The Washington times., 1901-07-14
THE PASSING SHOW.

I
Is that new blood is sadiy needed in the
manufacture of comic and musical pieces
for the entertainment Of the theatre
/ gcers OF the country. Farce and burletta
| in various forms have always been con
| spicuous in the theatrical repertoire since
the afterpieces OF Garrick Foote, and
Fielding. But inventive geniuses have
| arisen from time to time to modify and
| improve the prevailing forms and give
10 the minor drama some sort OF new
! life.
After the great vogue of Planche and
! the men of his hour on the London stage
came the punning travesties of the
! Brothers Brough, which. having declined
/ to the inanity Of II. J. Bryon and the
! later work OF Burnand, gave place in turn
to the really artistic operattds of Gilbert.
] in which fresh humor, sparkling wit, and
/ the true 6ramaUst'S comprehension of
human nature were so happily com
mingled. Planche and the lesser writers
of pantomime and extravaganza in his
day treated the old themes, familiar
nursery rhymes, tales. and folk legends.
if not seriously. at least politely, and
with some show of poetic fancy. The
school of burlesque writer's that followed
we're ribaId testers, who deliberately
turned history and romance upside down,
and. indeed, there was no lasting value
in any Of their productions.
Nobody would today laugh at their
puns. Wanda. In Ivanhoe,' asking the
household of Cedric. when he enters out
of a rainstorm, why am l fat2" and
answering his own conundrum, Because
I'm drippirS." would be thought as
funereal as are some OF the alleged
comedians who occupy the present day
vaudeville stage. or some of the bright
puusters Of modern farce comedy. Even
the elaborate verbal ingenuity in the
declaration of King Hal in The Field
OF the Cloth of Gold that he viii not
cross the channel on Sunday because the
sick transit spoils the glory o Monday,
represents a kind OF fun long since played
out
The Brough brothers were not greater
experts at this sort of literary tomfoolery
than John BrOugham, whose American
career 3 IS q -conCOcter of comic plays and
a stage hum0rist began after the vogue
OF the early history Of Mitchells New
York olympic had passed. Nor were the
BrcUghs or any OF their contemporaries
in the English play-market cleverer in
the mere construction of travesty than
Brougham whose ''POcahOntas, which
survived a whole theatrical generation,
was as bright and as original as any bur
lesque OF its class ever was. But that
sort OF burlesque, though il had a ntful
revival in the de Walden travesties of
Hamlet and "Richelieu," d" I'm which
George L. Fox gravely burlesqued Booth,
gave way before the new Influences ex-
erted by the Importation OF the offenbach
opera bOutTe on the one hand and the alb
solute literary inanity but measurable
terpsichoreau and musical skill in the
burlesques brought from London Dy Lydia
Thompson and her famous blondes, in
the sixties. OHeubach. in French. could
never be anything here but an exotic OF
course and Dmenbach, IN English, under
the hest possible conditions. was still
lacking i'll the essential opera rOufIe, but
! there was enough fun in the books Of
. Meuhac and HalVey. nevertheless. 10 defy
Z the raEages OF the translators. Quite
apart from the ifir umerable English YER
sIons of the French opera Douffe, from
La Grande Duchess TO Ia Jolie Par
fUmeuse' and Madame IArchiduc," and
some Of these We're good enough shows, in
which sensible folk could find their
moneys worth of fun, the humorous in
! fiuence OF Offenb3ch and his collabOrators
: did actually have an appTeciable effect on
I the stage friyol of the time even upon
/ the Lydia Thompson type of entertain
I ment. which at that period Was considered
I the essence Of wickedness, but which, were
J il TO be offered to the average theatre
gOer Of today would be shifted at, con-
4 teTuptuously and advised to play the Sun
+ day schools instead of appearing upon the
theatrical stages.
: little later Edward Harrigan. taking
/ the negro minstrel sketch and the side
I walk conversations Of the variety theatres
t as MS starting point. invented and
! breathed the very breath of life into
! new form OF native comic drama, deriving
J his pers0nages and their very language
/ from life itself; while from the beginning
; OF Harrigan all the species of later farce
! comedy more or less directly grew. even
I Charles HOyts sufficiently original non
! Sensical plays, ia which there was how
/ ever, an abundant observation Of life and
! humOr Of a distinctly New England and
/ rural type to contrast with the Irish
5 American and purely urban fun Of Harri-
/ gan The advent hire OF the Gilbert and
] sullivan operettas created a taste for
light opera and FOR long lime the Wen
! nese operettd was ir great favor and sat
lsned the demand, even after its Gun had
been worked over by native and English
adapters- But that has passed. and every
other kind OF stage fun Of the period
seems TO be pretty well Dls we'd out now
The long reign Of the acrcbatic farce Is
] also finished, and the intelligent theatre
I SOer Will have no more of ii. Nothing
1 could easily be drearier than the exam
pies OF this sort that were exhibited To-
! cally during the past year or So When
I George Lecerer first assumed control Of
the New York Casino and engaged c. NJ
/ \ Mcclellan. then editor of a Gotham
! society weekly, 10 furnish a libretto, and
| the Casino musical director, Gustav Ker-
/ kcr. set about writing tuueful scores the
! result was vital and eXhilarating even il
! audacious and paganistic to a degree
/ even for the blase New Workers For a
I while the entertainer offered by AFT
l.ederer prospered wonderfully but there
came a tine " When even these commenced
10 pail on the public and during the past
three years nothing has come from the
/ Casino that has been uncommonly sue
I c'sstul or furnished IS much amusement
I as did the nrst pieces OF this Kind Half
dozen OF the George Fdwardes' brand
/ OF musical comedy" imported from Lon
oOr were entertaining. even IL not very
financially successful. If one may except
I The Runaway Girl and the latest ones
( san Toy" and -'flOrodora." But even in
/ these successful pieces their merit is al
i most wholly musical and pictorial and
their huinor Is small. indeed.
Then Weber ana Fields. two energetic
and progressive German comedians
Z whose early local appearances were at
kernans AT popular prices for couple
or years appeared 70 be engineering the
! development Of a new sort Of funny en-
J tertatnment. but they pulled through the
( season just finished by sheer strength as
! nearly UP 70 their usual standard. not
I withstanding the fact that their organiza-
: tlOn Is one Of great strength so far as
/ celebrities are concerned. but even with
] DeWolf Hopper. Lillian Russell Fav
] Templetyn, David Wariield. and a dozen
4 or more almost equally clever funmakers
} the Weber-Fields performances were any
I thing but specimens of clever burles0ues
/ The pTopTietors OF the music hall frankly
/ admit that they cannot get suitable pieces
! Tor their company, not even when they
I employ the best available talent Every
J thing seems to have been 50 thoroughly
! rehashed By the native writer's for the
Z stage that some of them will evidently
4 soon be compelled to look to other liter
airy fields for their livelihood. Even the
/ great and only Harry B. Smith, who has
{ written about al Of the libTettos that the
Z attendants Of comic opera and musical