The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-29
GOOD PLAYS ARE
FEW IN NUMBER
There Are Not Many Home
bred Arthurs
FEW LONDON SUCCESSES
One Manager Says That 1t Is Almost
impossible to Fit the Stars, New
and Old, With Good
Material.
FEW LONDON SUCCESSES

| OF increasing materially the crop OF falrly
! good plays. Unless some playwright is
discovered quickly there will be famine
the coming season.
only today l had to notify a woman
star who has been looking for a play that
the seaeh seemed hopeless, and she has.
therefore, postponed her starring tour a
year.
Another prominent leading woman who
has been popular with Broadway audi
enees for years was on the verge of starr
Ing this season. but couldn't find play.
She told her managers that she pre-
ferred to continue as leading woman
instead of starring in poor play.
Where are the plays a-coming from
then? The London crop Of last year was
failure. Only one notable success was
produced by Pnero and that in due
| course of time we shall see.
Barrie hasn't turned out anything for
this year as yet, and he may be expected
| to contribute at least one good play, but
then all his plays for the next five years
have already been sold to Charles Froh-
man, and outside managers cannot get a
! look-in on his works until about 1911.
That is too long a time to wait.
| Henry Arthur Jones has written one
| play that hasn't yet been produced, but
| even If he writes another that likewise
is pre-empted by Frohman, who gets all
his plays for the next five years.
Robert Marshall Haddon Chambers
and Sydney Grundy haven't written sue
| eesses In the last two years, and as Lon
don always sees their plays first New
York can hope for little from them.
Some Good Shaw PLAYS,
Bernard Shaw has several plays that
have never been produced in America,
and they might prove worth while If only
some one could get Shaw in dark alley
and hit him over the head with a sandbag.
One of the best plays is Captain Brass
bounds Conversion now being played in
London by Ellen Terry, but Shaw posi-
lively refuses to let the play be produced
| In America without Ada Rehan
Another whim of Bernard Shaw keeps
his latest play from being produced in
America. This is Major Barbara the
| heroine of which Is a Salvation Army
| girl 1t was played in London just after
| Mrs Warrens Profession stirred up
such a tempest In New York last win
ter. and when American managers made
offers for the American rights, Shaw re-
| piled:
4 will never let "Major Barbara" be
provincial country to appreciate my
new play
There was a time when we could al
ways get half a dozen successes from
Germany, but the days Of Augustin DAILY
and the adapted German farces seem to
have passed Sudermann's new play will
be. the only importation from that direc-
ton, and that will hardly be entertaining
to the general public. owing to the dis
| agreeable nature of the story.
In Paris there has been ore con-
spieuous success, Hervieus new play,
LIE Reveille but Heryieus plays in the
past have never been popular entertain
ment, so that one can scarcely expect
much amusement from his latest social
problem
TO come nearer home all the Ameri-
can playwrights seem to be written out.
Clyde Fitch said just before he sailed:
u am writing four different plays
now, which positively must be delivered
by autumn, and l don't see how l can
finish them When | return in August
must commence rehearsals of these
plays. If my health doesn't break down,
aud when the last OF them IS produced in
October shall be in a fit condition for a
sanitarium
nCeoige AIDES output for the next two
years has been bought up in advance,
and iile playwright Is wo-Nins feverlsllly
to deliver orders on scheduled time. He
will not undertake any neg play now no
matter what the price paid him, as he IS
overworked, like Fitch.
..Charles Klein and Augustus Thomas
are the only other playwreEts OF dis
bnct1on in this country. Klein has Just
written one more play soo1 } b. pro-
6uc,d but ne admits that has rushed
him .foarfully to complete the rlay, and
that he cannot consider d new play uni.l
the r, IDLE Of next winter.
Thomas Is lelsurely.
'"rhc aas belongs to the leisure class of
authors who work only when they feel
like il. and refuses to be hurried. His
contracts will keep him busy for the next
twn ,yGars. .,,t,. t.
There are many minor playwrights
1fl.o occasionally get plays produced, and
' have been going through their works
in the search for an availab;e play. Ono
of item sent me o'ay the other day
wli.l he enthusiasts .ically declared was
the greatest play he had ever written.
II turned out to be a romance of Lon
don and Bonnie Prince Charlie, full of
powdered wigs and gadzoolxs, with
heroine who disguised herself as a man
and fought duel. How playwrights can
EXPECT that sort of old-fashioned rot to
please modern Broadway audience Is
too much for me-
lone young playwright whose WORK
began to attract attention last season,
confessed to me frankly that he believed
he had undertaken more than he could
possibly accomplish in the next two
wears Immediately after he scored
success last winter with pretty good
play he was besieged with offers from
various stars and managers. Within
month he had accepted advance royalties
on five plays in all that he has agreed
to deliver at various times before next
January He is working night and day
TO keep his word. but he frankly admits
that he is being rushed so that he doesn't
believe they will be up to his standard
1.-THE lack of inventive playwrights may
make the dramatized novel the vogue
again this season. Managers who have
been unable to unearth good plays have
found that it Is easier to get clever
hack writer who can dramatize a novel.
"At least dozen important produc-
tIons of dramatized novels will be made
this coming season. more than any other
season since the memorable period when
Richard Carvel capped the climax of alb
surdities Managers don't want the
dramatized novel, and they are taking 1t
only as a poor substitute for something
they cannot find.
1.-THE situation in the musical comedy
realm is scarcely better. In default of
getting hold of a good book, managers
send for a composer and a librettist and
scene painter and say
s..'Locate your first act at somebody's
country house your second act on the
beach at Atlantic City or any other ocean
resort, and your third act anywhere you
plea Sc so the scenery isn't too expensive.
Work IN snme songs suitable to those