Source:Zaza-played
"'Zaza' played by Mrs. Carter: Great acting done by David Belasco's pupil in a questionable drama: Late English melodrama: A lively horse race in 'The County Fair' at the Grand: Sterling old Hoyt farce, 'A Trip to Chinatown,' in the Duquesne's offering—Academy has Miaco's show." Pittsburg Post, Feb. 27, 1900, p. 3. Newspapers.com 86427457.
Just another stage courtesan—that is "Zaza." She is the twin sister, perhaps a bit less depraved, of "Sapho." Since Olga Nethersole had no difficulty in forcing her collection of "moral miasma" down the Pittsburg throat, as it were, it is probable that Mrs. Leslie Carter will accomplish the same feat with more ease, inasmuch as this actress proved last night that she is infinitely superior in power as an actress to the Englishwoman.
The gallery of the Alvin was crowded to the last inch last night. There were no vacant seats in the balcony and the first floor was well filled with society people. More than a few persons, in the gallery at least, went there because "Zaza" has been widely advertised as fiercely suggestive. They were prepared for prurienoy [sic]. Strangely enough the audience could not enthuse over the play, perhaps because it fell short of expectations in mere suggestiveness, and a majority of the sky parlor people did not appreciate the acting per se. Only after the fourth act did Mrs. Carter's superb emotional work receive its due recognition, and then she was given eight curtain calls, although the gallery objected to some of the last of them by hissing.
"Zaza" is better constructed and better acted than "Sapho," which it so much resembles. It is an adaptation by David Belasco from a French drama, the star was trained almost entirely by Belasco, and the company, which includes but one or two persons well known to fame, has been drilled by him until it works nearly perfectly—has good team play. The play is also staged prettily.
Like "Sapho" "Zaza" is the story of a woman who fell from grace. There is no concealment of her character. It is forced upon the audience in every speech of the star herself. It is all love, love, illicit love, until you would become disgusted were it not for the redeeming art of Mrs. Carter. If the advantage is with either woman it is with Zaza, for she is merely an uneducated variety hall actress who has a lover. Her manager, the only man of common sense in the whole episode, reveals to her that her lover has another house that he visits. She goes there to "make trouble," and finds he is married. The childish innocense [sic] of his little girl turns her from her purpose, and in the end she sends him away from her. Sapho, as you will remember, was a woman who deliberately ruined an unsophisticated country lad, and was led to a separation from him by a sense of duty to her own illegitimate child.
The first act is unique. It contains the alleged disrobing scene, which has been "featured," but is handled with a deftness which makes it fall flat of anything sensational. The glimpse "back of the scenes," given in the act, is interesting to persons for whom this forbidden place has always been a glamour. You see the actresses making up, or standing about in tights and ballet costumes, their little quarrels and their drinking and cigaret smoking. The thunder, lightning and rain "effects" are given, and the players go and come through the entrances and exits to the stage itself. Of course, there are a few chappies hanging around.
"Zaza," as her bibulous Aunt Rosa describes her, "is gunpowder." In the second act she begins to flare up. Cascart, her ex-partner on the stage and hard-headed manager, tells her of Dufrene's duplicity, and in a frightful rage she tears out of the room, her face flushed with anger and her voice screaming, her intention to make trouble for the other woman. Another act finds her in her lover's home in Paris, still in a beastly fit of rage. Suddenly the doors of the room open and a most dainty little maiden, her lover's daughter, appears. As the little one shyly talks to her of "papa," the better instincts of the woman begin to appear, and she falls to sobbing bitterly, but determines to go back without making her intended revelation to the wife. She sees the scrupulous cleanliness of the house and evidences of culture, and the wife, who is "so pretty," and she begins to realize that inevitably Dufrene must become disgusted with "the thing" she is.
