The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-10
NYM CRNKLES LETTER
An Epigrammatic Autopsy IN
Recent Theatrical Events.
THE VOID THAT ADA REHAN LEFT
DAILY Play Without Her Is Like Lob
ster Salad Without Lobster-Crane's
For Money Qualified Success-Mod-
jeska and Her ArtIess Accent.


ster Salad Without Lobster-Crane'
'FOr Money Qualified Success-Mod
jeska and Her ArtIess Accent.
NEW YORK, Jan. 20-Mr Augustin
Days unexampled bravery in producing
new play and leaving Miss Adah Rehal
out of it has given rise TO all sorts of sid
rumors. 1t was boldly said in print tina
Miss Rehan had quarreled with her mana
ger; that she had thrown up her part il
the new piece because it was not to he
liking, and that she was making prepare
lions to star under another manager. Al
these stories were fatty contradicted at tn,
theater with accomplishments of grim ret
icence. But Miss Rehan did not appear
and one of the morning papers said that
her absence cast a shadow over the whole
performance of Mr.. Pinero's new play, "The
Cabinet Minister"
Manager Days professional methods are
| imperial. They carry out in practice what
! Steele Mackaye always vested in theory.
| If you will permit me to quote a somewhat
| irreverent remark of Steele Mackaye's
when he was rehearsing money Mad'-it
was this: Successful stage management
is a despotism. Where would God be If
heaven were republicf"
/ therefore hazard the opinion that the
car of the Broadway theater will dismiss
prime minister or court favorite with
equal alacrity and the same grim reticence
that has always characterized his success
full oligarchy of talent.
He made Clara Norris, Sara Jewett, Fan
ny Davenport and score of others, but
his throne did not totter when he banished
them.
Pinero's play was not an American sue
cess. 1t is too finely drawn and too in
sular. 1t dealt entirely with English char
acteristics, not with human nature. An
immense amount of fine writing was
wasted over it, but the opinion of the DAILY
habitues was languid. / suppose it is quite
true that they missed Rehan, and resent
with quiet disdain any other order Of tai
ent assuming to take her place. This Is
one of the unfortunate results of allowing
personality to dominate play or a play
house.
The other novelty Of the week was the
production at the Star theater by Mr..
William II. Crane of Clay NJ. Greene and
Augustus Thomas new comedy, some
what weakly Gf not sordidly) entitled
was an instantaneous popular success,
owing to Mr.. Crane primarily, the stage
manager secondarily and Mr.. Augustus
Thomas remotely.
Mr.. Clay NJ. Greene, who is supposed to
have made the story and plot, simply
played the part of a sounding board and
reverberated everything that occurred to
his memory. One paper said it was sug-
81 Il
it was founded on Bulwer's Money" an
other that Colonel Quincy, of the Ninety
first, ought to have been candid enough to
call himself Jack Royal, of the Ninety |
second, with his romance off; still an
other said it was taken from Robertsons |
Home" and all agreed that Colonel |
Quincy was Major Wellington de Boots, |
Of "Everybody's Friend"
Some one said to me once: There are |
only about twenty germ ideas in all drama !
Success consists in reshuffiing them, Just |
BIS fctional literature is a constant tran |
scription of Faust, of Robinson Crusoe, or |
Of Tom Jones, for all imaginative fathers |
are Lears, all sons Prodigals and all daugh-
ters Madonnas or Magdalens."
There is just enough truth in this aston
shing generalization to make one suspect
hat the successful dramatist of our day is
he man who holds the mirror up to the
stage and not to life.
Mr.. Clay Greene is not a creator, but he .
s shrewd artisan. and his association
With Mr.. Augustus Thomas gives US shop
n which one man tickets the goods and
outs them up in new wrappers, while the
'ther does the talking.
For Money! is one of those modern ex-
libitions in which low comedy puts on the
IRIS of high comedy and wears the best
lothes and has the best furniture. and al
oSether disports itself like Brummagen
Millionaire. Mr.. Crane is essentially a
arceur; his humor is vital, not intellectual:
e is exuberantly funny, like Colonel Bob
ngersoll, not like Mr.. Chauncey Depew
who, by the way, is an after dinner Joe
eHerson). Humor with Mr. Crane is al
7ays on the stump, never on the throne. |
Tut, framed in as he is in this piece, he may
Tell be said to be like the kings Jester in
be throne room for what he could not ac-
omplish by making an audience laugh
for two hours, the scene
alnter and house furniture have done.
1t was thought to be a lesson for the
hole of Philistine America when Mr. |
-enry Irving set the pseudo historical and
he Shakespearean drama in a Tadema
ealth and harmony of color But here is
farce comedy whose Sthetic equipment {
1d encourage Of color are equal to any,
ing Mr.. Irving ever did in this country.
he one interior-a breakfast room in
oionel Gurney's house-might have been
'eclally designed for a Vanderbilt or a
ocketelier's private enjoyment. The
mount OF study, calculation, comparison
ld adjustment to get these Colors into the
imposition and then fit the hues of the
'stumes TO them must have been prodi-
Gus. In another scene, an exterior at .
lrchmont manor on the Sound, the effect
blazing summer sunshine was produced
about 400 electric lights so diffused that
lie telt the radiance of July day and al
oSt smelled the salt air that blew in over
e arm of the sea. |.
Nine. ModjeSka, the lady with the limit &
IS reportory, put on new piece in the Il
lddle of the week. Ii was called THE
'cntess Roudine." 1t proved to be Rus
an, nlhilistic, somber and unintelligible. e
ne Russian material has been overdone, "
, 70 speak more correctly, tiresomely I'M
rdone. Nobody is great enough appar-
tly TO seize upon the awful elements of c,
igedy which that country is furnishing c,
history. Dramas that involve a nation
e too great for the stage until time has
tened their enormities. Nine. Modieska
Is honored by distinguished audience
may be permitted that phrase on the =
casion of this production. but it went d
-ay yawning and wondering. The a
nericans will buy every new puzzle that n
put on the stands, but they have an in 3
motive dread of one in a rhe9ra- 2
Nine. ModjeSka has never succeeded in "