The Washington herald., 1921-05-29
MEMORIAL. DAY WILL FIND THE DRAMA AT LOW EBB =
The Comedy Slump
By EARLE DORSEY.

i dinicuit ind an Institution more cursed Win
: species Of ancestor worship than the Americas
comedy theater. A veritabIe Narcissus Of the ART,
days os h Is part ssus, which 6s SPENDS
.dmirng psst charms With an eye than y
sns q. s ins r
an Inspection e those personal charms that have
public, here is an Institution that by the very in.
~ glance the distant horizon and make for Il Il
The producers of comedy under such circum-
stances m are wont to make answer that the theater
and that its very ireibood is DEPENDENT h
stes. analysss and sdheres to the current public
Most Of this obviously. is little more than
AS matter of strict fact the American comedy
thestsr is usually stone-deaf 70 anything that sp
Of the public m df % s sfS
rises en- ana Rds the fSns gn on the the PSSe
On the other hand. the theateT arrives At
lsrgeiy-very Iargely indeed-by sheer accident but
taken the accident to its bosom one may say
emSracins the same aecdentsi b1 udcessu ioss is ,
The rush 70 Initiate the tr1umphSto the band
tss totally BY intrgsion or sSi q any
ethical factor governing the appropriation of
Ts lake. Gs fore. OF s
carefully checked and balanced sys-
:ns Of nrSTss nanT % Gs.a
or Msns l sno9he oG FsG r gs Il & The on the 6s9
hana net sGsRe & fail for some thoroughly
strsightway similar scenes are damned 10 every
forthcoming comedy for twelye-month
T,HE major trouble with comedy writing, comedy
producing and comedy acting-and particularly
= farce writing. producing acting-is the
fact that its chief and dominating principle the
ps mere desire to make money The national mania i9
stature Of our body artistic but il is reflected with
where the first reqgisite is money with eSabie pro.
duction matter Of interest only when it becomes
% ns Of the
msrSlsI sG nes IN Ine tneater unui the public as
that viii make il Necessary for the mere business
tioh in the theater and make the whole Ieehnicsi
thing over to better men. if he hopes TO
Hoseysr; that. setting into the realm Of rene
believe after examination OF sGdeRes resse
e1sm il an nesTer than fS Se SSs sns sy NH
As m stands sta at present some particular worthy
realizing the golden rrady-handedness Of the Amer
@anuscriP good bad and indinerenf moving gp and
down Broadway and with vast easiness, he looks
one comedy ,- or farce seems TO orer theme that
act that was absolutely nothing less than wang in
S act NUMBER Si
humor. seem hardly calculated to cause Abdominal
gunsSs but the author can take them out and stick
chief co%edienne sugEested by the Plsywright may
Som Tsse os hS SsSDsS 70 riot he , in a the Rah
can probably be engaged. The poor playwright viii
DrSSa6y s'ARS Nth Nth l1s STyt2g for the engsge
ghtness Of the prescription counter va
rety and with some good sets and half a dozen
Generally speaking, this is a fair sample OF the
fund of artistic discrimination and inherent apprecia
ton of humor in the abstract that enters into the
average production of American comedy particularly
of the so-called farce-comedy variety All thought
and enterprise centered. the part.
proxmating. Is closely a possible. tried NJ
/ rival producers; and a corresponding amount Of
thought and enterprise is centered in the cautious
episodes that have hgUred-possbly from purely
mechanical faults-in other producers failure.
This system of producing es"ionaGe largely in
huences the neld OF native comedy production Be-
fore this -browism practically help
less to create and become in a shockingly short
time, comedy hacks, short rt-oTder gag chefs,
ders and patchers of all the myriad Josephs coats
of the comedy stage
OCCASIONALLY. some writes a comedy and
finds a producer. either fool artist both.
~ who will produce ii. Let fail. ali the
changers from Columbus circle Herald square
Of Il told you So" but let it succeed and a Times
Square traf1c rush develops in the effort to look it
over and copy its new points
Naturally, the net result OF this tendency is for
| the production of comedy America a
weary, uresone- vicious circle. The circle OCCASION
ally moves into new orbit as some gltterng artist
goaded, enters into conspiracy drive par
ucular comedy fad like the bedroom farce, out
| of the bedroom and into obscurity.
The enervating tendency such methods inevitably
produce in writing circles brings into existence
generation not of comedy writers but OF comedy
statesmen. without literary morals: but with vast
| capacity for hattering producers OF
script htness Manhattan reeks with this generation
of dramatic bushemen. panderers, gutter-walkers-
1 other geniUses to produce humor, but full of
glib sales talk schooed in the 'showbusiness" end
measure and hosiery size the Actors Equity asso-
! citation, but ignorant of, Moliere Suder