Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-07-20
AUSIC And THE DRAMA.
MODERN THEATRICAL SUCCESSES AED
PLAYWRIGHTs.
The Evil of Long Runs-Hopes for the
Stock Comparatively E. Dixey's
Western Tour.

Of the many stumbling blocks which
bar the, way to the young playwright
struggling for fame, the biggest is the
"long rum"
1t is bad enough to have to fight against
the inadequacy of actors, the prestige Of
dead authors, the responsibility of de.
lusive managers.
But it is far worse, far more hopeless tc
butt your head against "run." To be told
that "it is impossible to consider your play
at present, owing to the continued success
of Mr.. So-and-So's domestic drama"
The playwright may make money in
several ways.
His plays may go ION the road" and
prove profitable. They may succeed at
questionable theaters. Or, like "geau
Brummel," they may be "put on" at one OF
the leading houses outside the regular sea-
son, and winged with metropolitan ap-
proval may 60 out into the uncertainties
of what we rather too dlsdainfullv, per-
haps, are accustomed to call the provinces,
and there repeat the success scored at the
Madison Square. the Lyceum or Palmer's.
Fame Tor shall we say celebrity p has
been won within the last year, too, at the
aters which, like the Star and the Union
Square-if they have not the prestige of
Days, or the Lyceum, or the Madison
Square, where one is sure at least of a
proper setting and a trained company
take respectable rank in the list of dra-
matte temples and are associated in our
minds with old triumphs.
But it is to the New York theaters
boasting stock companies-there are only
three of them as yet, putting aside the
German theater-that the playwright in
America, and more particularly the Amer
ican playwright, naturally looks for the
conservation of his efforts
At two of these-the Lyceum and the
Madison Square-the detestable practice
of giving long runs has so implanted itself
that their share in the development of the
art of dramatic writing has been virtually
nil so far as the general guild of play
wrights is concerned.
Mr.. Palmer's little house has been mon
opolized by a few foreign authors. Mr..
Frohman's has, for six months at time,
been identified with the works of two by
no means exceptionally gifted playmakers.
Mr.. DAILY has, indeed, changed his bills
oftener than either of his chief rivals, but
it was less choice than necessity dictated
his course.
What chance had the American, or, for
that matter, the foreign playwright at the
Madison Square last season in the face of
the success of "Aunt Jack ~
Of what use would it have been for even
a Dion Boucicault or a Bronson Howard
to knock at the Lyceum when "The Char
ity Ball' was drawing good houses?
"No authors need apply" might have
been written over the doors of both thea
tiers last autumn.
But there is a Nemesis for prosperous
managers, as Mr.. Palmer and Mr.. Froh-
man have discovered in London. They
may evade the native suppliant on Broad
WAY. They cannot escape his British
brethren.
1t was with grim sense of satisfaction
| read the other day, says New York
Herald writer, of the crowds of dramatists
who are besiging the great A. NJ. and the
great Daniel in London. OF the deluge
of manuscripts, the persistent callers, the
merciless correspondents that beset them.
And they need not complain. For, after
all, there have been more prosecuted peo-
pie.
Did you ever hear how Baron TAYLOR,
when he was acting as the Royal Commits
sioner charged with the examination OF
plays sixty years ago in Paris, was pur-
sued into his bath one morning by dra-
matte fend who insisted on reading
through five acts of tragedy before
he would consent to release him?
1t was on issuing from his prolonged
immersion that day, by the by, that Baron
Taylor found young man named Dumas,
waiting in his room by appointment, with
the MS. of his first serious effort. And to
the honor of Baron Taylor let it be re-
corded that, despite the direful expert
ence of the tragic man, he had the courage
to sit-or rather to lie, for he had gone to
bed to warm himself-through the six or
seven other acts of Dumas "Christine,' y
which stirred him to such enthusiasm that
he promised the stranger to get the play
produced at the Francais.
Long runs bar out young talent. They
damp young ardor. They injure good
actors They minimize the value of good
theaters.
They also enrich few lucky writer's and
ulanagers-at the expense of art.
For however amusing or entertaining
such plays as "Aunt Jack" and ''The Char
ity Balp' may be q have found some
thing to enjoy in each) / suppose neither
Mr.. Palmer nor Mr.. Frohman are under
the delusion that art has much to gain
from them.
They know better.
1--WE are business men," they might tell
you. ave have losses to receup and our
hvings to earn. When luck comes our
way we make the most of it. Idnt pi, for
the hungry authors"
Nor can we, of course, shut our eyes to
the business view Of the question, seeing
that American managers have no subsi-
dies to fall back on like the directors OF
the State theaters in France, Germany and
Russia.
In those favored lands it is possible to
put on plays at a loss and keep them on
for the sake of art, the encouragement OF
playwrights and the joy of the delicate.
Here it is not so.
If we reject the principle of subsidizing
OuE pay -uOuSSs, III VIC hdNc OuI
minds that art needs no fostering; if we
feel that our American stage is SO robust
that it can dispense with extraneous help
and compete on equal terms with the
stages abroad, which have been so labori-
ously and carefully nursed into prosperity;
if we are content to let our budding
Boucicaults wear out their hearts with
waiting while men of less talent but supe-
rior smartness grow rich and flourish; if
we do not object to seeing good plays
spoiled by incompetent actors; if we
would as lief see Mrs. Booth as Aunt Jack
six or seven times as Mrs. Booth in six or
seven different characters-then by all
means let us ask no more of our managers
and let us not murmur at long runs.
Mr.. Palmer makes money one season.
But next year he may lose it. Mr.. Froh-
man fills his house with "The Charity
Ball" one winter. Can he be sure of the
same luck another winter, and is it rea-
sonable to expect him to forego the GER
tainty of profit for a possibility?
That is the commercial argument, which
we are bound to consider, under the ex-
listing system of go-as-you-please and each.
for-himself.
Do not make the mistake, however. o.
confounding it with non-commercial OIL
artistic arguments.
Art has nothing to do with it. 1t i.