Show NeW Year Plans for Lo n do Theaters London Dramatic Letter Special Correspondence DON Dec week LO L Is the tho dullest In the tho whole theat theatrIcal theatrical calendar Somehow the shallow of oC the festival over overshadows shadows everything else In people are aro so 60 bus busy buying presents and their stock of read ready moneY mono con consequently becomes so attenuated that tho theaters are arc bound to suffer RecoE Recognising this fact managers arc aro only too read to avail themselves of oC the pre pretext text lext for putting up tho shutters hutter It If the they happen to have huv struck a failure they clo close for Uw the entire week If Ie they thoy have havo got n a success they must at least do so on Christmas da day brings a ma magical cJ change rho star of oC pantomime Is hi In the tho as ascendant the holiday It a abroad road and managers reap a golden If IC momentary harvest hanest Drury Lane Iane of oC course offers the favorite rendezvous There at least you are aro sure ure to obtain plenty for Cor your bone mone r I have known the curtain to rise at to Call all not a moment bo be before fore 9 on the following morning And et the audience showed no trace of Impatience Apart from Crom the production of one or two unimportant pantomimes the only feature of oC the week has hns been the tiro pres prel of oC Henry r Joness lit little tie tle pla pia The Knife at the Palace Theater of VarIeties It Is a asen sen sensational theatrical piece of oC work probably well suited stilted to the purposes or of vaudeville The Knife I a hearty welcome and the tho acting of Ar Arthur Arthur thur and Ind his wife Violet h In tho parts was loudly applauded It Is a pleasant dut dutto duty to have havo to chronicle Jones Jonel s success for ho has been rather out lit In the cold l lately W As a r result J d o just US a bl obsessed s with t tho idea that the press lr sg has a 11 grudge against him and Inclined therefore not notto notto to value alue his work at Its true worth He forgets that the power of the press pres Is after aCter all 1111 extremely and that if IC the public really lII likes es a play pia noth nothIng nothing Ing will keep It from going to see It The truth Is we have advanced con since Jones Jono made ids reputation tion as the author authol of oC JulIn Judah h The Tho Middleman Tho Liars and Mrs Irl Danes Defence and Im afraid ho he has not Quito moved with the times Per Por Personally ho he Is charming a moro more earnest partisan of the theater It would bo hard to find finI HIs success at the tho Pal Palace ace and the eulogistic reception of oC The KniCe will probably stimulate him o 0 I I Two days hence Tree starts re of oC the nets lIew piece duo due at His on or about Jan 7 r I hove have already given some particulars regard Ins ing It t without however exhausting the tho subject The Tho play Is the tho work of oC Ju Jus Justin tin Huntly McCarthy McCarth well known on your our sIde of oC the tho Atlantic as the author of C If I Were ero Kill Kleng There have been about the third and fourth acts and Tree hay hali heen sta slaying ln week with wilt McCarthy at I Folkestone In order to get these right The Tho Inward history of the piece Is II worth relating A considerable time those a ago o Tree opened with Charles Wyndham for the version of oC C Cyrano Iano de Bergerac which as I 1 started In a previous letter has now non been acquired b by Lewis Waller aller Tho Those e negotiation came camo to nothing owing according to 10 Tree rree to dilatoriness It titan then struck Tree Treo that It would be II a capital Idea Irlea to commission somebody to write for hIm a drama practically oil tho lines of Cyrano McCarthy was approached and d at once hits his readiness to undertake the task The fhe result Is or rather as aR It has no now been Own McCarthy has Cul uI l ly redeemed his pled t for the hero of oC the tho Is Il a flamboyant IrIshman the tho action takes place In the reign of James and rhymes and lights and makes love Just In h the wn lye of oC famous Gascon Further urther he equips a regiment of oC his own similar I to the L I d Ul of U G is y an 1 1 rI off of to the siege slee Ul of U G is y an 1 1 rI off of to the siege slee of Drogheda precisely as Cyrano ha stoned to the siege of Arras Tho beau heau Roxine Roxane her counterpart In the tho Lady Benedetta who Js s won from her to II a bibulous un principled and all boorish lord lor by the tho of oC his rival It Is a part palt full Cull of great reat possibilities and It Is III easy to understand how halt its 1111 and exuberant have hao to Sir Herbert Herberto o 0 0 What would the shade of oC RI Mansfield sa say could it know that Il a new version of Robert Louis s II famous stor story Dr Jekyll and Mr 1 lyde has been made b by Comyns Carr Ca r and that before beCore man many weeks ore are wet Wel It is to be produced b by H B Irving nt at Chic tho Globe Globo I recall Neall the Chic appearance or of Mansfield at the Lyceum leased to him b by Irving In titu tho dual part with which his name I Intimately a To this da day his hll and horrible vivid I remaIns with me Ills His sea season on was hardly Il a success the doubtless was too gruesome even now It gives one tho creeps to think of oC It ht It Il