Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-07-06

special Correspondence,
ONDON, June 22.--ff you have any
likely melodramas on hand In
- America now is the time to send
them to London. Surely the shade
40 the late William Terrlss would eN-
,it could II revisit the West End for
transpontine plays OF the old Adeiphi
attnir are again In high favor here.
Ard MS surely would The wrath OF Sir
tIcutv irving be Chngrined could II
,1,,ke "A similar excursion, since the first
tnnortant London playhouse to be de-
wcted to oiit-and-out "thrillers" Is the
biatorIc Lyceum, the scene of the
tnfrht's greatest triumphs as wen as
~ his eventual vicissitudes.
rho new watchword with London
managers, IN fact. seems to be pro.
dude melodrama II YOU would turn q
Loodno house into n profitable one. ana
certainly the example of the famous
fVrcum affords no little justification for
such "A recipe. 1t will be remembered
mar after Irving had assured himself
mat Shakespeare spells rum III Lon
Ann mi - garnished with eifects TO
the Ia st degree. the Lyceum was turned
INTO "a nusic-hall and run on the Two
bows a night" principle by " wealthy
mana ger from the provinces. stark Iail-
mre was the result, however, and for
months afterward the theater stood,
nntenanted--a melancholy object.
Then it was that Il pair OF conn
paratively youthful managers whose eff
forts previously had been confined to
Nc nast-or coster--end OF London,
tnos over the ancient temple of Shake
sneare and announced that popular
Inelodrama" would be produced there at
'pnptlar prices" The latter range, |
believe. from 10 cents to about a dollar.
md the first production by the new
naragement--a lurid piece called Her
love Against the World" proved the
biggest success known in London in re-
cent years. 1t has been promptly fol-
lowed moreover, by Il second produce
iion--''1'he Midnight Wedding
Is as emphatic a hit as the first, and
the fervor with which the hero and
heroine at the Lyceum are applanded
nightly and the villain Kissed, recall
to old Londoners the palmlest days of
Terriss and Jessie Mllward, as well
as of the famous Surrey" across the
river.
II may be said too. that melodrama
OF a sort imported from America--haS
given new life to another London
playhouse that has been Il "hoodoo' for
wears; Terry's theater having come in
TO it's own again with Mrs. Wigs of
the cabbage Patch after a history of
back luck as perhaps no other London
theater can match. 1t is evident more
over, that the Tip" is being taken for
;hc latest news is that the old Princess
i'm oxford street. which has stood empty
for several years. is now to be reopen-
cd-and with popular melOdrama,' An
Interesting feature in connection with
this venture is the fact that one OF
the parties interested Is no other
than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who tells
me that among the future productions
will be Il dramatization of one of his
novels. Which one. Sir Arthur declined
10 state, but perhaps It may be THE
Hound of the BaSkerVilles, and I'M
authorized stage version of which al
ready has been done In Germany.
That he can write popular play
even without the assistance of William
Gilette-Doctor Doyle already has
proved. for his dramatization of his
own "Brlgadier Gerard" produced by
Lewis Waller last season. was a huge
provinces. With him at the Princess
win be associated two veteran makers
of melodrama-in the persons of George
r. Sims and Arthur Shirley. and as [
hear that about $50, 600 viii he spent by
the new management in transforming
the old theater into an up- TO date
home OF melodrama" 1t is likely
enough that the success of the Lyceum
experiment. will be duplicated there.
The Princess, by the way, Is the Lon
don theater that B. f. Keith acquired
several years ago, with the intention
Of turning it into continuous house, -
and why this intention was not carried