Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-04
PLAYS AND PLAYERS.
Opening of the Season Of 1928 o, the
New York Stage.
Especial Telegram to the Globe.

Openfpg of the Season Of 1929 o, the
New York Stage.
| Especial Telegram to the Globe.
New York. Sept 3.-The season of 1882
1883 is now fairly under way. On Mon
day. the 21st, all the talent that had been
lounging about Union square or fishing in
up, rouse ye, then, ye merry, merry men,
it is our opening day."
On that day the Union Square opened
with the Black Flag. DAILY, in
deed, had started the week be-
fore with preparatory season,
but as it consisted of the old Passing
Regiment I need say nothing about it.
The .'Black Flag is new to this city, al
thoughitis is a very old melodrama, as melo-
dramas 60, having first seen the lights
some six or seven years ago at the Grecian
theater, London, when Corquest's acting
made it a success. 1t is surprising how
far afield our dramatic writer's will go.
Laura Don's new play CA Daughter of
the Nile) has been rewritten under pres
sure from her friends, and what form it
assumes now I can't tell. 1t originally
was dream piece, device which has
been worked to death and which is feeble
at all times as we'll as inartistic Being
the author, Miss Don of course gave her
self good part. She has quite recovered
from her late accident.
Abbey began his season at the Grand
Opera house with the Tights of London.
The cast is good, the scenery new, and the
house has been newly decorated. One
most aristocratic alteration has been
made. The house, you remember, be-
longed to Jim Fiske and was the
scene of high revelry in the days
when Pauline Markham was young and
the Black Crook novelty. It is now the
property of Jay Gould who is not SO sus-
ceptible to feminine wiles as the gallant
Colonel used to be. but the mantle of
Fisk seems to have fallen on young
Gould. This youth has private box for
himself to which is attached a suite of re-
tiring rooms. This snug retreat is cut off
from the theatec at large and access to it
is gained by private staircase, opening
by a private door on Twenty-fourth street,
and communicates with the mysterious re-
gion called Behind the Scenes.' This is
doing things in right royal style.
The Alcazar-the accent on
the last syllable but one, not
on the last syllable, the new manager
is Spaniard, and we are all bound to
give it the genuine Castilian pronuncia-
ton. The Alcazar, under Mr.. Hawes' man
agement is giving the Snake Charmer,
very poorly. If this plan of entertain
ment is to be kept open it must change
the character of its performance and give
variety. 1t is not theatre with a refresh
ment room attached, but a refresh
ment hall, one end of which is
theater. People who come for dinner or
supper want the entertainment as varied
as the bill of fare and will not tolerate
anything that consumes a whole evening.
The Casino, which Rudolph Aronson ex-
pected to have ready by the 18th, will not
open until the 23d.
Madame Theo will therefore begin to
ogle and smile and utter sly double enter
DIRE at the Fifth avenue. It is doubted very
much whether the plump little lady will
have much success. In the first place she
never could sing; in the next place her
style is so essentially Partisan that very
few of US will understand her points; in the
third place the Offenbach school, of which
he is such an exponent, is going rapidly
out of favor.
Our season will chiefly be melodrama,
and that of the British school in which a
convict prison is a necessity, and the con-
viction of an innocent man the pivot of
the action. 1t is not a healthy style of
drama. Why can't some one see the real
power of American life and give US some
thing which will throw into the shade those
old European conchctions.