All through these acts Mrs. Carter is nothing more than effective. She skillfully glides over the innate suggestiveness of the role and saves it from utter filthiness. At the same time she portrays the growth in culture of the woman from her associations with the man. It is in the fourth act, however, that her greatest work is done and playing that stamps her as a marvelous actress. Half frenzied with grief Zaza returns to her rooms. The manager tells her she must give Dufrene up. In a half-hysterical condition she gabbles away at him and her friend, unconscious of what she is saying. The naturalness which Mrs. Carter gives to her grief is nigh perfection. Then Dufrene comes, and the climax of the play is reached. Zaza tells him she has told his wife everything and he in a rage calls her "tawdry," and laughs at the idea that he had ever loved her. Then she drives him away. It was Mrs. Carter's marvelous work in this scene which roused her audience to its first great enthusiasm. Mr. Belasco tries to redeem Zaza and at the same time lays himself open to the charge of unfaithfulness to nature by having Dufrene return to Zaza two years after, his wife having died, yet having her repulse him. This act is prettily staged, showing the front of the Theater des Ambassadours [sic], on the Champs de Elysses [sic], Paris, where Zaza is now a great singer.
The play is all Mrs. Leslie Carter. She has nearly 30,000 words to speak, it has been alleged. None of the others have much to do, but do it well enough. Marie Bates, whose Mrs. Murphy is a classic, contributes the major portion of the comedy with her unctious [sic] Aunt Rosa, an aged reprobate, whose chief aim in life is to put herself outside as many drinks as possible. Charles A. Stevenson is satisfactory in the colorless role of Dufrene. Cascart is the most admirable character in the collection because he isn't so superfluously emotional, and Mark Smith's playing of the role is a feature of the production. Therese Berta, a remarkably pretty and intelligent child actress, plays the child in the case. Helen Tracy, who was formerly a member of a Pittsburg stock company, is in the cast as Natalie, Zaza's maid.
The Grand Opera House.
You may see a number of things to amuse you if you go to the Grand Opera house this week to take in "The County Fair." There is Cold Molasses, the redoubtable old equine who has run thousands of miles of races on a treadmill since he first appeared in the famous race scene of Neil Burgess' invention in this same play. He, with two companions, is exhibited in the thrilling climax doing great stunts in the running way on a vociferous moving flooring, while in the background a wrinkled bit of scenery representing the passing landscape moves hilariously along. Also there is James E. Wilson's mellow masculine voice emanating from the be-spectacled face of Aunt Abby.
"The County Fair," a dear old New England "picture" by Charles Barnard, was given with great eclat yesterday, Neil Burgess, his three horses, mechanism for the race scene and jockeys, arrived in town yesterday morning from Memphis on a special car too late for rehersal [sic], yet the horses went through their performance without a jar. The illusion of a race is as complete as possible under stage limitations.
James E. Wilson is a treat in his maiden feminine role, as the strong-minded spinster, although there hasn't been the slightest change in the Wilson voice and the Wilson mannerisms. Wilson reels off the sharp dialogue in funny enough manner and does a few ridiculous falls, but draws a laugh in every one of the scenes which we remember as pathetic in former productions. Taggs, the all-wise vagrant from the Bowery, is quite a star in this instance, inasmuch as Marion Ballou in the role does as delightful a bit of engenue [sic] work as you would care to see. Gentle old Otis Tucker, the stage "Rube," who courted Aunt Abbey 14 years, is one of the best characterizations that sterling player, Robert Ransom, has given since he joined the stock, and he makes you pity the fate of such a good-hearted old fellow in being so tremendously unsophisticated. Henrietta Crosman, the leading woman, is not in the cast this week. Lida McMillen is satisfactory as the girl Sally Greenway and Tom Ross is fair as Tim Tanner, as are William Beach as Joel Bartlett, Edward Poland as the country constable and Asa Lee Willard as Bill Parker.
In the farm yard scene Jack C. Huffman is strictly up-to-date, among the props used being a new grind stone with the shop price mark plainly visible on it, a plow that never turned a furrow, and a brand new paper mache wash tub.
