The greatest American actor is Mr. Edwin Booth, who is so justly famous for his interpretations of Shakesperian rôles in America and England. Mr. Lawrence Barrett is also a highly talented tragedian. In comedy, two veterans, Mr. John Gilbert and Mr. Lester Wallack[11] must be named first, then Messrs. Robson and Crane. In purely American plays, Mr. Joseph Jeffreson is an unrivalled exponent of simple, touching parts. I had the good fortune to see him in Rip Van Winkle, a rôle which belongs to him as Pierre Chopart belongs to M. Paulin Ménier. Mayo, Florence, Harrigan, are names which are connected with a thousand successes in the minds of the Americans. Mr. Steele Mackaye is a good actor, besides being a dramatic author of great ability. His play, Paul Kauvar, with its realistic scenes of the French Revolution, would doubtless draw all Paris, if ever the directors of the Porte St. Martin or the Ambigu took it into their heads to mount it. For original, fantastic creations, the palm must be awarded to Mr. Richard Mansfield. I wish M. Octave Feuillet the pleasure of seeing this young and versatile actor play the part of Baron Chevrial in The Parisian Romance. The conception is as bold as it is artistic. For cleverness at "making-up," Mr. Mansfield is unrivalled.
I was not astonished to see La Tosca succeed in the United States. M. Sardou, having written this play for a "star," a "star" suffices for the successful playing of it. Miss Fanny Davenport's acting combines vigour, grace, and dignity. In the third and fourth acts of La Tosca, this actress rises to the level of the great tragédiennes.
The greatest actress on the American stage is a Pole. Madame Modjeska has no living rival but Madame Sarah Bernhardt, whom, to my thinking, she sometimes even surpasses. Her interpretation of the Dame aux Camélias appeared to me superior to that of her great French rival. Madame Modjeska does not, perhaps, put into this part the fire, the depth of passion, that Madame Sarah Bernhardt displays, but she endows it with more feminine grace—with more purity. She appeals less to the senses, but more to the heart; she subjugates the spectator less, but touches him more: it is the courtesan redeemed, purified by love, as M. Alexandre Dumas conceived her.
The American theatres are spacious, elegant, well lit and well ventilated. The seats are comfortable, and that French bugbear, the ouvreuse de loge, is unknown.
The ground floor is entirely covered with stalls, but the rise, from the proscenium to the back of the theatre, is so considerable that the spectators sitting on the last row have as good a view of the stage as those in front; and a good thing it is so, for the women adorn their heads with such monuments of millinery when they go to the play, that, if the floor were horizontal and you had a stall that was not on the first row, you would have to trust to the kindness of the ladies in front to tell you what went on upon the stage.
With the exception of the Metropolitan Opera House and two or three other large theatres, the auditoriums are only fitted up with stalls, one or two galleries, and a very few boxes.
Prices are moderate, and range from six to two shillings. For lower tastes or leaner purses, there are the Bowery theatres, where melodramas, variety shows, and harlequinades are served up, and the price of admission is but sixpence or a shilling.
The Americans have an unbearable trick of arriving late at the theatre. For twenty minutes after the curtain rises there is a constant bustling and rustling of new comers, which debars you from the pleasure of following the actors' speeches. If the play begins at eight, they come at a quarter-past; if it begins at a quarter-past, they come at half-past, and so on. At the time appointed for the curtain to rise the stalls are empty. This bad habit annoys the actors and disturbs the spectators; but the evil is incurable, and managers try vainly to stop it. I know one who followed the advertisements of his play by this paragraph:
"The public are solemnly warned that, unless the whole of the first scene be witnessed, the subsequent action of the play cannot be understood."