Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-31
THE DRAMA IN LONDON
PLANS OF MANAGERS FOR SUM
MER SEASON.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.


According to the London managers the
Franco British exhibition is going to ruin
their business during the summer and
fall Few of the playhouses here close
in the warm months as in the United
States. and June and July are about the
most important months Of the year to
the English manager. Curiously enough
the American manager with an eye on
London is just optimistic as his Eng
lish prototype is pessimistic. Any num-
Der of American caterers to the amuse-
ment-l loving public are trying to get Lon
don playhouses for the summer in antlcl-
patton of big rush of business.
In support of their optimism they point
to the fact that whereas at the outset
the st. Louis, the Paris and other big
expositions drew the crowds away from
the theater, especially from the theaters
playing the heavier sorts of plays. in the
end the immense crowds of people at
tracted by the expositions more than
compensated the theatrical managers for
their early losses.
Already besides the theaters controlled
by Charles Frohman in London. we have
American plays at the Adelphl. the Lyric
and Terrys. Wagenhals and kemper are
to produce Paid in Full at Strand
playhouse. and David Belasco will make
his initial London bow with David War
field in The Music Master" and A
Grand Army Man" Fred Whitney will
manage a succession of French plays at the
Shaftesbury Theater He has booked the
whole summer and part of the fall sea
son.
Should Fanny Ward, who is playing in
The Marriage of William Ashe,' need a
further attraction to continue her season
at Terry's through the summer she has
on hand Polly of the Circus Margaret
Mayos clever play, which has proved so
successful in the United States with the
SRI ohn1 Toll afo IN he oh af
role
Speaking of American managers brings
me to the Waldorf Theater and Lee Shu-
bert's connection with that seemingly i'll
fated playhouse. The American manager
became lessee of the house about three
years ago. but has not up to date made
a single successful production there. Rates
and taxes mount up so rapidly In TINS
heavily burdened city that already Mr.
Shubert owes we'll over 5000 He some
time ago returned to the United States,
saying that he would have nothing more
to do with the white elephant The
proprietors the Waldorf Hotel syndicate.
do not seem willing to take the Ameri
cans word tor 1t. and have just secured
an Injunction in court forbidding him to
interfere with the property during the
remainder Of his tenancy-a matter of
eighteen years. 1t was at the Waldorf
Theater that E. H Sothern and Julia
Marlowe played their first London en-
gagement last year.
Unless there is further hitch in the
negotiations the house will be taken over
by Messrs. Smith and Carpenter the man
ayers who have leased the Lyceum. the
big theater associated with the career of
the late Sir Henry Irving. and who are
making a fortune by, alternating Shake
speare and melodrama at popular prices.
Their plan is to produce musical comedy
at the Waldorf at cheap prices and they
already have made preliminary arrange
ments with Dion Clayton Calthrop for
the book of their first piece
The Princess Theater, formerly the
home of keth's Continuous Vaudeville in
London. but which has for years stood
empty and to let may shortly be re-
opened by Joe" Lyons as the home of
strong melodrama. Lyons is one of the
most remarkable men in England He
is. of course, the head of the immense
catering business which bears his name
and which feeds about 500 600 people
day Besides his hundred and twenty
restaurants for the poorer classes, scat
tered about London. he controls some of
the most swagger eating places. including
the Trocadero. the Popular. the Throg-
morton, and. of late. the Gaiety. He
controls the Coliseum. the largest
theater in London and bigger than any
thing in New York excepting the Hippo
drome. He is a successful author and
painter whose works are no strangers to
the Academy walls. He has been asked
by the British government to help them
the place of the old volunteers and his
latest exploit is the financing of a defunct
| hospital. He has not neglected the fu-
ture. either, for within a year he will be
a hotel proprietor. His Strand Hotel is
now going up on the site once occupied
by the famous Exeter Hall.
That almost exclusively British institu-
ton. the weekend. threatens to be the
death of the Saturday matinee. Yet an
| other West end theater. the Apollo. has
fallen into line, and under the manage
ment of Ada Reeve. who is producing a
musical version of w. j Locke's The
| terlues" will confne itself to a midweek
matinee. This makes the sixth important
London playhouse that has done away
with the Saturday afternoon performance.
and seemingly it is only a matter of time
when the others will follow suit.
Those theaters which still maintain the
eighth performance have to be content
with a very slim attendance. especially in
the higher priced seats In the galleries.
the pit and even the circle there will al
ways be a big Saturday afternoon demand
for seats but the majority of the people
who can afford and are willing to pay
50 90 for a stall seat are spending their
Saturday afternoons in the country nova
days.
The College Widow" which had
four-week run at the Adelphi Theater,
" hich the boys of Atwater College in
George AIDES farce. cut up didoes." SO
strange to the English public, made
| mild hit and might have run On for an
other eight weeks or even more had not
disagreement arisen between Henry W.
| Savage and Robert Courtneidge. his Eng
llsh associate. and the proprietors of the
Adelphi Theater The latter wanted the
| two managers to sign the American COM
edy for a much longer time than the as
ISOLATED managers were willing, and so
all deals were declared off
1t was Mr., Savage's original intention.
supposing, of course. that the George AIDE
brand Of humor was acceptable to the
English theatergoers, to follow The Col
lege Widow with either The Sultan of
Sulu'' OF The County Chairman" That
plan Is up in the air for the present The
American manager is now in Paris in con-
nection with his grand opera business in
the United States. but expects to be back
In London again in few weeks.