The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-11-15
Five Millions Yearly
Go to N. Theatres

Things along New York's Rialto are
already beginning to take an air Of new
life. On the stages Of deserted the
aires rehearsals are going on. Post
ers are beginning to flare forth pros
pective attractions and the theatrical
world is waking up after its summer
sleep The season is opening up and
promises scores of new and great
things between September and May.
The horizon Of the play world will be
enlarged by the opening of two new
play houses this year and the Metro
politan's rival, Hammerstein's Man
haitian opera house.
Theatre-mad New York, never con-
tent with what it has, must always
cry out for more. There are some sew
enty important theatres in Manhattan
already, including the vaudeville
houses, but they cannot offer enough
to satisfy pleasure loving New York
ers and their visitors from all over
the world. During the season every
one Of these seventy theatres that has
anything to offer with the least appeal
to its own particular public has its
seats filled. An authority closely in
touch with theatrical matters puts the
amount Of the receipts of all the New
$4,000. Counting up, that puts the
money that pours In through the box
Office of the various theatres of Man
haitian at something like 100000 in
season; and that must be regarded
as conservative estimate which does
not include all the small melodrama
theatres of the East Side.
The trend of the theatres world is
constantly northward. the crowding
Of business houses in the lower end
of the Rialto pushing the play houses
constantly further up town. The lead
ing managers all predict that within
twenty-five-perhaps fifteen years
Columbus circle will be the heart Of
the theatre district. The sites Of the
new theatres that have been projected
seem to lend emphasis to this pre-
diction. 1t is matter of speculation
in the theatrical world how much
longer the Madison Square theatre,
even the Garden theatre and others
Of the downtown playhouses, will be
able to hold out against the up-fiowing
tide. Forty-second street is now the
center of things theatrical in Manhat-
tan, with the one block between
Broadway and Eighth avenue con-
tanning seven theatres, more than any
other block in the world.
Often one reads in fine sounding
criticisms of some play that it is of
a type Of drama that New Workers.
will not accept, that has no appeal to
New Workers. The authority in the
atrical matters, or the person who
thinks on the subject at all, realize
the absudity of such a statement, re-
Allies that New York, with its citizens
of every possible class. kind and atti-
tude. has its audiences for anything
from Ibsen at his Ibsenest to the film
siest comedy and the most lurid melo-
drama.
New York will accept anything in
the way Of play il that play is pre-
scented at the right place and adver-
tised in the right way. But it will not
accept Bowery play at Broadway
theatre nor vice versa. Almost every
theatre In New York has its own par
ticular clientele and that clientele
must be carefully considered by a
manager In choosing the kind of play
to present. There Is an audience for
everything that has the least merit
Of any kind. so 1t is presented through
the right avenue. There is the cul-
tured, artistic element demanding its
Shakespeare and its lbsen; there are
the sentimentalists demanding their
love dramas. we'll sweetened and cut