The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-09-24

-s ->=-f~ iar approval. The
shrewd gentlemen who provide enter
tainuent OF theatrical nature are too
wIse to attempt TO direct the people, their
chietcst aim Is to endeavor to follow them
closely and give them exactly what they
want, be IL comedy or tragedy, farce or
drama This course pays. aud. after all.
people are only In the theatrical business
for money making purposes.
The Old timers are won't to tell us. with
mournful shakes OF the head, that 1T was
not always thus, and that years ago "act-
tors and managers had some regard for
theis art Despite this very glitterins,
neat lightning platitude venture the as
sertion that actors haven't changed much
in the last thirty or forty years, except
perhaps as To their methods, and their es.
Inmates of their own Importance.
While tho drift toward the frothy ele.
ment may have injured the .'serious
drama" am inclined to the opinion that
1t has been Of benefit to the stare as n
whole, for the reason that tho percentage
OF theatre goers in America is unuuestion
nbiy greater now than ever before. There
are thousands OF persons in every com
munity who don't even know whether
Yorick had skull or not, and don't tare
a continental about it one way or the
other. These people might live next door
to theater in which Hamlet" was
on for a run OF year, with Edwin
Booth ar Hamlet and the elder Sal
VIM as the Ghost, without ever having the
slightest inclination to hear the melau.
choiy Dane wonder taudibly} whether Il
pays TO be, or not to be-" But inst Let
the billboards announce The Chameleon
Detective" or "a Lead Pipe Cinch," and
they will all be trying to borrow money
from their neighbors to buy tickets for the
play
OF course when real fire engine, with
real horses, and a real fire ladder, and a real
life saving net, or a river of real water.
with real steamer, and a real rowboat
are added, Standing Room Onlyn business.
that delight OF the managerial heart is
well nigh assured in advance l know
that 1t Is the fad nowadays among dramatic
writer's to say that this sort of thing ia
playing out, but 1t is not New York CITY
may be called the theatrical barometer of
America, and glance at the list of attrac-
tions with which the theaters of the netrop-
oils will open will serve to prove the cor
rectness of this position.
10 begin with, no theater in New York
city VIII give tragedy or anything ap.
preaching 1t. and few of them will have
the temerity to tempt fate, at least during
the early part of the season, with pieces
which may be called serious. There must
be comedy and lots of it in q play or the
New York managers will not touch IL as
rule.
The most important Indication of this
tendency toward vaporose theatricals is to
be found in the change which has been
made in the policy of the Casino, which
has long been looked upon as the home of
comic opera in America. This magnificent
house is to be turned at once into cafe
chantant. or. in plain United States, high
class concert hall. The success of the roof
gardens in New York city, in the face of
the poor business done by most of tie the
alters, is said to be directly responsible for
this change, which will 20 into effect
Sept. 10, ut which time the "Vice Admiral"
will be sent on the road. The Garden
thcater will probably succeed to the posi-
ton so long occupied by the Casino.
At the Star theater, the home of long
and successful runs, the opening attrac
ton will be Katie Emmett, the young
woman who has made some reputation and
much money by playing boys part in
lurid melodrama, THE Waits of New
York, !" which has toured the country for
several seasons. Miss Emmett is getting
more ambitious now, and the new play
which she will produce at the Star Aug.
22 is called Killarney" I have been in
formed that she has dotted pantaloons in
favor of skirts in this piece
The Twenty third Street theater will be
opened Aug. 30 by Robert Mantell in the
highly romantic drama, 1.-THE Face In tho
Moonlight" He will probably remain at
this theater for a run
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