Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-01-05
The Foreign Stage.
pondence Of The Star.


sonal friend of the dramatists in discuss
ing Barrie with the writer the other day,
apropos Of the recent revival in London
(for the fourth time) Of Peter Pan"
"Barries generosity Is simply bound
less" the speaker continued. HE helps
lots Of people, and contributes to no end
Of charities, but he believes firmly in not
letting his right hand know what his left
hand does. The latest instance Of open
handedness on his part to come to my
ears was in connection with railway &C
cident in the north Of England couple
Of months ago. One Of Frohman's road
companies started on tour with The Ad-
mirable Crichton.' and Barrie went along
to oversee the opening performances. Not
| far from Newcastle the train carrying
the company was wrecked and several
| 'third-class' passengers severely injured
though not any Of the performers
| mo sooner did Barrie hear that the
| folk injured were poor than he went to
one of the railway officials and said, See
| here, l am Mr.. Barrie, and / want to
have 100 pounds $4,000 spent on the suf-
ferers by this accident. The money Will
be sent you at once, but the people must
not know who 1t comes from and under
no circumstances must anything regard
ing my having given this assistance get
into the papers.
| At the Duke Of York's this year Pauline
Chase again plays the part of The Boy
Who Wouldn't Grow Up" but there Is a
new Capt James Hook in the person OF
Robb Harwood, Gerald Du Maurier being
unavailable on account Of the continued
popularity Of "Brewster's Millions IN
which he plays the name part. This Amer
lean farce passed its 3O0th night a month
or more ago, and looks like reaching It's
500th. 1t has been played at three Dir.
ferent theaters. and has lasted out half
a dozen or so Of curtain raisers."
The chief novelty of the present revival
| Of peter Pam in London takes the form
Of a drop-curtain, representing what IN
England is known as sampler" worked
nine" On it are embroidered vari-
Gus figures and scenes from the play. with
| this legend in the center: When the
sirst baby laughed for the first time the
they all went skipping about. and that
YVES the beginning Of fairies" At the tor
| Of the sampler, moreover, Wendy pays
/ tribute to four poets Of the nursery:
| Dear Hans Anderson.
| "Dear Charles Lamb.
! Dear Lewis Carroll.
| Dear Robert Louis Stevenson
This decidedly Barrie-ish effect has been
received with delight by audiences here.
In America Peter Is the star part. while
over here Wendy. the little mother. is per-
haps first favorite in the affection OF au-
| diences.
There are no signs Of new piece by the
author Of "Peter Pan" True, 1t recently
was announced that Mr.. Barrie was en-
gagged on play. but then Mr.. Barrie has
been engaged on a new play for two
years or over. and the new play never
comes to light. This is extremely sisnifl-
cant when you consider the rapidity with
which Barrie's string Of stage successes
| followed one another. Three Of them were
running in S.r oLndon at the same me tims
ton" and Little Mary" after which, with
| the shortest of intervals, came "Alice-
| Sit-by-the-Fire." And then the dramatist's
| friend and representative, Addison Bright,
died, since when we have had no new sue
| cess from Mr.. Barrie s pen. Nothing but
Josephine" that hopeless attempt at po-
| litfcal satire which struggled on for two
weary weeks at the Comeuy Theater and
then expired.
The story goes, Of course, that Barrie
supplied the raw material of his stage sue
cesses and that Bright whipped it into
| shape. and the fate Of Josephine" which
was quite without dramatic form or void,
gave considerable color to the rlrnor. Mr..
Frohman's London representative denied
its truth in the most vigorous manner
when questioned on the subject recently.
Mr.. Barrie's friends say that he took the
fiasco Of Josephine" greatly to heart, but
disappointment does not last forever. and
| it Is unthinkable, likewise, that Barrie s
| ideas have given out. Nor Is the fact that
he is rich and doesn't need to write new
was wealthy before he wrote Quality
Street"
Just as-there is mo end to the making
Of books, so there is none to the making
of stage adaptations of them. London is
to have half dozen or more Of the latter
during the next few weeks. most impor-
| tant Of these, perhaps, being the version
Of 1.-THE Mystery Of Edwin Drood' made
by Comyns Carr for Beerbohm Tree. It
already has been produced with success in
the provinces.
Cars solution Of the famous mystery is
ingenious, at all events. In the last act
| the hero returns from foreign parts safe
and well. though Jasper has confessed to
killing him. 1t appears that the latter,
| while under the influence of opium, has
had a dream in which he has seen him
| self carrying out the crime he had plan
ned, and when one remembers that Dick
ems unfinished novel opens in an opium
den and that Jasper's addiction to the
drug is insisted on throughout, such a
denOuement does not appear TAR fetched
Dickens loved happy ending. The fact
remains, however, as was announced ex-
clusively In this correspondence recently.
| that a play is in existence by Charles
Dickens jr., which ends the story as the
novelist told his son he intended to end ii
that Is, with brood actually dead, MUIR
dered by Jasper. But that Cars ''solu-
ton" is the better one for stage purposes
cannot be denied.
/
After "Drood'' has finished its career at
His Majesty's. Tree will present anothe,
adaptation, namely, that which w. J.
Locke has made Of his Beloved vaga-
bond" Like the Carr piece, the new one
by the author Of 1.-The Morals Of Marcus
has proved hit on tour, and Londoners
are looking forward to it with interest.
/ Later on Oscar Asche is to produce a
stage version of Stanley Weymans novel,
Count Hannibal while the other adap-
tations that are coming include ones OF
princess Priscilla's Fortnight (by the
author of Elizabeth and Her German
Garden"), THE Explorer" Somerset
Maughan's novel; "stinsaree." by +. W.
Hornung. author Of "Raf1es." and last
but by no means least the version OF
1.-The Marriage. of William Ashe" which
its authoress herself is making for Arthur
Bourchier.
Another American debutante has at
tracted favorable notice in London-Miss
MARCEL Gluek Of Buffalo. She Is a pupil
Of Sevcik, who has turned out so large a
proportion Of the famous violinists of our