will be to sec SICO what w hut II n B does with the which b by the thu byre bye his ilia illustrIous Cather alone at one time seriously I contemplated The public I nm am Inclined to fane fancy Is at tho present moment rather moro morn posed towards cheerful than nerve entertainments But Dut there II ls always alas the chance of a really er e bit of oC sensational work log Ing Its fancy and certainty nothing has brought more grist to young mill than his recent revival ot of Tile The Lyons Mall 0 0 Although a private rather than a 11 pub lub lic event a word mil may bu be said regard Ins the tho dinner given last Sunday Sunda at the restaurant by the tho of oC the tho Green Room Identical with the tho Lambs club In n Now honor of oC Tree and In tion ot of hiM has knighthood Fred Teary was s to have han occupied the chair but a set r e attack of gout from flom which happily h hIs his I Is rapidly recovering held hIm a oner at al home Ills was l by b Y the tho veteran Henry who dell deli creel ered a splendid speech ch touched with a afine h line fine sense of oC humor and of oC manly sea e lauding Tree to the thc skies Trees reply was couched couchell In the vcr ven best vein Evidently It hail not beet h prepared beforehand and ono one could se se e he that lie he felt Celt deeply the tho warmth or of ll S reception Nearly sat down to din ncr find and the proceedings lasted till 1 when a largo allo of oC tit th e more boisterous members wont off ocr lo lothe t o the Green Gren Room there to the ev 00 e or rather the morning After ACter tit ee e speeches came an entertaInment iu r which many of oC the tho most popular artist of oC the tho clay had volunteered their sr Ices The program wound up with n a three net act tragedy entitled Capital e eL cr r Lhor L ebor the tho most thing thin g It line has over been my lot to witness rt f only sonic Iome manager oud d secure It his fortune would he bo mad maJe e but hul afraid It would tax all hi his pow powers lOW lOWers w ers of oC persuasion to Induce the tar I rd d chamberlain to I ee s the piece A week from Crom New ew Years day Ila Fran It Curzon produces produce at al t th he musical version hy by Seymour Semour Hicks r rRichard f Richard Harding DavIss farce The TI we Dictator tho score being supplied h hl hy Leslie LelIe Stuart Into the tho original p l o Hicks has introduced a little love oe which serves to provide Ellaline Ter Te Terri Terise r ri rise with a part The piece os as It w Wa as ras played at the tho Corned Comedy here some yea ago alo amused us Immen Immensely el and n Collier In the tho leading rolo kept us In 1 n fits of oC laughter from start to finis n Whether It will be Improved b by the ti ne e addition of oC musical numbers Is 11 a aro at point paint m ma own onn fear Is that these may inc y prove prose n a hindrance rather than a hel helto help p to the action which as I remember It I Iwas t was wal of oC so brisk and rapid a na natu uro ro as to lea heave e no room for Cor anything rr of a kind like likely I to break bl ea lots Its continuity It usually takes years ears of oC sturl study nd n d more or less hitter bitter experience to lean car carthe n the technique of but a an n exception that helps to prove proe the rule ru le and to encourage dramatists Is by the tho case of oC a famous Camous novelist her sere the tho name namo cannot bo be given Just yet ct who suddenly got nn Idea for Cor a pl pla ai Il a fess Cew weeks ago Ho He wrote It at w hl to heat without previous experience a nd n il without oven oen having been much of nC a theatergoer The result proved to be o a ame comedy me y so sp sparkling and crowded with wi t Is ingenious bUSiness that enter the roe ors man au r alter to whom It was shown decal ne Instantly fn fascinated with It IL anti aliU pr poses to produce it forthwith an a nd make a fortune out of oC It Tills gaunt soun s so bO much hire n a rain fairy story that It is worth recording In this Christmas see sea a son although It happens to be ab o hutch true The moral I Is If Ie you OU get getan g gan ct an Idea fix It before I It tales fades There have havo been man many tears and nut nuta n na oc a few fow hard words nt at the Savoy where ro the tho new nets comic opera Pollen Fallen Fairies Fables by Sh William Gilbert and Edw ar d German erman has failed to find fa favor or wit h the public Gilbert made malic n I CUB OUI mistake la h forcing upon the tho cabo hi hilt ward Nancy Nanc McIntosh who wit o even 17 yea years Ill ago when she he her h er first appearance possessed no particular part ular attractions elthel as n a singer or actress to recommend her TIme h dealt b by no means menns generously tho ho t lady nut But to nil all this Gilbert atol turned lusted a eye oye A few day ao ago however ho he a very ery ou spoken runs the thea lhee 1 tel ter saying that either Miss h must lea leave 0 the cast or the lIw usual fort fortnights nights notice would lie ho put up Tile TI so first has haM beech chosen and anda an ana a new singer of oC whom report speaks spec s highly will within the next day or two to e Cairo up the tho part of Princess c Whatever her girls I Cea ear sIte come es too tOl late to save AVO the fortunes of a plc Ce that an all too plainly belongs to the tit o genre |