Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-29
The Foreign Stage
pccial Correspondence Of The Star

"a
LONDON, November IS, 1908
AT the beginning Of the present the
atrical year London managers were view
ing with apprehension the opening OF
the Franco British exhibition and the
threatened inroads into their business
Now that 1t is all over the same man
ayers are wearing smiles that won't dis
appear. The cause of this strange
change Of front is that the year now
drawing to a close has, in words o.
one of them, been lone Of the best years
have ever known from a box office
viewpoint With a very few excep-
tons all the London houses are doing a
house full business and in many cases
the advance bookings extend far into
February.
AS an evidence of this general pros
perity. take the case of the Drury Lane
pantomine. the first performance of which
does not take place until the day after
Christmas. Tickets. however, have been
on sale for about week. and already
more than $4,000 worth Of them have
been disposed of. Advance bookings for
Peter Pan which is to be the special
Christmas attraction at the Duke OF
forks. amount to $4,000. while $500
worth of seats We're sold in advance
Tor the two recent performances Of 1.-The
Only Way which Martin Harvey gave
at the Adelphia.
So exceptionally good is the business
that almost anything goes, especially In
the way OF musical comedy. The Belle
OF Brittany" which is now playiny to
big houses at the Queens, was UNIVERSAL
~ condemned on the first night as a foot
less. almless. meritless sort of thing yet
the various libraries in London who deal
In theater tickets Immediately invested
iIn
had no reason to regret their expendi-
ture to date. This strange success how
ever, may in part be accounted for by
the extraordinarily good cast which was
provided by the producer, Robert Court
neldge, Henry w. Savage's partner in
London. All the evidence points toward
the conclusion that he knew he had q
weak piece and deliberately determined
to save the day with a strong cast In
no other way can one explain his en-
ormous weekly pay roll. for Mr.. Court
neldge is canny Scotsman and never
throws his money away.
John Powell. the young American pi-
anlst who has lately returned from a
vacation visit to his home on the Shen-
andoah. seems to be carrying everything
before him In London He played with
the Queens Hall Orchestra at the
Promenade Concerts the other day, and
succeeded in violating all the rules by
getting an encore-something wholly out
of keeping with the strict traditions OF
the Promenade Concerts. The audience
refused to let the program proceed until
Henry Wood, the conductor marched or
TO the artists room and brought the
American musician, willy nilly, back to
the plano stool. Powell Is giving recitals
on November 16 and December Z with
Francis Hartford at the Aeolian Hall. and
has enough other engagements to keep
him pretty busy here until spring, when
he goes to Paris for a series of concerts
He says he is succeeding far better than
he dreamed would be possible in so short
a time.
There are those who see in the weak
ness of THE Belle of Brittany" as a
play an indictment of the growing prac-
tice of asking a long list Of playwrights
lyric writers. composers and song writer's
to collaborate in production 1.-The
Belle of Brittany" boasts no less than
five. The book was written by F. J.
Barrow and Leedham Bantock, the lyrics
by Percy Greenbank. while Howard Tai
bot and Miss Marie Horne confess to
having composed the music,
Poor "Salome" appears to have had a
very rough time of 1t in Russia. The
holy synod on first consideration forbade
the performance. on the ground that 1t
was blasphemOus, but upon more mature
thought 1t relented and gave permission
for the production if Salome were trans
formed into an Indian queen. Some al
chemist of the drama duly accomplished
these transformations. and the first pub
lie performance was well under way when
the holy synod changed its mind again.
The police marched into the theater,
stopped the play, and turned the audience
out-wfthout returning their money.