The Washington herald., 1911-09-17

fashion this year is not exactly one of
retrenchment. but of sober second |
thought, look before you leap idea.
Fairly gIorying in the speculative nature
Of their enterprise. managers for years
have cast a certain number OF. produc- |
lions into the crucible of public opinion,
counting upon a certain number-say 20
per cent-of successes. 1t has been a stage
aphorism that one smashing hit would
nav for a dozen failures. But this point
of view in passing.
OF course. It is unfair to lay the respon-
sibility for all the crude. illogical, and
hastiIy-prOduced plays of recent years at
the door OF the managers. Many OF lhem
have been experimental, forced into being
through the necessity OF filling surplus
stages in New York and elsewhere. How
ever, the producer. a. opposed to the the
ater owner, $ having his say. ana there
is a strong feeling on Broadway that the
new order of the day is fewer plays, and
better ones-fewer plays regardless OF the
exigenCies caused by empty stages at one
noinr or another OF the theatrical COM
pass -
As a solution of the present situation,
Henry Miller has come forward with an
idea. He has organized a repertoire
Company. which he is to establish IN
New York KIaw & Erlanger are to
that look good" and he is to stage
Them. If they are failures. the cost of
discovery will have been comparatively
slight: if successful. a company can
readily he organized and production
built In essence, the idea is not new.
II was the guiding purpose OF the STOCK
conDanv which PLAYED a summer en-
gagement at the BelascO Theater TWO
years ago. hut its practical application
will he Il matter of great importance
to the stage. 1t will throw hundreds OF
actors out of work, but that is neither
here nor there.
Regarding the conditions. Burns Man
tie former dramatic critic OF the en-
cago Tribune says:
The condition is unusual and due to
the reluctance OF the producing mana
gers to seek the provincial dollar early
this season Nearly all important pro-
duCtions are being delayed until Oc-
tober. which is making September
month Of rehearsals for the fortunate
and Job hunting for the unfortunate. in
place of a month of first performances
There promises to he fewer plays pro-
duced this season and fewer chances
taken with PLAYS of average merit than
for a dozen years last passed. Last
season the first during which the two
combinations of capital represented re-
spectively by the Shuberts and klaw
FrIanger were fairly arrayed against
each other everybody rushed in, fools
and angels alike tumbling over each
other in a wild scramble to suit the un-
certain and ever-Changing taste of the
public. This resulted in the production
Of many poor plays (Which is not Sc
riOusl and the loss of considerable
money (Which is very serlousl. ms
year the conservatives will rule.
Realizing the change in temper of
the managers. the Actors Society has
recently offered to furnish all the talent
necessary for modest trial performances,
contributing their time gratis to any
manager. or any other theatriCally in
clned person with money, who will fur
nish scrip, scenery, and stage. that
legitimate effort may be made to find
plays the public wants. at the least pos
sibIe expense, and thus provide at least
/ few additional herths for the many
members of the society forced out of
work by changed conditions.
The crowd wants almost exclusively
action. What women want of plays.
above all things. is passion: what think
ers want are Characters.-Victor Hugo.
II New York can set the fad, there will
he A real revival of the Gilbert and Sui
Hvan operas in America this season.
Many of the younger generation-folks
who would deem themselves disgraced II
they could not tell you the pedigree OF
every number in The Merry Widow or
''FlorodOra now getting their tlTst
taste of ''NIikado' and of 'Pinafore.
Some of them like Sullivan, but most OF
them don't 1t is worth nothing, how
ever. that a certain New York critic, who
sat through one act of The Siren" and
then iourneyed over to the Casino, where
''Pinafore" is being played, says of the
former: The melodies. in comparison
10 the Sullivan score. seem frantically
hurried and fat and hackneyed in
rhythm; they demonstrate how feeble
our modern composers of oPeretta are
Imitation is not merely the sincerest
fattery: it is the flauest sincerity
Charming Pollock.
Among other facts of interest to play
goers are these: New Workers are finding
out that the Follies Bergere, as clumsy
copy of the Partisan resort, is fearfully
stale, fiat, and Improbable. Augustus
Thomas is reviving the idea of writing
a play for John Drew to save him from
his inevitable and changeless self. Come
dies and farces are TO predominant in the
nte-Thanksgiving season in Washington.
Notes at Random.-As a result of
protracted fight with the Musicians
Union, several of the Chicago theaters
announce their intention of dispensing
with orchestras Three New York play
houses. the Maxine Elliott, the Comedy,
and the Thirty-ninth Street, are now
doing without entr' aCte music, and the
public so far has registered no disap-
proval.
DR.. Ludwig wullner. the famous Ger
man lieder singer. is now trying the
amazing experiment of "head-liningS a
vaudeville bill in Chicago. So far is
his work over the heads of his audi
encore.
Victor Moore will star this season in
a dramatization of Sewen Ford's Shorty
McCabe' stories.
Kyrle Bellew and Isabel Irving have
taken up THE Mollusk" at the point
where Sir Charles Wyndham and Mary
Moore left it, and will devote their
season to the delightful Davies comedy.
That new "theater intime," to which
Granville Barker and William Archer
have devoted so much thought, is to be
realized in New York City, in connec-
ton with the erection of the new
New Theater. in Forty-fourth street II
the world, the Bijou playhouse win GER
tainly be the prettiest and coolest of Its
size
In It plays Of the subtle, elusive, touch
and-go type will be produced, plays