Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-31

lively small population, gets enough thea
ter-goers to crowd the house during an
engagement for two weeks, even when the
attraction Is so enormous a spectacle as
The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast" Is
one of the mysteries of the theatrical bust
ness. Remarkably good judgment was
shown by the management in undertaking
so unusual a step in community whose
population Is numerically slight compared
with those of New York, Philadelphia,
Boston or Chicago. A considerable per-
centage of the people in the District of
Columbia are not theater-goers. owing to
considerations of color, in some cases, and
of personal sentiment In others less nu-
merous. Yet Washington ranks as one
of the best show towns in the country.
Pittsburg is another city which, although
not making a very commanding showing
In the national census, patronizes theatrical
entertainment very literally. Pittsburg is
rated as one of the wealthiest of Ameri-
can cities, sharing with Washington the
advantage of population with the leisure
and the means to indulge In the theater
THE Sleeping Beauty and the Beast" calls
to attention the fact that there Is still
more patronage awaiting the theater in this
city, IL the management can but command
the attractions which will appeal. AS IN
the case of Ben Hur' the audiences were
made up of people who were largely un-
familiar. A theatrical manager comes to
know, by sight if not personally. large
number of the people who constitute the
regular attendance from week to week,
and from season to season. This habitual
element was almost insignificant in the
great mass of amusement seekers who
~ t,r-n
weeks that closes tonight. The appearance
of new faces in the auditorium could be
accounted for in the case of Ben Hur,"
by the literary and religious interest which
attached to the production, but in the
case of the Drury Lane spectacle, neither
of these considerations could apply. 1t was
simply big show, and the people wanted
to see 1t. 1t Is useless, as yet. to hope
for any such outpourings to see per-
Torrance whose merits are entirely literary
or artistic and yet If these same Sleeping
Beauty and the Beast patrons could be
induced to try something of more Intel
lectual substance they would probably like
1t and be enrolled among the regulars In
sufficient numbers to emancipate Wash
ington from the semi-provincalism of the
one weeks stand.
Mr.. Stuart Robsons engagement at the
Columbia Theater was an eminently sue
cessful one. The esteem in which this actor
is held shows no abatement, whether he
turns from farce to comedy or from comedy
to pathos. The effort to put on THE Com
edy of Errors with deficient cast was not
gratifying, although the week was an emf
nently prosperous one. Any effort to I'M
dervalue the part which Mr.. Crane played
useless. The present company Is far from
equaling the organization of twenty years
ago, when Robson & Crane, as firm name,
was a household word. And none of those
companies equaled the cast that played
at the Cincinnati Dramatic Festival, when
A. s. Lpman played "Solinus;" C. B. Han
ford, ''Aegeon;" Mr.. Crane and Mr.. Robson,
the two 'Dromios;" Frederick Warde and
Barton Hill. the "Antiphol;' Charles S.
Dic-son, Angelo and Marie Prescott,
''Adriana." To bark back twenty years in
vtes suspicion, for the commentator who
loves to dwell on the past Is too often I'M
sympathetic and unreasonable with refer
ence to the present. But it is Mr.. Robson
who has delved into antiquity, and brought
Up these "reminiscences of greater glorfes
And 1t IS to these performances of twenty
years ago rather than to the performances
of the week Of January %. 1903 that the
prosperity of the present engagement is
due. Mr. Robsons own work Is. of course
irreproachable, but IN THE Comedy Of Err
rors'' there are several excellent parts
which cannot be sighted without serious
loss. There can be no rational objection to
the assumptions of Shakespearean import
ance made in connection with this produc-
ton. THE Comedy of Errors Is, however,
one OF the least worthy of all the Shake
spearean plays and enables the student to
understand more readily than any Of the
others the slight esteem in which the mas
ter genius of the theater was held by his
contemporaries. The absolute freedom
with which the current speech Of the Lon
don streets and the manners of the Eliza
bethar period in England were employed to
tell story. which was strictly Grecian in
locale and characters. must have struck some
OF the pedants OF the time as little less than
vandalism. However, the same apology
was made, no doubt as has been made for
the plays OF Mr.. Charles Hoyt and Mr.. Leo
Ditrlchstein, ut made the people laugh"
They could not realize that it was animated
by the true spirit OF the poet; that immor-
tally could be breathed into a thing 80
slight.
a. NAO LaAdS Cltc tuo story Oh Jerome,
Poor Man." was told to interested audi
ences. The bucolic drama is In much dam
ger of being oyerworked. Every actor who
can teach himself TO speak ungrammatical-
~ (and this is a comparatively simple task
with anybody is POLITICALLY licensed to
prance upon the mimic scene fourishing a
wisp OF hay and drive the dollars into the
box office as regularly as the cows come
home at night. OF late there has been a
disposition on the part Of the herd to balk
little, and 1t is possible that before a few
seasons have elapsed there will be a stam-
pede. and some other means win have to
be used to corral the public. The play was
interesting TO literary folk because It in
PRODUCES that gentle authoress, Miss Mary
wilkins, as contributor to the stage.
Miss wilkins is quoted as SAYING that she
likes the Naturalization OF jerome. a Poor
Man, very much, and SO long as Miss VIII
kins and the play patrons are content there
- no need for any one to quarrel
X
AT the Academy of Music one of those
dreadful things that are continually break
Ing out from between the covers of penny
literature took possession of the stage.
THE James Boys In Missouri is the title.
which left no doubt OF the thrilling inten,