Year: 1877




There seems every reason to believe that
the theatrical season will reflect, in its
prosperity and iveliness, that revival in
traffic and industry, as to the existence OF
which there is some dispute, but which at
least encumbers oil the streets with loaded
vans and keeps all the echoes busy repeat
ing the hum Of mills and the roar OF foun-
dries. There has not been seen these
many years season that came in with
greater promise. Every year, 1t is
true, our theatrical managers, with
the sanguine temperament that is
in some degree inseparable from their
vocation, have believed that the
good time coming was actually at hand;
that everybody was making money and
would shower it down at the doors OF the
theatres, and each manager made prepara-
tions to catch his share, determined not to
be in the predicament Of the unfortunate
Frenchman whose plate was always upside
down when it rained soup. But the good
time did not come-at least not for all the
theatres-and trouble was the consequence
in some These false alarms and their evil
effects always follow times of financial diff
Guilty. But the hardest winter will break
up ut last, and all the signs
must be wonderfully belied this year
if the people are forced to continue care
fulness in regard to their expenditures that
some places of amusement have had reason
to mourn. With revived trade and travel
and city full of liberal residents and gay
visitors all the preparations for the theatre
cal season will be fully justified. The at
fractions are unusually great for SO early
period in the season. At Wallacks is con-
tinued the performances of Marriage" the
latest production Of the most skilled and
successful writer for the stage that
has written the English language in this
generation. The Union Square Theatre
will open on Monday night with another
piece that has already gained great applause.
There is good circus on hand; there is
comic opera; very talented artistic is
charming the town with the finest parts in
opera bouffe. and there is French company
appearing in admirable plays. But the
most important feature Immediately prom
ised is the reappearance of Mr.. Jefferson as
Rip Van Wrinkle. This announcement is
made by Mr. DAILY, to whom the town is in
debted for many former evidences of enter
prise and correct appreciation of the public
TASTE Under the auspices OF this manager
Rip will reappear on Monday night at
Booths Theatre. Mr.. Jefferson has been
abroad over two years. He has had in Eng
land the same unmistakable success he has
always had in his own country, success
that is o tribute to the conscientious labor
and fine perceptions of the artist, as well as to
the capacity of genius to touch happily, with
sympathetic fingers, the chords Of passion
and pathos. Mr.. jefferson is great come
dian, and great comedian is thing cer-
tainly far less common on the stage now than
it was formerly, and that, we suppose, must
become rarer and rarer, as the stage con-
stantly tends more and more to fray out and
lose its defniteness in all sorts of mis-
cellaneous, undesirable entertainments.
There are several tragedians OF great merit,
if not Of the first genius, on the stage In this
country and in England; but in the two
countries there is only one high class come
dian who rises to an equality with the
greatest names in the annals of the drama,
and the public should not miss its present
opportunity to see him.