The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-30

tionable play ia not the thing for tho
great body Of playgoers or course ]
don't mean the hrst nighters arc dir
ferent race from average theatregoeru
and that they will never like tho same
things. They possess the Same fundas
mental natures, but their tastes have
diverged. They come together, how
ever, on some essentials like George
NJ. Cohan. His brightness his wholes
some humor. his Americanism--but
what's the use OF trying to analyze
George Cohan?--these start him Of
with a rush. and they go Just as wen
with the first nighters here az they do
with Detroit audiences two years lateI&
And real novelties-these appeal create
ly to average theatregoers and firse
nighters both. but they have an esps-
cial appeal for first nighters. In facA
you might almost say that FIRST night
ers lived for novelties.
And that In where the question Of
tastes comes in. It Is the difference
Of viewpoint between professionals and
amateurs. Just that. For after all the
men and women who 60 to openinEs
regularly are professionals. They take
these occasions with such deadly So
robustness that they devote the larger
number Of their evenings through oers
tain seasons to them. And before YOU
know It they are critics themselves.
The first night audience now u made
up of critics. They are not lifted to
write sarcastically in polysyllabics 10Y
monthly mngazlnes-as a matter OF
fact many Of them are merely Broad
way FOUNDERS not a bit changed Id
education or manners from the days
when they started TO go to the theatre
but they have seen great many
plays. They have become dulled ID
the routine thing in plays.
AS matter OF fact they hate t.
And that is why. as figure It. theif
Judgment varies so widely from the
tastes Of the average theatresoer.
What he wants in the theatre are he
good old fundamentals. Tho hrst
nighter may consume them when they
are neatly sugarcoated, as in Turn V
the Right Lightnin',' or East 10
West--as n matter OF fact the ffrst
right audience for East Is West was
| Just as enthusiastic az any audienes
we have had since-but give them the
old story FL ~ faight foe,n, as Il WAS
/ in The Man Who Came Back and
those first nighters may condescend to
say that the public will probably like
| it---they hate to make a wrong guess,
and they predict very carefully-bSit
they are rather bored by II themselvea.
Yet that very type of play goes on
year after year in road companies
cleaning up a fortune for Its producer
The Bird OF Paradise is another ex-
ample. II is one OF the most profitable
plays ever put on in this country. and
yet II opened very quietly, almost dis
astrously. Example after example
could he given, first night audiences
have made many notoriously bad
Ruesses, and nearly always tho guesseo
have gone wrong on fundamentals
You can tell how avoid first nightsrs
when l have a very special kind OF
play. because when / put on The Yel-
low Jacket we gave It first in the az
ternoon 70 hand picked audience, no
tickets sold, an audience made up oS
short story writer's, sculptors. artists,
the sort OF people that We thought
could appreciate n beautiful novG
They did Bat for an ordinary
that Is 20 ne produced for tho ordt
thcntregOtr ] believe the beat thiA
60 is tn produce 1t In the ordinarily
and that means an opening 10 n
n.ghtrrs At least they pay and the
ere entitled to their fun. Meantime we
! looi; on. read the reviews next morn
, Ing. and next night We are giving Q
performance for the uuhlic. Then ws
begin to learn how the average thea.
treEoer Will like the play"