New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-22
UNCERTAIN FATE OF PLAYS.
QUEER CHANCES OF THE STAGE.

II possible
cepton OF play by the public the business OF theatrical
nanapement would be relieved the part OF tho
risk and uncertainty that attends II. Unfortunae-
~ Of what will insure popularity Is still unpen-
etraed and theatrical management remains largely game
OF chance in which skill and experience, though not wh
out their value often by the UNREASONABLE
uy, Only last season the playgoers OF this city
saw at the theatre which stood first in virtue Of age and
prestige a long succession Of failures Yet lberav,
enterprise and experience were not wanting In the man
ager partners and assistants. Undoubtedly nc would
have willing pay even twenty thousand del.
lars for successful piece but either not forthco
ing that might have hit the public taste was passed
over OF failures As the result Of this unsue
cessul season. have the dsbandng Of our oldest stock
company very possibly the disappearance Of the mana
Of Wallacks from any theatre In this city.
In striking contrast the good fortune al.
tending OF the stock company at the Ly'
There play avowedly written TO order to show
merits Of the company was selected for the opening
The manager would undoubtedly have been satisfied Is
had remuneratvey for sixty seventy nights buI
after not strikngy encouraging reception several raf
cal changes made and the piece ran most success
fully the entire Mr. DAILY began his last CAM
pagn a comedy. Dandy Dick" which, though her
aided by reports OF the big business It had done In Eng
land fell rather fat here. with commendable prompti
ude Mr. DAILY substituted one OF his own adaptations
from the German, The Railroad Of Love-" which net
great favor and this he followed with Mdsum-
Nights Dream Although the shakespearean CONES
dy has rarely remunerative production when
presented by of the greatest the American
has boasted the receipts Of the latest revival
extraordinarily large Many people accounted for
this tried do so, by saying that 10 was due 10 the
fact Days the fashion and that the manager was
the high tide of prosperity Yet there was time
few years ago MI DAILY seemed be equally fortu
nate. His plays had achieved runs and
his company never stronger. The reaction came;
play after play was produced with almost unbroken
record Of Ill success and after long struggle maintained
with singular courage and pertinacity Mr. Daily was
obliged acknowledge his defeat and for time TO abandon
the field Madison Square Theatre there was no5
last any very pronounced success till the final
month, when Partners" happened to please But this
play had failed in London and the manager was generally
considered very rash risk It here Partners was taken
to Boston, fresh from trumphs I'm this city on the
first night its reception most enthusiastic The
curtain raised seventeen eighteen times on the ends
OF acts and kilograms recountng fact sent and
printed in the New-York papers Nearly all the Boston
papers in their praise OF the play and company
but after the night it did not draw well The COM
paratvey small audiences who attended the performances
were enthusiastic those of the first night yes
they evidently could not have strongly urged ther a
Quaintances TO See the play
The records OF theatres full Of extraordinary
instances OF unexpected failures and 1t Is
known that the Two Orphans" the profitable OF all
modern plays, hawked about in this city for over
year before manager would produce It, When It was
brought its fate for the first three weeks was some
what doubtful and not It'll after month did the business
give indications the wonderful future IN store Led
Astray" put up at the same theatre merely as stop
gap and expected to more than three or four
weeks little hoped from that scenery was
not painted for all the sets. 1t nearly two hundred
nights that and aerwad successfully revived
The Mighty Dollar and Colonel Sellers seemed 10 DO
failures when first produced and It was only the energy
and courage that kept them up TIL the public
was last attracted
Jim the Penman has been OF the remunera-
tive plays Of the last years. Just prior to It's pro.
duction Manager Palmer had also another play, DIN.
nery's Martyr The writer Mr. Palmer in
Chicago morning OF the first performance OF Thu
Martyr" In of conversation the said,
have every faith in The Martyr its story is ono
that touches the heart Now, Jim the Penman' Is
unquestionaty clever piece but it TO to be
heartless The conduct Of the heroine. in apparently
forgetting all the affection Of twenty years
OF married life, will, fancy be unsympshetc shall
do the piece OF course but feel doubtful about it,
The result is known TO almost every The Martyr
nearly complete failure; the success Of Jim Is
historical Yet nineteen out OF twenty educated and IN
telgent people who read the two MSS would have coma
to tho same conclusion as Mr. Palmer.
one OF experienced managers said few days
ago 1t seems impossible t tell what will please
Even the public itself doesn't know az first whether 1t
is pleased not often little trifc in the dressing OF
the actresses the furnishing OF scene VIII attract az
enton and establish the success Of piece In reading
play often too apt 20 be guided by neaness OK
construction and the literary merit OF the lines Ny
observation has shown me- or believe it has this
situations and Characterization are OF far more npof'
lance. Give situations I'm q drama melodrama'
and strongly marked and well contrasted characters In
comedy, and will put up with some roughness OF CON
structon and much comnonplaccness Of language Ihs
is my creed, but probably make many mistakes az
my competitors who have different IDEAS Plays arc
what the Scotchman said OF Kituo cattle 70 ae
with's