably a musical comedy, with
| libretto by Harry B. Smith and lyrics
! and musical setting by every one else.
I fancy the libretto is not new. 1t is at
! any rate of the brightness-so far as
dialogue goes-of the earlier Smith
books" One is even tempted to quote
some of it's many witticisms-and
temptation has been far from one of
| late in the musical comedy field. As to
plot, the piece is impeccably obvious,
! if pleasant. Again, as to its figures, the
! characters, though familiar, have been
oddly reshuffled; the incidents also,
to their disadvantage. In the last act
only for example, do the four excellent
comedians with which the piece is fur
nished get a fair chance to show their
mettle. The first act takes place in
| country school. The second act takes
! place in another school-or rather
college. The third takes place In a
school girls, or rather college girls,
drawing-room. And like a high school
jinks, as before said is naively, and
even charmingly, the effect of the
WnOle prOQuctlOn.
The performance is quite In keeping.
! With the exception of the tremendous
J 1y funny scene between the four come
dians in the last act, where the fortune
hunting English Lord brings along his
solicitor to arrange about the marriage
settlements to be made upon him by
the girl from Dixie, the piece never be-
comes grown-up musical comedy. 1t is
short-frocked in the first act, ankle
1 l)v,e =, ~, + - IL
only adult comedy. But piece and per-
formance have vim, freshness, naivete.
| The voices are excellent, the girls are
pretty and the aforementioned little
used comedians all good. Victor Her
bert, Cole and Johnson and a round
dozen or so besides have been in at the
music and have furnished several good
If unrelated numbers. The scenic set
ting has not been much depended upon
in the reckoning. neither the costumes,
and there is general appy-go-lucki-
ness of the stage mana agement. But the
piece was thoroughly enjoyed last
night in spite of everything-frantical-
! ly in places. d. L. Don was most of
them.
The event of the production in local
eyes was the debut of Miss Beatriz
Bronte, who left here but a short time
ago as subordinate in THE Princess
| Chic" and returns now in the name role
of "A Girl From Dixie" Miss BrOnte
is the daughter of the well known oper-
attic tenor, Fernando Michelena, and
was until her departure from here his
pupil. She was warmly welcomed home
by large contingent of friends and got
posies galore. The young singer was
very evidently and naturally, afflicted
with nervousness last night, but showed
a large gain in experience in spite of
that Her voice has rounded out, and
she has gained in poise, but has yet
considerable need of repOSe. and care in
enunciation. She makes a stunningIy
pretty picture of Kitty Calvert, the
/ Dixie girl, and has some effective songs
! that were heartily applauded. Essie
! Lyons does d very clever bit of charac-
! ter work as a stammering girl, and
sings with much charm and ease. An
| other good voice is Charles H. Bowers,
that is only discovered in the last act.
Mr.. Bowers is the hero, in real heroic
style.
NJ Don is seen in a "Cherman" part
as Ludwig Regenborgen, Kitty Cal
vert's stepfather. He is rapturcusly
funny, and in a piano speciality COM
pletely convulsed the house. Thomas
/ J. Keogh has one moment to convince
the audience that he is an actor, and
he does it. Then there is Clifford
Leigh, by no means least, in an elab-
orately funny picture of an English
Lord, and Charles K. French as a
clever Jack Randolph. There are plenty
Of good songs distributed among the
cast and the concerted numbers are
conspicuous for the spirit and ease
with which they are sung.
BLANCHE PARTINGTON.
The show that opened yesterday aft
ernoon at the Orpheum was pro-
nounced thorough, both in point of
amusement and in talent, by the large
are all good and the holdovers have
been changed so that the entertainment
| is fresh from start to finish.
Lew Sully appears on the boards and
sustains his old-time popularity His
songs are clever and every portion of
his wit brings a hearty laugh. He
earns and hClds the title: President of
the Laugh Trust"
La Petite Adelaide is a dainty dancer
and her grace and originality bring
much favor for her. She is lately from
the Shaftesbury Theater, London.
Tony Wilson and HelOise are on the
bills as originatOrs of the "tramplin
bar act" They gave all that was ex-
pected of them and offered some new
features.
Signor Abramoff, operatic basso, is
one of the new offerings for the week
| and he received abundant applause. His
three selections were we'll rendered and
his voice was in excellent condition.
The Four Mortons present a new
sketch. They are as funny as ever
Some of their best work they repeat
and the act is excellent. Ethel Levey
! (Mrs George NJ. Cohan) makes a hit
as a singing and dancing coincidence.
| She was encored several times and her
work had merit. Wilfred Clarke and
Company present an adaptation from
the German in the piece I'm the Bio
graph The sketch abounds in mirth
and life. Mile. Amoros, the trapeze
performer, assisted by Mile. Charlotte,
] commences her second week and the
motion pictures of Faust" conclude the
show.
Fiddle Dee Dee is the most absurd,
ergo the most popular. of the Weber
& Fields creations. 1t was the first of
them presented in San Francisco, and
after long run and a brief intermis-
sion 1t was restored to the same stage
| and held it for six weeks. The same