St. Paul daily globe., 1891-04-30
A METROPOLITAN SUCCESS.

The Chicago and st. Louis news
papers have been quite unanimous in
criticising severely the presentation of
''Dr. Bill, y new play from the French,
which has been recently given at their
theaterS. "Dr. Bill'' achieved a great
success in New York, and the Western
press has been inquiring whether. after
all. drama comes with any very salts
factory claims TO attention because it
has been we'll received in the nations
metropolis. When a city gets to be as
big as New York is, it has become a
world in itself. 1t is no longer one city,
but a number of cities and villages
under one government. Great cities
usually grow up in this way. London
was not made by the expansion
of single settlement, but by the
coming together of score of isolated
towns. whose borders finally touched
as their separate populations increased.
In London the history of this fact is
preserved in the continued employment
OF the original names of the different
municipalities which have been united
i'll such style. Chelsea, Pimlico and
Westminster were not so long ago indie
pendent centers, and to-day they carry
their old titles, although they are in
cluded also under the general name.
This is not quite so true of New York,
but it is more or less SO; and in any
event, however different its origin may
have been, that place is now a cOngerieS
Of many cities. Each section has its
retail and its wholesale districts, its
theaterS, its churches and its peculiar
population. A man who lives in New
York, although it is so big, does not
have any more friends or acauaintanceS
than he would have if he lived in St.
Paul; nor as many, for that matter.
There is myriad of small circles,
of communities within a community,
and of cities within city. To say,
therefore, that play has achieved a
New York success means nothing more
than to say that it has been popular
with one class of theater-goers who live
there. There are people of all sorts of
tastes and lack of tastes in such place.
Very poor plays can secure very large
audiences night after night, simply be-
cause big city embraces host of peo-
pie who cannot tell a good play from a
bad one. The residents of a certain
neigh6orho0d will attend theater
ronnd the corner, and, if of the per-
formanceS afforded one is more interest
ing than another. greater number of
them Will go to i. This will make it a
comparative success, although intrinsi-
cally 1t may have no merit at all. This
may also be the case with plays pre-
Sented at a theater which is patronized
because of the prices it charges for All
mission, or because 1t is fashionable. or
for number of other reasons. An
other thing to be remembered is that
the interest of play depends very
considerably on the acting and the
stage setting. Almost any company
transporting its cast or its scenery
from New York to Chicago or st. Louis
loses something on the way. Take the
play "Shenandoah" for an example,
which was given in ST. Paul in January.
In New York there was no limit to its
popularity. But here it was only fairly
good. The explanation is to be found
i'll the fact that it was little more than
series of tableauX. which depended
for their interest on clever acting
and perfect scenic effects. The acting
and the scenic effects were pretty fair
here, and the play was worth seeing.
But i'll New York they were beyond
criticism, and everybody had to go; and
If he did not, there was 10 question but
that he had lost a great deal.