OCR Text |
Show I LONDON, April 30 A gallery crowd B broke up tho first production of J. Hartley Manners' play, "A Night in (M Rome," at the Garrick theatre tonight. v! The curtain was lowered soon after gjj tho start of Uio second act. Manager Vja Charles Cochrans came before the cur-tain cur-tain and said ho would not permit Miss Wtt Lauretto Taylor to proceed in the face of such disturbance and the audience M dispersed amid a great uproar. John W. Davis, American ambassa- jk dor, was in the audience. Ml Employes of the theatre advanced By the opinion that the trouble was or- W ganized by enemies of Mr. Cochrane and that it was in no sense an anti-American anti-American demonstration. The)' saij I there were a half dozen American plays running successfully in London and that they had received nothing but enthusiastic treatment from tho public and tho newspapers. Moreover, it was added, Miss Taylor, leading lady in "A Night In Rome," enjoyed en-joyed great popularity with English theatre-goers. No other such occurrence has been witnessed in a Loudon theatre within the memory of tho present generation of playgoers, although, such, scenes were common in tho early days of tho English stage when rival managers hired cliqucB to break up plays. The attempts of Miss Taylor to proceed pro-ceed with her part were drowned in tho shouting. Therefore, Mr. Coch-rans Coch-rans announced that he would drop the curtain. When he apologized for a scenic defect, a voice cried out from the gallery: "It Isn't that, Mr. Coch-- Coch-- rans; there Is an organization up here to 3poil your show." |