Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-09-10

day. The winter season at the
i Boyd opened most auspiciously on
Monday evening and the cooler
weather has brought 20 the Krug some
thing like the prosperity that house has
known since the beginning. The Arizona"
engagement was one Of the most successful
ever noted at the Hudson & Judah house.
This afternoon the Orpheum will swing
into line. and next Saturday night the
Burwood will go into commission, and the
winters whirl will then be under Roadway.
All over the country the theaters are open
ing to unprecedented patronage. and the
men who have their interests in these en-
terprises are greatly encouraged by the
outlook. Locally the promise is excellent,
foe the attendance at the Boyd and the
krug during the week was most satsfac-
tory, and the coming OF the other houses
means merely an addition to the oppor-
tunities for the public to obtain amuse-
ment. Going to the theater is a habit, and
one that has been carefully cultivated in
Omaha. It is doubtful II another city in
the country has more confirmed patrons OF
the stage, In proportion TO it's population,
than has Omaha. The men who direct
the destinles of the American stage realize
this, and in the future, as in the past,
Omaha is to share in the best the theater
has to offer
a
one Of the gratifying conditions at the
beginning of the new season is that the
popularity Of American authors continues.
Last season patriotic pride was somewhat
pulled up by the fact that the only real
successes scored we're secured by Ameri
can authors Not all Of these had to do
with American topics, but that is not 50
essential II really should be accounted
an achievement that an author from this
side can meet those abroad on their own
grounds and take the ground from them.
Most of the pretentious productions this
season are American plays by American
authors and nearly all OF them deal with
American topics. For the first time in his
career as leading light comedian John
Drew is enacting the role of an American
In comedy written by Augustus Thomas
and located at Newport and New York
Maxine Elliot has another Fitch play, which
mingles Americans and Germans, with the
scenes In Germany. and other openings
point with equal certainty to the success
of the homegrown writer. George AIDE,
for example, will have nine plays Of diff
ferent sorts on the stage this winter and
one vaudeville sketch, and one enterprisng
New Yorker has figured out that his income
from these will reach $4,000. Barrie and
Shaw will be about the only Englishmen
represented on the American stage to any
great extent during the season, and the
continental writers seem to be hopeessly
neglected. Talk is heard of reviving Sow
ing the Wind which will bring Henry
Arthur Jones back to notice. Hall Game
is kept to the front by THE Prodigal Son, "
which is being most pretentiously produced
and somewhat chilly received in New York.
1t is a typical Caine play, melodramatic in
its every aspect, crude in its construction,
with moments Of dramatic intensity fol-
lowed by anti-cllmatc periods that dspel
the impressions created by the forceful
intervals, and proceeding along its way
by reason of the authors will rather than
from any inherent impulse of its own. In
this IL differs in no essential regard from
1.-THE Christian" or THE Eternal City"
and will very likely have a similar vogue.
Along these lines John Corbin writes in
the New York Sun:
In recognizing the native drama our pub
lie has never been backward, as the sue
cess OF our playwrights, major and minor,
abundantly proves, but 1t Is possible that
cur critics Fave not been equally hos
ptable. Lowell ONE had word to say
about a certain condescension in foreign
ers That Is a sad phenomenon, and trying
TO provincial nerves, but If ever anything
stamped us as indeed provincial 1t is the
partial and grudging praise dole out
20 our artists. II Sargent and Whistler
US would think of them we now do?
Have we not recently turned ourselves in
side out on the subject of that cosmopoli-
tan dilettante Henry James, while neglect
ing the Americanism of Howells, intense
alike in his qualities and his defects? Our
reviews abound in articles about Ibsen and
MaeteTlinck, Hauptmann, D'Annunzio and
the rest one American Is writing a liter
airy biography of Shaw and another has
written one OF Pinero. Surely what Amer
lean dranatsts are writing about US and
for ~ deserves consideration, and perhaps
encouragement
It cannot as yet be said that any Of oul
drama tfAts has done work of the highest
order, though al of them have had plays
produced abroad with marked success. We
have no comedy OF manners so sustained
and brilkSnt as 1.-THE liars" no tragedy
so poignant as THE Second Mrs. Tan
quCray," no phantasy so light and tlum
mating as The Admirable Crichton, nc
problem play so stimulating as Candida,
no poetic drama TO be compared witt
"PaClo and Francesca" or "Herod.' Their
seems to be something limited i'm our out
look upon lfe-provinCial If you Will
which prevents n mastery OF the dramatic
forms and the dramatic ideas of the high
est appeal. ~
have shone with unreasonable brilliance
In the matter of sheer comic force and yer
nacular truth to character If any English
dramatist has equaled Hoyt's farces, and
on a somewhat higher level, Richard Har
ding Davis THE Dictator and Augusta
Thomas 1.-THE Earl Of PawtuCket," hi
light has been hid under bushel. Englisl