The San Francisco call., 1904-04-30
Before Foreign Fo0tigIit&
s-.clnI car..snonaence.

; HENRIETTA STREET CONENT
GARDEN. LONDON April 1S.-Edna
May certainly is coming on and this
determined little woman. whom il has
been the custom at home TO dismiss
rather disdamGully may yet do
something worth while. Since she
appeared IN The Belle of New York
Miss May never has been seen in the
United states in a piece suited to her.
No actress could have saved The
Girl From I'D There" in which the
Syracuse maiden was starred in New
York after her London success-it fell
fat on both sides of the water. In
Kitty GRAY" her next piece at the
London Apollo, Miss May had a
chance and did some really creditable
acting as a pretty little Baroness with
a fckle spouse Her part in Three
Little Maids" was rather colOrless
one. but i'm The School Girl" she
PLAYS with a good deal OF ability and
il is largely due TO her performance
that the Paul Potter-Leslie stuart
piece has run for $50 nights. When,
however. the Prince of Wales man
agement announced that they cOntem-
plated dropping into" the school
Girl a travesty on the BelascO play.
ar His Majesty's. called The Darling
OF the Guards" and that Miss May
would contribute a bUrlesque Of Lena
Ashwelrs performance Of Yo san, the
American actress friends were not
sanguine as 10 the result But Miss
May gave all hands a surprise by fur
nishing a study" OF the erstwhile
Mrs. Dane which would justify the
use of some rather strong adjectives
not only for its faithfulness, but for
its occasional revelations of the true
comic spirit. And now that The
School Girl IS to be followed with a
revival of La Poupee' Miss May has
been given the part Of the dOll-an
extremely difficult one. the bestowal
OF which by George Edwardes upon
Miss May argues a good deal of faith
in her possibilities. And Edwardes
generally knows.
It now seems likely that the Aus
tralian tour which Sir Henry Irv-
ing is planning viii be the means Of
bringing about a professional reunion
between the actor and his most fam
Gus leading woman. Ellen Terry. Both
parties are supposedly "willin'." for
whereas the knights experiment with
Dante" was not wholly happy in its
results, his former cOmrade is not be-
lieved 10 have coined money as a sep
arate star. Sir Henry is known to be
anxious to tour in Australia, a project
he has had i'm mind for years, and
wants Miss Terry to go along, but the
thing cannot come off for year at
least. This because Irving has ar
ranged for a long provincial tour in
Beckett" with Mrs. Cecil Raleigh, the
American actress. as his leading
woman. while Miss Terry also is
booked for several months to come.
1t is for rather an odd reason that
Leopold Wenzel, who for fifteen years
has conducted the ballets at the EN-
pire, is leaving that famous London
place Of amusement. Wenzel, who is
perhaps best known as the author of
the two French songs "Veux-tu" and
Petit Bleu," is quitting the Empire
because his orchestra has been forbid
ways has been popular with the mem
bers Of the orchestra, who for several
years have been in the habit of paving
him the compliment Of rapping on their
music stands at his taking up his
baton. Not long ago the Empire man
agement ordered the players to discon-
tinUe the practice-why has not been
revealed-whereupon Wenzel threat
ened TO resign, not expecting, however.
10 be taken at his word. His resigna
tiOn has been accepted, however. and
he viii leave the music hall on April 2s.
A German audience which had gath
cred to see a comedy had tragedy en-
acted before it the other night.
when Emil Hasda, a favorite comedian.
who at the time was playing the comic
part in Fulda's THE Twin Sisters. :"
suddenly committed suicide on the
stage. The thing happened at Nimptsch.
THE Twin Sisters" company being on
tour from Berlin. All along they had
played TO bumper houses, and from the
first the comedian, Hasda, had been
most applauded of all the players. 1t
is said that Hasda's reason for self
the actresses in the company had re-
fused 10 marry him. His part in the
comedy was a broadly humorous one
and all through the first act he kept
the house IN fits of laughter. So en-
thusiastic was the audience. in fact.
that after the act the curtain had to
be raised several times. Five times as
Il rose the comedian bowed his ac-
acknowledgements in the ordinary way.
but when IL ascended for the sixth
time Hasda suddenly drew a revolver
from his pocket and blew out his brains
in full view OF the whole theater. He
pitched forward in front OF the foot
lights. the blood flowing from his
wound. The curtain was rung down
Immediately, however. and the perform
ance brought to an end.
Ludovic Barnay. the German actor OF
villains. Is not dead. but when his time
comes he should know how 10 pass
away effectively. for. according to a
record kept BY the mimic bad man"
he has died no less than 1883 stage