St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-29
DRAMATIC DRIFT.

RICE ana DIXEY'S burleSque "AdOn-
is" did tremendous business at the
Grand the past week. The perform
ance is long departure from the legi-
innate drama, but it amuses. and that
is what people want these days. The
masses prefer being amused to being
educated, and that is why plays of the
"AdOnls" type score successes while
performances of more merit 90 beg
ging. HENRY DIXEY is the central
figure in the play, but the cleverest
artistic work is done by Miss SUMNER
VILE, whose representation of the vii
lage beauty is really as grotesquely
humorous as anything MARK TWAIN
ever got off.
The Grand will be occupied by CLARA
MORRIS the first half of the week, and
by MINNIE MADDERN the last three
nights and Saturday matinee. Miss
MORRIS will open her engagement to-
morrow night in her new play, 'Renee
de Moray" On Tuesday evening she
will produce the well-knOwn play,
''L'Article 47,'' in which she has scored
a series of brilliant triumphs, and the
engagement will close Wednesday even
ing with a production of 1.-The New
Magdalen."
Miss NORRIS is enjoying better health
this season than for many years. She
has gained forty pounds in flesh within
the past year, and it is said that she eX-
hibits all the vim and energy that she
manifested OH the stage before her
health gave way.
M
RICE & DIXEY's ''Adonis'' company
from hnra fp Ghinanro
a long jump to Baltimore, where they
open the 18th of February.
NELLIE MCHENRY's new play is
called ''The Humming Bird" and MEL
LIE is hummlng great success with it
down in Texas. Miss MCHENRY is sup
ported by FRANK BLAIR, who shares
the hOnOrS with her in the performance.
The theater business is getting to be
an immense one. London has fifty the
alters, and the provinces about two hun
dred, which, it is said, all told, give en-
ployment to about 10000 people. There
are 4, 400 theaters in the United States.
The capital invested is more than $780,
100000, and the money paid for amuse-
ments in this country is nearly $1,000
600 day. It's estimated that quarter
OF million of people get their living
from this source, not counting the rail-
roads, which swallow up the bulk of the
profits.
~
HENRY DIXEY and SAM SMALL
played rival engagements in Kansas
City, and in the heat of rivalry SMALL
called DIXEY ugly names. The Kansas
City Times published SMALL's remarks,
and now DIXEY is prosecuting the ed
itor of the Times for libel. Mr.. DIXEY
is young man who has great deal to
learn yet, and before he gets through
with Editor MUNIFoRD he will probably
have learned something of the danger
OF monkeying with a newspaper buzz
saw. The box receipts are seldom
heavy in newspaper libel suit.
-
"Renee de Moray" CLARA NORRIS
new play, is distinctively French, but in
the dramatization adopted by Miss
NORRIS many of the Objectionable
features of the French school have been
eliminated. The Countess Renee de
Moray is the daughter of Madame de la
Marche, who is also the mother of an
lllegitimate son supposed to be dead.
His existence is unknown to Renee, but
at critical time the son meets the sis
ter, claims the relationship, and offers
to sell the letters confirming his rela-
tionship to Madame de la Marche. In
order to conceal the evidence of her
mothers dishonor, Renee makes a
clandestine rendezvous with Claude
Burel, the brother, and is about to buy
the letters when Count de Moray
rusheS in and demands an explanation of
the meeting. Rather than betray her
mothers guilt, Renee lies to her husband
and says Burel is her lover. The irate
husband puts a ball through BurePs
heart and obtains divorce from the
countess. Their young daughter Cecile
returns from Italy to find her mother
divorced, but refuses to leave her. The
child and mother are in embrace, when
Moray enters and demands the child's
removal. The mother pleads for her
child as only a mother can. Madame
La Marche ultimately confesses and
Renee is justified, and reconciliation
between wife and husband follows. The
play is intensely emotional and well
suited to Miss MORRIS dramatic quality.
-
The stockholders of the METROPOLITAN
Opera company have decided to go on
with German opera next season, regard
less of the financial obstacles in the
way. They have faith in the future of
German opera in this country, and be-
!ieve that it will eventually drive Ital-
ian and English opera to the wall.
-
In the suit between the Franco-Amer-
lean agency and LILLIAN OLCoTT re-
speeding the latter's right to play ''The-
odora,' the New York supreme court
decided in favor of the plaintiff and en-
tered an order recurring Miss OIC,OTT,s
manager to return the manuscript of
'.Theodora.' Miss OICOTT has appealed
the case, and Roscoe CONKLING is her
attorney.
~
JEFFREYs-LEwIS says that not a
member OF her company drinks. That
is a good record for theatrical COM
pany, but for all that no theatrical COM
binatiOn strikes shoals Oftener than the
JEFFREYS-LEwIS company.