The Duquesne Theater.
Hoyt's "A Trip to Chinatown" was performed at the Duquesne last night. Usually these old favorites, after one or two renditions, are presented by inferior road companies, but in the case of the people who gave the performance last night this statement does not hold good. In almost all respects the company now showing at the Duquesne theater is as good as and in some respects better than any company that has ever appeared in "A Trip to Chinatown" in Pittsburg. The singing and acting was good and the specialties were well rendered. The feminine members of the company are good looking. As Welland Strong, the man with one foot in the grave, Harry Gilfoil was as good as his predecessor in the part, Harry Conor. Gilfoil formerly played in this farce the waiter at the "Riche" restaurant, and as the various imitations of animals and mechanical instruments which he then gave are now given by him as Welland Strong the part is that much fatter than when it fell to Conor. Mabel Montgomery is the lively widow, Mrs. Guyer, a part in which, with her singing and good figure, she appears to advantage. Eleanor Falk, as the maid, played in the regularly accepted way and with the exception of a too superabundant laugh, was acceptable. Fin Reynolds, a well-known young Pittsburger, played the rich San Francisco bachelor well and is bearing out his friends' prediction of a bright stage career. Gus Thomas as Rushleigh Gay, Will Philbrick as Slavin Payne, and Emilie Gardner and Bertha Holly as Tony Gay and Isabelle Dame and others left nothing to be desired. As in all of Hoyt's farces the singing is important, and last night the traditions of this one of Hoyt's were well borne out. Frank C. Young's specialty dance was well done.
The Bijou Theater.
Over in England they have always had the knack of building melodramas with the proper amount of blood and thunder, pathos and scenic beauty as the writers any [sic] producers have not in this country. A typical one, "A Lion's Heart," had its premier in this city at the Bijou last night and thoroughly satisfied the audience. Carl A. Haswin, a favorably known actor of handsome stage appearance, has the chief role, that of Pierre Rizardo, a lion tamer, who has the lion's heart. There are plenty of exciting incidents, including a knife duel and a murder, while the scenery is most picturesque, including a scene in the dressing tent of a circus and some artistic landscapes. The story itself is of constant interest, and tells of Rizardo's struggle against two villains, one of whom has run away with his wife, and the other of whom is governor of the penal colony of New Caledonia, where Rizardo is sent for almost strangling Dobre, the man who ruined his home, and Mrs. Lorrimore, his long-lost daughter, for the theft of jewels and murder of a detective, both of which crimes were really committed by Dobre and the governor of the island, De Villefort. Dobre is ultimately killed in a knife duel by Rizardo and De Villefort's murder of the detective revealed. Mr. Haswin, who is better known for his work in "The Silver King," is a stalwart man and plays Rizardo with much force. Carroll Daly as Dobre, Thomas J. Cooney as De Villefort, Willard Blackmore as Dick Lorrimore, Emerin Campbell as Bessie Lorrimore, Marie Falls as Marion, the daughter, and others of the large cast are competent.
The Academy of Music.
One of the many old favorites at the Academy of Music, Miaco's "City Club" company, bobbed up again last night and entertained a crowded house. Manager Miaco has several new things on his program, including a "toboscoscope, and a picture of the Boers en route for war, a reproduction of the McCoy–Maher fight and some living pictures. Fanny Everett, as ever, has the leading place in the burlesque, "The Yankee Millionairess," while Rose Gore appears in the title role of "The Village Postmistress." In the excellent olio are Wren and Hughes, in enjoyable coon songs and buck and wing dancing; St. Clair and Loreno, in an entertaining oddity, "A Woman of Few Words;" Adelina Rostino, an Italian contralto; Lew Palmer in a collection of parodies and barnyard imitations, and Crimmons, Gore and Bixley in a snappy sketch. There are some pretty girls and bright scenery, of course.
