Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-24

The theatrical season fades, like the glim-
| mering landscape, on the sight. Those two
! old war horses of the drama, East Lynne"
and Uncle Toms Cabin remain CALAMITY
| to see the end of the fray. East Lynne
as played by Miss Lessi, drew good-szed
| audiences. East Lynne always draws.
| There is morbid fascination about shat
| tered home that always fills the balcony
| and insures more or less extensive down
| stairs patronage. Miss Lessi is not so
| great an actress as her press agent is dis
| posed to consider her. But this sometimes
happens There is no one more susceptible
| than press agent. He believes everything
| his tells him. Uncle Toms Cabin"
| starts a weeks engagement Monday
! night, and if it does not draw it will be
| the first time in the history of the play
| that it has failed to do
| Another of those heart to heart matinees
| after the Harry Corson Clarke perform
! aEce. 1t is on this occasion that the public
! may expect to see the company at its best.
Mr.. Clarke himself is always entertaining
| but he has sad habit of casting himself
| for single part in the entertainment in
| stead of following the example of Fregou
| or Lafayette and giving the whole show
| himself. Mr. Clarke should either have the
| best kind of assistance or dispense with it
| entirely.
| The custom of allowing popular perform
| ers to try their talents in the legitimate
| drama through the medium of snapshot
| exhibitions of special productions is being
| followed out this season Last season
| brought Mrs. LeMoyne Otis Skinner and
| Miss Robson in a fleeing but glorious
| glimpse of in a Balcony" and Nat c.
| Goodwin and Maxine Eliot-an interesting
| Shylock and an unimpreSsive POrtia. This
season Viola Allen essays the role of Julia
| in The Hunchback," and later Mary Man
| nering appears in THE Lady of Lyons"
This method of exploitation sacrifices the
| rewards which would await a weeks en-
! gagement in case of a profoundly favorable
| impression Monday night. But it has
| on the other hand, the advantage of be-
| ing beyond the reach of retribution in case
| it is unsatisfactory.
! Mr.. Clarke announced last night that
| owing to his inability to cancel previous
| contracts for a starring tour in the west
| he is compelled to close his present season
| of stock at the Columbia Theater with the
| performance ending Saturday evening" May
The revival of 1.-THE Lady of Lyons this
! spring by Manager Frank Mckee, with
Mary Mannering as the fair Pauline and
| kyrle Bellew as Claude Melnotte together
| with cast of exceptional strength and fit
| ness has awakened renewed interest IN Sir
| Edward Bulwer-Lyttons famous play. In
| 1887 Macready assumed the management of
| Covent Garden, in London. When THE
| Lady of Lyons was produced there in that
year, with Macready as a rather too middle
aged Meinotte, the public was not let into
the secret of Bulwer's authorship. The
Pauline of Helen Faucet was greatly ad-
| mtred, but the play did not make much of
an impression at first. Just as Macready
was about to withdraw it, an action which
plxy hoy
a theatrical standpoint, the actor who
played Colonel Damas persuaded him that
If he kept 1t on for few nights it would
be a great popular success. The advice was
taken. The result is matter of history.
The dramatic reviewers of that period We're
very severe, declaring its characters to be
gaudy. overdrawn personages of melo-
drama. Perhaps they were right, yet there
must be much of life in play that has re-
sisted the wear and tear of sixty-five years.
and even yet brings tears to the rosy cheeks
of matinee girls. The first production of
1.-The Lady of Lyons made such a success
in London that it was continued for seventy
nights, a remarkable run for those DAYS
and almost without parallel in the annals
of stage history up to that date. Nearly
twenty years afterward 1t was revived with
even greater success than at the first pro-
duction. In 1867 Charles Fechter, the then
lessee of the Lyceum, determined to retire
and, wishing to do with ec!at, produced
1.-The Lady of Lyons and created so great
IL
Fechter was the only man who by his own
clever efforts succeeded in elevating Mel
notte into romance. He was the man who
revoutionized the costumes and the busl-
ness of Claude. Instead of the blouse and
trousers worn by Macready and his sue
cessors, Fechter donned a rich bourgeois
dress of the period, such as village prince
would be likely to wear at a festival. In
stead of the nondescript uniform, Hessians
and cooked hat in the second act, Fechter
wore powdered hair and put on the black
silk stockings and chapeau dras of an Ital-
ian prince, who had nothing to do with the
plain clothes of the revolution.
x
1t is a singular fact that James Sheridan
Knowles famous play. THE Hunchback.'
which Viola Allen Is now presenting, owes
It's existence to the failure of another play
by the same author. Mr.. Knowles was so
chagrined by the failure of his play, THE
Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" that
he Immediately set about to produce a new
one. AS he says in an early preface to
'The Hunchback, he did not propose to
be baff1ed without a good reason. William
Macready was SO angry with Knowles for
attempting another play on the lines of the
one which had just failed that he visited
Glasgow for the purpose of expostulating
with him. Knowles had completed the first
act, and, reading 1t to his friend, received
his hearty approval. The play of 1.-The
Hunchback'' was completed in 1891, when
James Sheridan Knowles brought 1t to Lon
don for the purpose of securing It's produc-
tion. He says in his preface to an early |
printed copy of 'The Hunchback" that |
the play was first read to Mr.. Lee of Drury |
Lane, and instantly acclSd by him with
out hesitation. The author was granted
even more advantageous terms than he had |
required from the management of Covent |
Garden. 1.-The play" says Mr.. Knowles,
was, however, defective in the underplot, j
which was perfectly distinct from the main !
did subsequently Mr.. Morton in an elab-
crate critique. which was as full of kind
ness as discrimination" Mr.. Knowles took |
the advice of his friends and reconstructed |
the play, and, having done his best to OBJ +,
viate objections. presented 1.-THE Hunch-
back" to Drury Lane. from which estab- |
iishment he subsequently withdrew it, as 1t |