The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-09-21


caterer TO the public appetite for stage rep
resentations. Another and quite as i'm
portant one Is, Will the six or seven
months that comprise the season mean
profit or losss Will the bicycle craze
that has made every other man one meets
a wheeling enthusiast eat up all ths profits
of spasmodic good business by forcing
players to either perform 10 empty seats or
TO begin unusually late and to close in
early spring. Tradition says that the year
of a presidential campaign is aways bad
one for the theater and for amusements
generally, and IL would be hard TO find
more abject slaves TO tradition than those
who cater to the theater going public. Ex-
per!ence has taught them that the delights
of listening to free political eloquence
and the blare of stridcnt brass band In the
open usually prove more potent, especially
In the smaller towns, than all tho glowing
promises of dramatic feasts pictured by
dazzling autographs But hope springs
eternal In the human breast, and, while q
number of managers, chiefly OF road COM
panies, have delayed the starting Of their
tours, there are still many that have decid-
ed to face the dangers of election paradee
and mass meetings.
Few managers are better known than
Daniel Frohman of the New York Lyceum
theater, who conducts the tours of Come
dian f. H. Sothern and the Kendals and
who Is interested in numerous enterprises
with his brother Charles and AL Hayman.
MIR. Frohman says:
1T Is going to be good season for those
attractions which the public wants to see.
For those which it does not care for IL will
be bad one. That sums up the situation
In very few words. AS for the bicycle fad,
IL you wish to call IL that, there Is no
doubt whatever In my mind that IL will
affect the spring and autumn seasons. But
think that by the end of the present sea-
son most Of the. bicycles will have been
bought and paid for. You see, my belief is
that the majority of wheels are purchased
on the installment plan and that it Is be-
cause the young people have to sorape to-
gether the payments that they are not able
TO do 80 much theater going as they might
otherwise. In the spring and fall young
men and women go wheeling, and that
tends TO thin out audiences somewhat.
But the bicycle only hurts the drama lit
tie. There will always be an audience for
the theater. There has been nothing in
the past to show us that the theater can
be permanently injured by any outside in
fuence. The only thing that can injure
the theater is the theater itself. p"
And what will be the bill Of fare this
season. What form of drama seems likely
to be most popular?"
"There again must fail to be explicit
Anything that interests the public will
meet with it's favor. We, as managers, try
to give our patrons what they will most
relish, but we are at the mercy OF the au-
thor. We know what we want, but cam
not always get IL, whether our authors be
American or foreign. While we lean to-
ward home productions, IL the people pre-
fer what the foreign author presents TO us,
IL Is, In our policy, the best TO give them
that which contains elements that instruct
and interest. That Is what will succeed
this season, as I'm all others, whether IL be
modern, romantic, medieval or ancient"
lis the Shakespearean drama dead!"
Shakespeare plays never succeed in
the present day though they may have
done so jszrthe past, because they are by
SHAKESPEARE but because of one or two
stars who have established themselves rs
clever exponcnts of certain roles. AS long
as they remain the exponents of those
characters the plays draw. 1t Is the samo
with the standard grand operas. We do
not go TO hear the old familiar strains, but
because of the Interpretation of certain
great roles by celebrated artists II is be.
cause the actor brings n specially equipped
temperament suited to tho dramatic rendi-
ton Of Shakcspearean character that he
finds an audience and n following"
"IIas the craze for vaudeville done harm
to tho drGmay"
"On tho contrary, IL has helped IL. Pco-
pie who have been surfeited with vaude-
Vile acts turn 60 the drama as the real
standard for theatrical amusement This
will probably be noticed now that the sea-
son Is opening, for the SIMMER amuse-
monts have all been of IA vaudeville char
acter F"
Rudolph Aronson's Views.
Rudolph Aronson, manager of the Bijou
theator, now and formerly Of the Casino,
who has probably brought 70 the front
more comic opera stars than any other inn
prcssario, looks with a confident air to the
season Of 1897
"If we except the period Just before
election day, when business may be ex-
pccted 90 fall Off trine, think that the
season viii bo rcnlunorrtive one. They
may talk business depression oil they will,
but oven when business Is bad II docsn't
necessarily follow that the thcatcrs will be
empty. On the other hand, business de-
preston usually means good attendance.
Then the wealthy cconomize on their big
entertainments, their dinners, balls sol
rccs parties, and turn to the thoater for
thcir recreation. IL Is true, bicycles hive
cut the theatrical season short at both
ends, hut the thcntcr will bound back To
its old place in good time"
- hat IL tho popular demand I'm dra-