Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-08-21
1spfcial correspIon.denee..1

| r ONDON, August 1.-two Inn
| portant events, already fore
! Swallowed by me but still Of
ficially5 unannounced are now
accomplished facts. H. B. Irving has
taken the Waldorf and c. H. Work.
man secured lease of the Savoy,
Both propose to begin operations
early in the coming fall although
after very different fashions. Irving,
50 soon as the theater has been over
hauled and generally frightened up,
will make a start, with Justin Huntly
M'CarthH's play s"Ceasar Borgia',f
which has enjoyed considerable favor
in the provinces. It's, Understand,
an ingenious and interesting bit Of
stagecraft, less a play, perhaps, than
an effective series of thrilling and
more or less loosely.
Harry Irving's devotion to his
distinguished father Is not the least
striking feature of his character and
II is natural that he should wish to
perpetnate the memory Of the man
who did 50 much to elevate the Eng
lish stage by naming his theater after
him. consequently the Waldorf, when
II reopens, will do so as the Irving.
No one, certainly, wiIliquarrel with
| such a&measure: nevertheless I could.
! nave wished that u more fitting house
than this where so many thousands
| of American dollars have been lost
had been selected for the honor. STILL
should III. B." as we all hope will
be the case, bring back prosperity to
| the theater there will be no serious
| grounds for complaint.
i Apropos of Sir Henry and his son
1 Harry, l recall conversation had
4 l. 10 r.~.. - ~
4 fore his DEATH He had been to see
II. BIS" performance&of. Hamlet at
| the Adelphi and he asked me what
1 1 thought of it. i replied in suitable
| terms. The revival had been matter
of ten weeks thought and delperation
| and it suddenly occurred to me to
put the question How long. Sir
the character before you played it?'.
HIM he replied in his dryest man
| ner, "a matter Of ten years. But the
lace has been quickened since those
days, eh. my boy
| At the Savoy Workman is to carry
sullivan and D'Oyls Carte. He has
| three musical pieces in his managerial
\ knapsack: an opera written by Mar
shall. a brother of Captain Robert
| Marshall. with music by Reginald
Somerville, favorably known as the
| composer Of number or popular
4 drawingroom ballads. He further SCI
4 cured a new piece, libretto by Gill
4 bert and score by Edward German
| whose "Merrie England" and
princess of kensington" you may
remember. II APPLY the adjec-.
tive new to it although as a
i dates back, believe, some
i twenty-five years The idea took
4 form in Gilbert's brain about the time
he completed "Iolanthe, IS but as the
story, like the plot of that opera wa $
largely concerned with the doings of
fairies, Carte and Sullivan decided that
it would be wiser to give the subject
/. a rest. Germans music is, of course,
4 quite fresh and said to be in his liveli-
i est vein. The composer of Workman's
i third venture is Michael Faraday who
earned a good deal Of kudos for him
i self by his musical work in "Amasis,',
produced here by Louis Calvert, Far
4 aday is, by profession, an architect
and surveyor and, as such, lleNc con-
trives to make very tidy income. But,
4 naturally. his ambition is TO conquer
the world as popular composer.
In my last letter frankly confessed
n ignorance as to the amount which
THE Merry Widow had made for
4 its fortunate possessor in this country.
4 Since then George EdwarGles has fay-
4 cred me With some interesting statis-
tics on the subject. The number OF
performances given at Daiyis was, it
seems, IT'S. while 1,500 represents the
average attendance at each, the total
reaching the goodly number of 1,l67.-
a 900, The receipts on the other hand,
aggregate $l,0S5,0Oo approximately. This
is as much informationFaSs Edwardes
cares to give. One cannot, however,
resist the temptation of trying to ar
rive at a computation of what he him
self has Melted by the run. The eX-
= penses at Days are, manifestly, ex-
Exceptionally heavy: still do not think
they can possibly exceed a weekly
$1,000 composers and authors fees In
Guided. Taking 100 weeks as the life Of
the play in London this gives a total
E Efof $I60600 or, in other words. a net
a profit of $4,000 for Edwardes. Remenl-
i her that in this calculation neither the
q provinces, the colonies nor America fig
3 cure for anything and 1t will be readily
understood that before THE Merry
Willow finally is laid on the shelf
EdwartIes will have benefited to the
tune Of something not very far short
of S1,0Oo0oD
81 I assisted this week at the first re-
Z hearsal of the new Drury Lane drama
which, as usual, has been connected by
Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilto9s for
Arthur Collins, 1T is to be essenti-
i ally home product and the authors
lay particular stress upon the fact that
their piece is absolutely "elean and
Wholesome and like Caesars wife abb
soiutely above suspicion. They have
selected Tor their Leading lady, Jessie
Bateman, bright little actress who
| some two or three years ago went to
South America in order 10 take to her
self a husband for the second time.
Life in the Argentine appears to have
palled on her. however, so she has per-
2 suadad her spouse TO up anchor and
sail for England, home and beauty,
4 o
BY the bye, among the few Ameri-
cans who Still linger on this side Is