The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-12-09
The Musical Comedy.

ent theatrical season indicates that il is
time for the musical burlesque Of a sec
ond-rate kind to retire as gracefully as
| possible from the stage. Only the best OF
talent can make such show tolerabie
| any longer. The men and women who
have done the best work in this line are
dropping it and going into what, in the
parlancc of the profession, Is called
straight vaudeville" and the romantic
drama is climbing into the place occupied
a few seasons ago by the melange Of
songs. dances. and meaningless bits of
comedy which is neither play, comic
| opera. vaudeville. nor anything else
known to heaven or earth.
The existence of this melange is due to
the demand of a certain element of the
public for sort of amusement which re-
quires in the audience no brains what
| ever, and in the performers, sometimes.
even less. The audience which delights
in this sort OF thing does not wish to be
troubled with following the development
of plot That is one-half of the reason
for the existence of the mixture. The
other half of the reason Is that the man
ager can get along without spending as
much money as he would on another sort
of show. For pure vaudeville he must pay
high prices to each separate performer;
for a legitimate drama he must have
well-trained company and good play;
for comic opera he must have good &C
tors, fine voices, and brilliant music, all
of which cost money. In the musical
comedy he can have as much or as little
of these things as may suit him; he can
make a part for some star performer, ir
respe ctive of rhyme or reason, and gather
into his one performance a most curious
and kaleidoscope tumble of scenes, char
acters. costumes. and music. 1t Is an
ideal production for the manager who has
a single hearted devotion to the dollar,
and he makes his money from the people
care for it, but go to It because there is
nothing else in town.
The vogue Of these brilliant pot -pourri
creations has been a trial to the l.giti
mate actor. who lost a certain percentage
Of his profits when he happened not TO be
the latest fashion. 1t looks very much
as IL their day were over. and the actor
and the opera singer coming back to their
own again. For the sake of American
and knglish dramatic art II is TO be hoped
So
Therr is a vast field for the playwright
in this country, which Is as yet hardly
touched. 1t is thh field already occupied
in literature by tile realist. The develop
ment of the drama is always some years
behind that of literature, and hence We
may not hope f1r the vogue of the true
realistic drama until after the present
wave of realistic fiction has reached its
height The reasons for this are obvious
In the first place. the average theatre
goer is more conservative in taste than
the average reader. other things being
equal. There are people who go TO the
theatre who do not read at all. and who
consequently know little of life except
from experimental personal experience
is apt to be limited. There are many who
read, who do not care for the theatre,
and such people are apt to be more In
terested in new types of human nature
than those who are not fond of books.
But when realism in the drama does reach
its height, the field will be explored more
thoroughly even than the bookmen have
explored it, since the theatrical profess
sion has world of it's own, into which
is introduced every talented actor. what
ever his sntecedents; and the acquaint-
ance of the actor with the types which
he delineates is even more intimate, as a
rule. than that of the novelist with the
characters which he portrays.