Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-19
"CINDFRELLA" DRAWS
CAPACITY AUDIENCE
FIRST OF SPECTACLE PLAYS
AT AUDITORIUM
Good Music and costuming and Well
Trained Chorus Make Marked
Success Of Fairy Fantasy
Play

| SlAAOCA L1lO OPOA11AlS pei 4Ol AIAoiASO
of which was given to a packed house
! last night. All the home folks were
| there, and it was more like an amateur
than a professional entertainment, al
! though, we hasten to add, this remark
is not based on the quality of the act
! ing or the play. In spite of few slight
bitches always incident to the staging
of such an ambitious production the
| performance was a decided SUCCESS.
| The Auditorium. management has Sc
| cured some clever principals, and the
| performance shows that a thorough
understanding of stage craft has been
| brought to bear in putting on the pro-
duction. Miss Florence Leslie, who
trained the ballet of more than fifty
girls, most of them without experience
in the chorus, has worked wonders in
giving them considerably more than a
semblance of the training of experienced
chorus workers. And some one, his
name does not appear on the program,
showed excellent judgment in selecting
the girls.
Several of the principals already are
known to Los Angeles audiences, not
ably Miss Maude Beatty and Miss Olga
Stech. Miss Beatty appeared as the
prince and Miss Stech as Cinderella
Both were enthusiastically received and
both captivated the audience by their
delightful rendition Of their songs.
Their duet, II Love YOU" was one of
the best numbers of the piece as was
Miss Stech's song, Some Day When
Dreams Come True" Miss Stech has
much charm of voice and manner ard
makes an admirable Cinderella.
Miss Marguerite Walker, well known
locally as an amateur, scored decidedly
in Jungle Town." which she sang in
the role of Huldbrand. Miss Luella E.
Davis, the fairy queen, has an excel
lent voice, of wide range and under per-
feet control. She gave a delightful rem
0ition of the "Glow Worm" song.
1t is fitting that Ben Sellar who
takes the part of Pedro, should appear
in a Drury Lane production. 1t is
difficult to understand how anyone with
the mark of Drury Lane so cleverly
stamped upon him should have wan
dered so far af1eld. Mr.. Sellars I'm
So Lazy song was a hit in London
music halls four5 years ago, and it was
equally we'll received last night
The comedy work of Walter Reel
and Billy Onslow as the two unlovely
sisters of Cinderella was of the exag-
gerated strong-arm variety, which a
cockney audience probably would re-
gard as rippingly funny, you know. But
making allowance for the fact that
they were responsible for all the COM
edy of the piece, barring the minor
the valet, it may not be said that they
were overworked. And, since we are
speaking of the baron and the valet,
these parts were admirably taken by
Roscoe Arbuckle and Charles Lyndon.
Mr.. Arbuckle appeared in several topi-
cal songs.
A noteworthy feature of the per-
formance was the wonderful effective
ness of the big Auditorium pipe Or
for the piece. Under the touch of DR..
Bruce Gordon Kingsley it yielded
surprisingly good accompaniment for
the spectacular songs and dances, al
though Mr.. Kingsley was assisted by
several pieces of brass and a piano.
There is much to be accomplished
in the staging of the piece, but it was
easy to see that most of the short
comings were due to the fact that it
is first performance and that the ma
jority of the chorus is inexperienced.
The transformation scene was clumsilv
managed and there is a lack of atten-
tion to small Details for instance in
showing the fireplace as a hole in the
wall and in allowing a long white
string to dangle from Cinderella's back.
giving the audience the cue that the
cord is to be pulled when the dress is
to come off.
LII Us C1AIllCIyt lHC SnOTI
time since the preparations for it's pro-
duction were begun, the performance
is creditable indeed. With the talent
which it now has the Auditorium man
agement should be able to give some
thing strikingly unique in the line Of
musical shows.
Andrew Robson appeared in the role
of Jules Beaubien in Eugene Walters
play, "The Wolf" at the Mason opera
house last night. -he story is said to
be a thrilling one, and the cast of the
present company has been heralded as
fully the equal of that of the opening
company. The play will be reviewed
in Wednesdays Herald.
"Ski-Hf' at Fischer's last night
proved the best of the very excellent
musical comedy offerings produced by
Charles Alphin during his tenure as
producing director. The playlet. origin
ally written in two acts and produced
at the Madison Square roof garden last
summer, is tuneful to a degree and full
to the, brim of appealing humor which
seem to reach the mid-riffs of the
audience without any of the slap-stick
methods commonly resorted to by writ
ers of the popular priced musical com
edy. Dot Raymond and Tracy Mac
Dermott who join the company as
leading man and leading woman, pos
sess singing voices of real sweetness
which they handle rarely well, while
Ben I. Dillon, Max Bloom, Frank Vack
and Pearl Jardinere prove an able
quartet of funmakers. Nellie Mont
gomery is also much in evidence, and
sings real song in the Lullaby" The
plot bas to do with a certain title
hunting young woman who, being un-
able to marry nobleman on earth,
borrOWS Dick Ferris balloon and finds
herself stranded upon the domains of
King Skill, Jupiter There is a world
of fun in the ensuing complications,
intermixed agreeably with much meri-
torious music. Chief among the ap-
pealing selections are ''I'm Looking for
a Sweetheart, Naughty Eyes," 1.-THE
Sights We See Down Below" "A
Woman's Only a Woman and Work
men of the King" Mr.. Dillon's Il
Drop Them Down Below was an in
stantaneouS hit.
The perennial laughing hit, Char
Iey's Aunt" is the current offering at
the Belasco theater. Last night an
audience that taxed the seating caN
pacity of the playhouse laughed over
the funny adventures of Lord Fancourt
Babberly, who impersonates Charley's s
aunt from Brazil, where the nuts come
from, to accommodate his college
chums when the real Charley's aunt
fails to put in an appearance. The
farce has been played on a number Of
earlier occasions by the Belasco peo-
pie, but it never loses its potency as
laugh producer.
In the role of Lord Fanny Babberly,
Richard Vivian does some of his clever
est cloWning and he gets splendid sup
port from Howard Scott, just returned