The times., 1898-11-13
THE PASSING SHOW.

lie rAOplNU OaUW-
Who will be governor of New York at
this time next year?' was asked of one
man by another early election day.
Well, was the reply, If I knew L
should be too busy making bets on, the
issue to answer your question"
The uncertainty that existed then re-
garding the result Of the coming count
has been a notable feature of the theatri-
cal business for some time. and interest
in the situation has not been lessened by
the fact that more money Is involved in
this matter than dozen Industrious men
could secure in campaign wagers did they
labor increasingly for a month. The pub
lie is great patron and managers are
well paid for catering to its wishes, but
unfortunately is as non-committal on
the subject of these desires as is a woman
on a shopping expedition. There are sew
eral fortunes waiting for dramatic invest
ors who can discover Just What class of
entertainment will now prove most tempt
ing to the whetted appetite of the average
theater-goer, though experiments in the
cause are SO costly and withal so final
that ruin stares him in the face who fails.
So ii is that most of the spectators now
in the field are going about blindly with
their old material while those whom they
are anxious to please signify emphatically
their disapproval of the dishes served up
to them.
The average amusement lover has
breakfasted and lunched and dined for
years and years on hash-hash made
of the mingled plots and incidents
that have been placed before gem
erations of play-goers. He has
had mother-in-Iaw farces. poor-but-hon-
est-yomg-man comedies, miserable-com-
edian-and-h -happy-tenor operas, fortune
waiting-for-the-vill ere-the-hero-dead
melodramas. and dad-wants- the -girl-to-
marry-a-title musical offerings. until he is
fairly sick of them. 1t occurs to him
that new matter has been found for pic
lures, poetry and prehistoric exhibitions,
and that a little of the sauce of novelty
would taste uncommonly well on the food
passed in his direction. So, instead of eat
ing the conglomeration he has ordered as
did his forefathers, he merely sends 1t back
untasted, and another press agent an
nounces that owing to previous bookings
his successful attraction will leave New
York early this season.
While, of course, it never occurs to such
dyspeptie that he may be largely respon-
sible for this state of affairs, 1T Is un-
doubtedly true that he is somewhat TO
blame. If, having grown rather fond of
a new pastry, he consumes so much of
1t that within a very short space of time
a sight of the stuff nauseates him the
fault cannot be said to lie with his cook
-Four years ago the romantic drama-in
SO far as it related to padded legs, heroic
speeches and exhibitions of bad fencing
was comparatively unique and promised
to be profitable for an indefinite period
But no sooner was it brought into the
market and placed on the bill of fare at
the Frohman restaurant than there were
scores of like places opened where the
sweets were served by men of varying
ability and partaken of by purchasers of
varying capacity until they became no
longer saleable. The "Rosemary's" and
Prisoner of Zendas" that might have
been made to stretch through a century
were all crammed into the space of a
few seasons, with the result that all con-
cerned are now sick and tired of them
Just exactly what is to fill the vacant
place on the menu Is uncertain. AS
suredly little that has ever before been
offered will prove delectable. Farce
comedy is deader than doornail-or, as
Charles Dickens once suggested, than a
coffin nail. Consumers have shown a
hundred times within the last few months
how little domestic infelicity and mis-
taken identity appeal to them, even when
supplied in most attractive manner
William Gillette, a theatrical chef of no
mean intelligence, sent Washingtonians a
really pleasing and partially novel salad
last week in the shape of his adoption
from Bisson, Because She Loved Him
So and Localities stayed away from the
National with anything but commenda-
BILE persistence, in consequence. This was
the ninth preparation of its sort that
has been offered here this season, and
no one of them has been in any sense
financial success. Were it not for fear
of overstepping ones metaphore it might
be remarked that Palmer's "That Man
was done to empty benches; that "a
Misfit Marriage ''Why Smith Left
Home" and ION and OFF, were totally
ignored; that 1.-THE Cuckoo" did the
worst business ever known in this city:
that 1.-THE Finish of Mr.. Fresh" was a
large factor in the closing of the Grand;
that "a Brace of Partridges'' drew little.
and that MY Friend From India" estab-
lished no records last week. Farce is
really dead and there is not much chance
either of resuscitatinS or of resurrecting
it.
The same thing may be said of that
highly seasoned relish, the melo-drama,
and of that heavily indigestible pudding.
the English musical comedy. The bad
business being done by popular-priced
houses and the failure of any number of
the Stimulants sold therein proves the
first observation, while the fact that none
of those concerned have yet recovered
from the effects of '.An Artists Model''
and IN Town establishes the other.
Native dishes of the latter kind seem to
be faring hardly better, while the fact
that those twin concoctions, ''The Con-
querors" and 1.-The Tree of Knowledge,
made more money last year in New York
than did all the Shakespearian dumplings
offered on the road together disposes of
the Mirrors oft-repeated assertion that
the Bard of Avon is the only real finan-
cial success served hot this year.
Comic opera appears to be losing none
OF Its attractiveness. largely because the
manner of its dressing or the lack of
any at all, cannot help but be alluring