aitiimx A\usE\ii:\Ts.
The People Do Not Care for
the Serious Drama.
ii i rythim; kins io com r i»v. !
Th. Trend of the Popular Theatrical |
Taste h» Manifested by the Class <»f
Attractions Which the Leading New ,
York Managers Have Provided.
NO PERSON' of
intelligence who
watches the trend
of the drama in
America can have
' failed to observe
1 'W'"A « marked deteri-
] I [l ’ I oration in the
| AJ; taste of the tbea-
i ' I I' . \ • ter going public.
' as manifested by
1 j\ \ 1 the class of play. 4
/ t y. I>>k whi c h managers
* present for popu
n *' ' ■ lar approval The
shrewd gentlemen who provide enter
tainment of a theatrical nature arc too
wise to attempt to direct the people; their
chiefest aim is to endeavor to follow them
closely and give them exactly what they
want, be it comedy or tragedy, farce or
drama. This course pays, and, after all.
people are only in the theatrical business
for money making purposes.
The old timers are wont to tell us. with
mournful shakes of the head, that it was
not always thus, and that years ago ‘‘act
tors and managers had some regard for
their art.” Despite this very glittering,
heat lightning platitude. I venture the as
sertion that actors haven’t)changed much
in the last thirty or forty years, except
perhaps as to their methods, and their es
timates of their own importance.
