Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-08-09
THE COMING SEASON,
Copper-BOttoming the Plays for a
New Cruise.


NEW YORK, Aug. AT this season OF
| the year, when the theatres are closed,
the plays are hauled up, cOpper-bottomed
! and caulked, ready for the fall regatta.
Most Of the plays that are now before the
American public as money ma kers were
| really built the second Or third year after
| they were launched.
To follow out the nautical figure, the
J shipwright who thinks he is a playwright
| launches his lumber stick by stick and
! builds his boat in the water or let's the
tide shake her.
That is the way the "Bunch OF KEYS"
was written. That's the way u osh Whit
| comb was written.
just now the shipyards are full OF craft
that sailed last year and are being over
| hauled for next. Some of them are being
converted from sloops TO schooners.
Mackaye, Cazauran and other master me-
chanics have their hands full.
There's Mr.. Frederick Bryton's play.
1t sailed originally as "Jack o. Dia-
monds." Then it was hauled up, bow
spirit put in, and it became Forgiven"
This year it will open in Brooklyn with
centrebOard and new crew.
Mr.. Denman Thompson's successful
play of ''JOsh Whitcombr grew slowly
from vulgar variety show sketch to
off the boards.
Evolution is the law OF the popular
drama. Creation is an exploded idea.
l suppose something OF the same pro-
cess goes on with actresses. Just now
there is good deal of Lillian Olcott in
the wind. 1t is not so long ago that she
was launched in Brooklyn as an amateur
| and fell out OF the race. / remember her
! as a failure. Now she reappears and the
papers interview her. She has bought
| SardOu's Theodore" She will produce
| it at Niblo's Garden before Bernhardt
| gets here with it. She has hitched on TO
| a circumstance. "TheOdora'' being an
event, Olcott gets talked about.
This is not unlike the man who recently
| jumped from the Brooklyn bridge, and
who is now getting 500 a week in Bow
did anything, and had nothing in himself
to exhibit. But il occurred to him one
| day that gravitatiOn was a big thing If
| you could only get 1t into the market.
| Then he took drop. He hltched ON to
| graVitation.
Among the coming events of next sea-
son will be Wilson Barrett, Modjeska,
| Fortescue. There isn't much else in the
way OF names. Among plays will be
THE Martyrs" "TheOdora" and "An-
archy." DiXey being out OF the country,
some Of these people will nave chance
! to make some money.
And speaking OF DiXey-there was a
| man VINO built mis- own bridge and then
! Jumped off. Talk about three hundred
| feet. He fell three Thousand miles, and
swears that he landed on his feet. This
beats Millions Fall of Satan. Against all
| the foreign plays will be one worthy
! American drama. | don't know what its
| chances are. only know what It's merits
are. Pil bet years salary against new
hat that there isn't a manager in New
York will touch 1t. I'll 90 farther: Pll
| bet there isn't manager in New York,
with possibly one exception, that could
tell before IL was acted whether il was
bad or good.
That's why managers wait to hear from
Europe before they buy. Whenever they
buy here they buy badly. Look at the re-
cent rubbish produced at the Peoples
Theatre. LOOK at the plays Mr.. j. NJ.
Hill has bought. Look, o look at "The
Little TycoonW
our friend Hoyt, OF Boston, has just
finished, in conjunction with Mr.. Lillian
| Russell Solomon, AN American opera
called the maid and the Moonshiners."
MIR. Hoyt is man who is travel
ing on most inflated reputation.
Nearly every one Of tho variety
farces that bear his name owe
their popularity entirely to the work OF
the stage manager and the comedian. Mr..
| Uoyt furnishes lines 10 be cut out. They
graft funny business on his svllables, and
he walks of with literary reputation.
hope be has written clover American
opera. because want " correct the obsti-
nate notion have long had that something
0''"NO NYM CRINKLE.
|