The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-01
NYM CRIAhLI'S LETTER
Actresses VIII Be Seen at Short
- Range During the Fair.
THE DUDES WEEK OF WONDER.
All the Dainty Favorites Will Be on
Deck with Smiles and Sampies-Irre-
pressible Richard Won't Say Fal-New
EOrks Amusement Center Changing.


a vacant lot made by fire on Broadway
there. before the bricks are cool, you vii
find the manage. and the speculator try
ing TO get ii long lease for a new theater
| Theaters and hotels are what New York il
becoming noted for. Mr.. T. Henry French
is to have q new one, and SO is Mr. Franl
Sanger, Of the Broadway. | might as vel
| include Mr. Mansfield in this company
for, although be has not picked out his lot
be has made up bis mind. Then let rs re
member tnat the independent theater oil
Mr. Sargent is coming along. The lease
of the Berkeley lyceum will only last until
another hotel burns down and d site can be
| obtained
And here let me say as prophetically as
L dare that the future swell theater OF
New York, the simon pure Belgravia,
whether endowed or not, will be some
where near that magnificent park plaza
on fifty-ninth street. That is the social
axis Of the island Mr. Bourke Cochran,
who is not so much an American as a
New Yorker, like all the faithful Tam
many tribe, thinks that Yonkers will be
| the center in twenty-five years. But that
depends good deal On the fellows at
Albany.
Mr.. t. Henry French, who is to build
the new Grand opera house on Forty-first
street, is the richest manager in New
York, and has the credit of being the
shrewdest financially. But he did not
make his money in management; he made
it in theatrical play brokerage. For years,
by means of his London house, he got con-
troll Of all the new foreign plays and
charged whatever royalties he pleased for
American production.
The theatrical event of the week is the
advent of Mr.. Augustus Pitou's new stock
company at the Union Square theater,
where he opened with a brace of light
dramas. Some interest attached to this
experiment because if successful here
Mr.. Pitou expects to be able to fill his time
in the contiguous large cities without hav-
ing to fill in with intermediate towns. A
stock company capable of playing thu
standard comedies and of casting a new
drama might, it is thought, find ample
work in Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn
and Cincinnati without bothering Chicago.
Mr.. Pitou has succeeded in securing
several excellent actors, and if he succeeds
in securing worthy plays there is no dou BIT
that he will be a large factor in the field
a manager viii, it is hoped, give him no
time to write plays himself And in that
case, those men who can write them bet
ter may get the benefit of his executive
ability
Mr.. Mansfield's ''Ten Thousand Year"
which proved a failure on the first night at
the Garden theater, will undoubtedly prove
success on the fiftieth night. for Mr.
Mansfield is one of those fellows who in
sist that play is not written until it has
been on two months. The Jolly way in
which he slashes cuts up, turns over,
leaves ont and puts in until he gets it all
right commands my admiration. don
Juan" was written as meiodrama 1t
didn't go that way, so he made an extrav-
aganza of it. He produced Nero q a
tragedy. 1t didn't work well. and he was
just about to present it as comic opera
with a skirt dance when Miss Sheridan
proposed Ten Thousand a Year" which
was produced as a comedy, and was
Topped over into farce on the third night.
In the stage lexicon of this youth there is
no such word as fail by Jove," he said
of Richard ILL.," ''if it doesn't go as
Shakespeare I'll make it go as Dick Mans
field"
Dicks adaptability to circumstances
makes his judgment as protean as his tai
ents.
This reminds me that the management
of the Casino, after producing the monkey
shines otherwise known as Uncle Celes-
tn" which proved to critical judgment a
mere revival of that now obsolete form Of
skylarElng which we used to call Ham
fat" has published a letter from the COM
poser Audran complimenting America on
its appreciation of his work. If Audran
could see his work he would not sing so
wildly well. / have heard somewhere of a
man who, being kicked down two pairs of
stairs, picked himself up proudly and, look
ing at his watch, remarked: "By Jove, that
beats the record. | must have made twenty
revolutions TO the secondw
The new Fifth Avenue theater which
has been so long building is going to open
in May with a revival of one of Offenbach's
operas, which has been dashed with new
seasoning by that clever man, Mr. H. c.
Bunner, of Puck. Fancy the elimination
OF OHenbach at this day. 1t is to me like
buying last years almanac. But after all
comic opera has no regard to theme or mu-
sic or composer. 1t is the standing excuse
"
matter who the author is, the visual plan
and material remain the same. The same
string of bacchantes, the same pink flesh
mgs and fashiDgs of skirts, and nobody
cares whether it is Pergolese or Eli Per
kins, so that it runs merrily into topical
song and skirt dance
Anything coarser than "A Trip to China
town" has not been done here outside OF
that popular resort Roster g. Balls; but
it goes. One OF the songs sung by young
woman has this delicate refrain:
He tried to pull my leg.
But he never laid hands on me.
And it always goes to shrieks of admira-
ton.
Some moral statistician will yet give Us
an enumeration of the slum side of New
York that froths up in our popular amuse-
ments and flashes like will-o'-t he-wisp
along the purlieus of life
The preparations for the dramatic fair
at the Madison Square garden go merrily
on The subject takes up large space in
the newspapers, and all the space report
ers" give their time TO interviewing the
actresses who have it in hand Miss Alice
Fisher and Miss Georgia Cayvan get more
by this diversion than they could
ever get by their acting The promised
personal exhibition is one of exceptional
interest. We are TO have all the we'll
known actresses at short range. The
whole garden. recently set with benches,
IS now to be studded with booths tinciud-
ing Agnes. You can then pay your money
and take your choice of caramelS Old