| OCR Text |
Show B !j , On and Aground Uroadbuay. IK jH ''' (Special Correspondence.) H 1j After all, the theatrical season is' proving a H J ' most profitable one to the managers. It did not B HI i begin well, but it is making up at the end. Where- H Wt k as by last May Day most of the dramatic com- 0 p ' panies had ceased their labors and those that re- Hf p t mained were losing the profits of better weeks, H 4 j the middle of May this year will find a lot of the B M' , theatres still presenting dramatic attractions. B " Blanche Bates is still playing the "Darling of M if1 the Gods" at the Belasco, "The Earl of JPaw- H ''j' tucket" is holding out at the Manhattan, Charles H ,j Hawtrey and "A Message From Mars" are at the H j,j Criterion, Grace George continues in "Pretty Peg- B y gy" at the Herald Square, "A Fool and His Mon- B llf, oy" is at the Madison Square and "Everyman" JH the o'ld morality play, holds its own with the best KB, s ofthem at the Garden. IV 411 On top of this some of the managers have con- B f( eluded that it is not too late in the year to get B New York verdicts on some productions that are B H new on Broadway. Ezra Kendall has been B brought in from the road to be seen in "The Vine- B jj gar Buyer" an Indiana conceit based on the poem m I If of the Secretary of State, "Skipper & Co., Wall B I si i Street," has been put on at the Garrick with Mac- !lyn Arbuckle as the star, and Miss Cecil Spooner is atempting to attain stellar honors in "My Lady Peggy Comes to Town" at Daly's. In audition David Warfield has been brought back to the Victoria Vic-toria for a farewell in "The Auctioneer," which r mafle him a considerable quantity in the legiti mate. 2& V V m iri f Miss Spooner is known in the West. With her m p mother and sistor she has appeared In stock com- V ll panies in Denver and other cities. Their efforts m f f proved so remunerative that they came to Brook- B gfc lyn and established a stock company. Again. m j, fortune was with them and they made a lot cf Bt i money, and a great deal of it has gone into the B If production of the play by Frances Ay mar Math- M I ews, in which it was hoped that Miss Spooner would make a name for herself that would forever for-ever remove the necessity of her appearance in stock companies. The most she has done is to prove that the way to theatrical success is no royal road. The critics have found that the spark of genius is within with-in her, but they tell that she has not yet learned how to make it burn with a steady flame. She acts with too much assurance of an art that she lias not yet grasped, and the recommendation is made that she put herself under the guidance of a stern stag manager who will discipline her and teach her to lose self-consciousness. "It's a fierce game," said a friend who saw how Miss Spooner staggered under the burden she had assumed. "I have to pity the women who set out to make success in the theatrical field and to honor those who gain it. They have to give up home and all the comforts of it and they have to meet a competition sterner than that in any profession. pro-fession. There are three women to every man seeking fame on the boards and there are three positions for men to one for women the way plays are written nowadays. So the woman who succeeds at all must be endowed with exceptional genius and often this will not be sufficient in the absence of a strong pull somewhere." "When she does attain to stellar honors her troubles do not cease. There is always the hunt for the play for each recurring appearance in New York, the nervous preparation for the first night, and too often the heartbreaking failure and the harsh words of the critics and the neglect of the public to pay for the months of study and effort. When you put on top of this the nomadic life the actress leads and reflect that most of them follow the stage for pure love of art, you have to bow before the woman of the stage who finally carves out success for herself." & & jf " "Skipper & Co." is another straw to show which way the dramatic wind is blowing. The managers are coming to a realization that the American public is tired of the Imported play and wants a home article dealing with home themes and they are all scrambling to get the fl right vehicles. Mr. Dam wrote this new analyti- H cal piece on the ways of the brokers and had no fl diiilculty in placing it despite the crudeness of its construction. It is a laborious effort to give a pic- H ture of a financial battle and Mr. Arbuckle has a H hard time infusing life and reality into it, and II yet, so eager is the public to patronize this style H of drama, it is meeting with some considerable jH success even at the fag end of the season. 9 V fc?V td Plans that are being announced for next sea- jH son show that the independent managers have the m better of the argument so tar as attractions are B concerned, even though the syndicate controls H the best theatres in the country. Wallack's, the H Manhattan, the Broadway and the Victoria thea- tre present a formidable lfst of plays and players on their books for the season. Mr. Belasco will practically take control of the Victoria with the productions he cannot house at his own playhouse, play-house, but some of the outside managers will have a chance for a few weeks at some time in the season. Mrs. Fiske, James K. Hackett, Charles Richman under the management of Weber and Fields and Martin Harvey will be seen at the Manhattan. Henry W. Savage will bring his productions pro-ductions into the Broadway and Wallack's, and Henrietta Crosman, the Fisher and Ryley production produc-tion of the season and other attractions will take up the spare time. For the road the independents will find plenty of theatres, although not the most desirable ones. They have made a close alliance with Stair and Havlin, who control a great circuit of second-class second-class theatres. Their companies will be mixed in with the cheaper ones all along the way. This is not expected to make much difference, however, how-ever, as the theatrical managers learned from Weber and Fields last year that the public will go to a barn to see an attraction it wants. i B. J. Y. |
