Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-28
BURBANK OFFERS
PLEASING
"SWEET KITTY BELLAIRS"
SCORES HEAVILY
"AMEER" GIVES FERRIS HART
MAN BIG OPPORTUNITY
"Wine, Woman and Song" Is Three
Hours of Cleverness and
Beauty-TheatricaI
News
BY SHIRLEY OLYMPUS

| pest, STOCK production made IN a long
time in Los Angeles. [ shall therefore
call it the best thing the Burbank COM
pany has produced. From several
standpoints Sweet Kitty Bellairs' is
as near perfect as stock production can
be made. Scenieally it is a marvel of
the art. The costumes could not be
| improved. And as for acting-well, it
is triumph for several members of
the Burbank forces.
| 1t seemed to me as 1 sat through the
performance yesterday that every
member of the company and every
extra" man and woman on the stage
was doing his and her very best to
make Sweet Kitty Bellairs" the one
| best effort of the combined Morosco
and Belasco forces. In other words
each player tried to make felt the
| touch of David Belascos genius.
Especially was this true of the minuet.
1t was far and away the prettiest
dance ever seen on the Burbank stage,
| tribute to hard work and long prac-
| tice.
Sweet Kitty BelIairs" is a comedy
| of the heart. It's scenes are laid in the
| famous British spa of Bath, where the
beaux and bellies of the Gainsborough
period gathered, the one time in all
| English history dear to the heart of
| the modern novelist The heroine is
Mistress Kitty Bellairs, a piquant Irish
widow She is adored by the officers of
the Inniskillings regiment, of which
| her husband was a member. When she
with some of the officers of her late
| husbands regiment go to Bath to 'flirt
a bit and talk about their neighbors,
as Kitty puts it, she deposes the local
social queen for a time. AS a result
she is flouted by the English women
and championed by the soldiery. She
is one of those merry widows who re-
main heart whole and fancy free until
she meets and loves Lord Verney,
member of the Fifty-first regiment, the
crack organization of the British army.
He reciprocates the feeling. She goes
to his rooms late at night in order to
persuade him not to fight a useless
duel. She is spied upon and discovered.
Then all but few of the faithful de-
| sert her In the end when all looks
darkest the dawn of perfect under
standing breaks. She wins back her
reputation, her friends and her sweet
| heart
| In a short prologue an explanation
of. the play is given. The prologue was
beautifully spoken by Lucretia Del
Vale. Roy Henry acted as master
of ceremonies, adding a touch of "ye
olden TYNE" which created immediate
Belasco atmosphere and prepared for
| the delectable things to follow.
Miss Frances Nordstrom has in her
keeping the part of "SWeet Kitty Bel
! lairs," and she makes the most of
| her opportunities. She is at all times
what the name implies-SWeet Kitty.
| Had she Just come from a sitting with
the famous Thomas Gainsborough she
could not have looked her part any
better. The masses of gold-red hair,
| the huge picture hat and the gowns,
with their strangely beautiful style
were in exact keeping with the idea
we all have of Gainsborough's women,
for a paint and canvas replica of which
| we-or rather j. Pierpont Morgan and
others pay fabulous prices. 1t is no
wonder men fought duels for the fair
sex in Georgian days They were
worth it, in face and figure. And l
mean no disparagement of RooseVeltian
women with their hipless gowns and
their suffragist ideas.
To create comedy is one of the great
est tasks known to the stage. A
player makes his audience laugh only
after long study and hard work. He
must seem not to be working at all,
yet he must be working like trac-
ton engine every minute he is on the
stage. 1t is a difficult task to make
laugh. And this applies to actresses
as we'll as the other sex. Therefore
Miss Nordstrom is to be congratulated,
for she has put into the lines the
laughter they deserve. She worked
yesterday against the influence of ILL
ness, for she has been far from a nor
NAL condition for several days. What
her Kitty will be when she RECEIVERS
her health may be guessed. 1t was
nearly a triumph yesterday.
Running through the play are clever,
epigramatical lines by the score. They
are lines which only Irish wit could
fashion. And it takes an Irish woman
to speak them. Thank fortune Miss
Nordstrom is irish. She makes her
lines sparkle like crystals, and her
personality stand out like a cameo.
One might close his eyes and fancy
Peg Woffington were talking while
Miss Nordstrom IS on the stage. Par
ticularly is this true when she is being
badgered by the social elite of Bath.
A. Byron Beasley as Lord Verney,
Kittys quickly subjugated sweetheart,
is exceptionally good. With the
clothes of the Georgian period he put
on all it's graces. In his first scene he
Stimulates the fright of first love most
delightfully."- And in the scene in his
room he shows the sincerity of deep
love by his manly manner.
If Ethel Won Waldron were weeping
real tears all the time she is sup
posed to, she would have sore eyes and
drained lachrymal glands the rest of
her natural life. She is compelled to
weep all over the place most all the
time. AS a trusting wife who for a
time is so afraid of her husband she
lies her friend Kitty Bellairs out of
character, Miss Won Waldron is just
what the part calls for. When she de-
nes having been with Mistress Bel
Iairs she shows in voice and manner
the shrinking, cowardly liar, more self
ish than afraid. Then in her final
scene. when she becomes more woman
than wife and denounces her husbands
nerfidv and deceit, she rises majestic
ally from a creature without mind of
her own to a woman who refuses to be
deceived longer. These two scenes test
Miss Won Waldron'S ability and show
she has quantity of it kept latent for
lust such emergencies.
Rut one criticism may be made of
Joseph de Grasse, who essays Captain
Spicer, the tattling, spying scandal
monger. There is smack of line de-
livery such as might be found in
Shakespearean production, IN Mr. de
Grasses articulation. otherwise he
gives a most creditable performance,
for he makes it clear he is the worst
sort of a villain-the sort who stabs in
the dark and hides behind innuendo
and a womans skirts His type is not
unknown in society today, more's the
pity. .,.,
laurels because of her portrayal of
Lady Bah, the sharp -tongued, Vixenish
social arbiter of Bath Harry Mes
tayer has delightful brogue which hel