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Show H Going TZacK. to Tiro ctdbv ay. X5he Success of Henry M Salvage. The Chinese Honeymoon. Hl Signs of spring are plentiful along Broadway. Hf The pert soubrette, the serious comic man, the H dashing hero and heroine of the drama and the Hl heavy browed tragedian are back again, gathering H on the street corners to tell of the season's Haj triumphs and grievances, or rushing around among Hlj'1 the managers closing up contracts for next win- HK ter. There are a lot of dissatisfied ones, for the KTi! dramatic end of the profession has not been espe- Hl' dally fruitful of success this season, musical com- H8 I edy getting the cream of the business throughout HQ the big cities. There have probably been two men H and ten women for every position that was open M during the winter in the legitimate companies, HV and Lord knows what has been done for a living HS by those who could not find a place. H For the chorus girls and the glittering sou- H brette of the musical comedy, however, everything H i has been prosperous, and there is every indication H tlfat there will be plenty of work for the summer R on the roof gardens and in the theatres as well. H There were those who said at the beginning of Hf, this season that musical comedy had had Its day Hff and that public taste would swing back to the H drama, but the great successes have been in the H' light and airy end of the profession, 'f The managers are pretty well satisfied. The be- H ginning of the winter showed bad accounts on. H i their ledgers, but they have had no difficulty with H the latter end. "Everybody who had anything Ev good has been making money," said George G. H . Tyler, of Liebler & Co., the other day. "The pub- H ' lie has had money and has spent it. The only H I1 1 trouble has been a lack of theatres." V '' Charles Frohmian has had perhaps the best B, season in five years, for, although ho lacked prof- U its from Maude Adams his other stars have been H doing well, and he has been able to call other H managers into his theatres when his own attrac- B flons showed signs of weakening. The Klaw & H Erlanger end of the syndicate had some bad fall- P I ures, but its latest attempts have yielded enough H r to more than cover all its losses. H i$v 0 & H Now the spring productions are beginning to H come in. Elsie Do "Wolfe, determined to deserve H 1 her starry eminence, has brought on her new play V ' "Cynthia." It hasn't much backbone, and is rath- H. ' sr trite in its treatment of the old problem of the H wife who engaged in a flirtation with another H !i man a subject, by the way, which seems to en- H ' gage the attention of most of the British dramatic H writers but she is doing well. Pact is that Miss H De "Wolfe is likely to become a notable quantity Hj In the dramatic world. She has generally been Hj called upon to take heavy parts in her career, Vl . things of rather emotional bent, with tears and M anguish spread all around, but this time she has H taken up comedy. She fits. She is rather serious L minded in her ordinary life, but the fetching atmo- Bl ( sphere she gives to "Cynthia" is a revelation, i I i Furthermore, she is a very determined person. ,1 , If it had been possible to discourage me in the dramatic profession," she said to me one day, "I would never have gone on after the first night. I rather thought well of my own performance, but after it was over one of the most distinguished dramatic critics of New York, whom I had met, made it a point to come back to my dressing room. Of course I was pleased when I got his card and hurried to dress so I could receive him. "When he came in he looked at me solemnly and said: " 'My dear girl, the dramatic profession Is not for you. In the first place you have not the benefit bene-fit of good looks. I think you are positively homely home-ly on the stage. However, that would not "be an absolute bar to success, if you could act well. But I fear you cannot act.' "I kept on," she concluded. She is still keeping keep-ing on, and it is by no means certain that she will not have all the success she desires before she is many years older. 4V (v W "The Prince of Pllsen" has opened its spring engagement after a winter on the road. The test has come again of the merits of Boston as a trial city for New York. Boston liked "The Prince of Pllsen" and gave it a long run in the fall. But Boston also liked "The Burgomaster" and "The Defender," and their failures will not be forgotten among theatrical men for several years to come. Still Broadway so far has shown every sign of being interested in the production. In the first place the comedy is written around American travelers abroad and abounds with good Americanisms Ameri-canisms that are bound to find a sympathetic response re-sponse for down at heart New ork is a pretty good American city. Sam Bernard, who is one of the features of "The Silver Slipper," Avhich preceded this comedy at the Broadway theatre, has had his nose put out of joint by a glimpse of it. Not so many years ago Bernard was on the vaudeville stage, with a specialty which made him twist the English language lan-guage into a comical Dutch dialect. He had a political po-litical speech and other properties that brought success to him. He went to see "the Prince" and when he came out after the first act he was so excited that he talked in his language of the stage. "Id Is mein specialty," he cried. Then he went Inside for the other acts and pointed out place after place where the Dutch American father followed his lines of old "Well, who'd think they'd do such a thing on me," he said. "The Prince" has given Henry W. Savage two successes in Broadway. Savage, who entered the theatrical business from a Boston real estate office, of-fice, was not thought to be in position to take any more steps on the stage after he found how costTy it was to give grand opera in English at the Metropolitan opera house a few years ago. He has been coming to the front since then as one of the most successful of producers. His Castle Square Opera company is a steady money winner and" he has had a series of triumphs in "King Dodo," "The Sultan of Sulu" and "The Prince of Pllsen." He has another production on in the west in "Peggy From Paris," and the sharp Broadway Broad-way managers are now beginning to seek the secret se-cret of his correct judgment. j & & The one hold-over from the early season is "A Chinese Honeymoon," which threatens to rival the run of "Florodora." It went Into the Casino last May and it is doing a highly profitable business busi-ness still. George W. Lederer offered to wager about the time it was put on that it would be the first musical comedy of the spring to be taken off. He boasted that "The Wild Rose," which was playing play-ing next door in the Knickerbocker, was doing a better business and swore by all his knowledge that it would be there when "A Chinese Honeymoon" Honey-moon" had been sent into the woods. Well "The Wild Rose" has been driven out of the west by adverse criticism since and there is no sign of any abatement of interest in its rival. It is a gratifying triumph for the Shuberts, the youngest of the New York managers. They are two youths who were laughed at when they first came down from Syracuse three years ago and set up to run a theatre in Broadway. They got the Herald Square, however, and began showing some new ideas to their wise rivals. They gave a shock to everybody when the news came out that they had taken the Casino away from the Sire Brothers Broth-ers and balked Lederer who had been trying to get it back. Then they revamped the old "Hoodoo" "Hoo-doo" house off Twenty-eighth street and made it into the Princess and furthermore brought success suc-cess to it. Their most notable action, however, was their defiance of the syndicate. The trust had been in control of the bookings of the Casino under the Sires. It was by a simple command of A. H. Erlanger that "Florodora" was moved out of that house in the midst of its run and was compelled to give way to Anna Held. When the Shuberts took control they announced that they would Jo their own booking. In punishment the syndicate overbid them for a renewal of the lease of the Herald Square, but in its stead they will have next season the Lyric, which Reginald De Koven Is building, and" are planning another house. "A 3 Chinese Honeymoon" has helped them to carry out their plans and therefore has .made a little history in the theatrical war aside from its intrinsic merit j of success. jgt j y, I |