The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-04-27

entertainment of the women who go to
the theater
wise theatrical managers know that
if they get a play that all the women
want to see that the women Will bring
the men, no matter whether the men
want to come or not. They agree that
Anna Held is about the only player
that furnishes an entertainment yearI
after year that gets the money without
appealing to the women.
Women stars to whom women flock
are the stars that make big money
Maud Adams is a typical woman's star
and she plays to capacity business
everywhere, and no matter in what
play she appears. Julia Marlowe is an
other favorite with women, and so is
Annie Russell The last named, when
her managers, wagenhals & Kemper,
suggested thot she play Puck in the
big revival of "a Midsummer Nights
Dream" in which they intended to
open their new Astor Theater in New
York, hesitated because she felt the
character was so far removed from the
prim and precise ingenious characters
she had been playing that she might
not be able to take her public with her.
But they followed the creator of Miss
Hobbs" and the Princess in "The Royal
Family" when she put on the wings of
Puck. 1t only went to show that if an
actor or an actress secures a strong
following among women he or she can
take that following with them any
where. Blanche Walsh has been a wo-
mans star for a long time, and when
she quit playing Janice Meredith" and
things like that to become the Maslova
in the grim Resurrection" the same
fear that had assailed Annie Russell
assailed her. The event showed that it
had been as groundless as the fear that
Miss Russell had felt.
Women supply the money upon which
theaters are run. In the first place.
the managers never think of a play as
one to which a man will have TO take
some woman. They look rather for thu
plays to which they hope that the wo-
men will make the men come. They
know that those plays that have
great deal of love in them are sure
winners with women. Men like them,
/ too, although it is for the women they
5 are written. Plays of pure sentiment
r or sentimentality, like '"rhe Prince
r Chap" catch the women every time
They like a good cry just as the man
that patronizes the minstrel show likes
l a good laugh.
Those plays that have been written
: by women usually have succeeded be-
cause Of the femininity of their atmos-
5 phere. Sometimes they have been criti'
, cised by tobacco smoking critics as
: being too "sweetly pretty" Managers
: are willing to have their attractions
, called that or anything else so long as
: the money comes in. THE Road to
, Yesterday" which was written by two
t women, was called too sweet" by one
q Of the best theatrical managers in the
= country. Yet another high-class man
dSCI WIZ saw inc pay WIN lLllll Ses4N
that he wished that he owned a share
p Of it. 1T is what the people want, p
t he said; Il defy you to name a wo-
l man who would not like it,"
The so-called cloak and sword dra-
; mas-those in which the hero, in pic
turesque raiment and blessed with a
} gift Of workmanship that approached
or passed the miraculous, slew many
bad men-owed most, if not ALL of its
vogue to the women. For in each of
these plays there was a great deal of
fighting and, rightly or wrongly, the
wise men of the theater feel that the
women who pay money to see plays
like those plays in which there is a
blend of lovemaking and warfare.
Women in the United States lately
have cared for the drama of business,
and this is a phenomenon that the
wise-acres of the theater hardly can
understand. The women care SO much
for Charles Klein's THE Lion and the
Mouse" that this drama simply is coin
ing money, and several companies are
needed to supply the demand that ex-
} lists in various parts Of the country for
the play. STILL the women did not
care for w. H. Crane when he essayed
Business Is Business" or after that,
THE Price of Money" SO, after look
ing the field over carefully, and after
; making deductions only from such
facts as seem to be firmly established,
the managers come to the conclusion
r. that play to be successful must APP
peal TO the women, and that the women
e want plays that have love and senti-
% ment and lighting IN them. They de-
70 mand that this fighting be there in
some form, whether II be a fight with
r swords or a fight with wits, and they
7 like dash Of business struggle Any
r body that can write play up to these
= plans and specifications can make a
p fortune quickly if-there Is always an
D lr la discussions of the theater n
= tho play pleases the women
"a "a "a "a "a