The Press Saturday, October 29, 1927. The Long Run.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19144, 29 October 1927, Page 14

The Press Saturday, October 29, 1927. The Long Run.

Whether publishers or theatrical managers show the greater lack of judgment in accepting or rejecting work is an interesting subject for debate. The history of literature is strewn with lost opportunities. George Meredith, for example, acting as reader for a publishing firm, rejected " East Lynne," thereby costing his principals a small fortune. It is probable, however, that the record of publishers in this respect would be surpassed by the rejection of plays that ultimately made an immense amount of money for their persevering authors. The question is raised by this week's news that at very long last "Abie's " Irish Rose" has been taken off the boards in New York. It has run for five and a half years and established a world's record. " Abie's Irish Rose " has no pretensions to literary or artistic merit: it is a popular exploitation of a brand of Irish and Jew humour which is more or less peculiar to America. Its history illustrates vividly, however, the element of uncertainty in the business of catering for public entertainment. The woman who wrote it took it to manager after manager in vain, and then risked all she had in its production. It did not "take" at first, but she persevered, and a huge fortune must have been her reward. There is nothing, except a successful film, that pays so handsomely as a popular play. It is a curious coincidence that for a great part of the time during which " Abie's Irish Rose " was running in New York, Mr Eden Phillpotts's "The Farmer's Wife" was drawing delighted and crowded houses at the Court Theatre in London. " The " Farmer's Wife " went the round of managers for some years but not even the high literary reputation of Mr Phillpotts could induce them to take a risk with it. When it was produced in the end —and it is significant that the manager who accepted it was a leader in the repertory movement —it was an immense success. "Abie's "Irish Rose" and "The Farmer's I " Wife " are. poles apart in merit, but the authors have this in common that they take rather out-of-the-way types, speaking an uncommon idiom, for their characters. The fact that both these plays were rejected over and over again by men whose business it was to know the taste of the public supports the charge that theatrical managers as a class have poor judgment. Managers might retort thai it is the public's fault for being so capricious, and it needs a good deal of assurance to say in a downright way that this is no excuse. The public's taste in plays is at least as hard to judge as its taste in books. j Most of the plays that have had very I long runs have been low down in the i scale of merit. Who remembers " The " Chinese Honeymoon," and who a few years hence will care a rap about " Chu "Chin Chow"? "Our Boys" is in the limbo of plays that are merely i theatrical curiosities. On the other hand " The Beggar's Opera " has much merit, and it enjoyed a run that fully justified the courageous enterprise of Mr Nigel Playfair; " Charley's Aunt," though a farce of no importance in stage history,' has become a minor classic; and "The Farmer's Wife" showed the world that it was possible to write a good and popular comedy outside the narrow world of London drawing-rooms. Though Mr Shaw's " St. Joan " drew audiences for some time, tragedies, and the classical drama in general, cannot compete with modern comedy and musical plays in long , runs. "Hamlet" does not hold a stage for years, and it was properly ; considered a notable event when Mr [ Allan Wilkie established a record by reaching his thousandth consecutive performance of Shakespeare. The very long run is a .modern development ancl cannot be good for the drama. It is not merely that it helps to raise rents and salaries, and so makes production more difficult, but that it gets players into grooves*. The old stock company system, by which a man might be called upon to play in three or four Shakespeare plays and a cmple of old comedies, in the course or a few days, produced the soundly versatile actor. To-day there is a tendency to produce narrower types. A young man makes a success of a "juvenile" part in a" present-day drawing-room comedy, enjoys a long run, and perhaps goes to a similar part in another successful play. He becomes known as a safe man for such parts and is not called on to play others. Or another actor makes a reputation as a butler, and managers in search of butlers look out for him. Variety i 3 necessary if the drama is to be heaithy, which is one reason why the repertory movement is beneficial. At a theatre like the " Old Vic " there are no long runs, nor would there be if London had a national playhouse.