Stage Superstitions

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 508, 10 November 1928, Page 16

Stage Superstitions

Never Quote from “Macbeth” Before a First Night Performance

rnqVMKt HEY say in the theatre that a play with the word “golden” in its title is bound to be i unlucky. For my own - 1 part, I am beginning to think that the name “Rome” must be an unfortunate, choice, whites Charles B. Cochran, the theatrical producer. Twice in my life I have been connected with the production of “Rome” plays. Eight years ago there was "One Night in Rome,” with Miss Lautette Taylor, at the Garrick Theatre. On the first night someone threw stink bombs from the gallery. Now i have just had a hand in the London presentation of “The Road to Rome,” which has been taken off /ter a 16 days’ run—the shortest run with which I have ever been managerially connected. Yes, I am becoming a little bit superstitious about “Rome.” But to be quite serious, I have no hard-and-fast stage superstition*; I would humour an artist or an author in any reasonable way about such things, but I certainly would not allow superstition to get in the way of business as a manager. As a matter of fact, too, the young people of the theatre are becoming less and less superstitious; and although you may get a girl not wanting to wear green or anything with peacock's feathers in a part, there is decidedly less stage superstition rife than there was. Mr. Harry Grattan, the revue writer, and Chaliapine are two people whom I have come across professionally who do—or, at any rate, did —live up to superstitions. Mr. Grattan did several of my early revues, and he nlways point-blank refused to allow the tag line—the last line of the piece, that is—to be spoken till the end of the opening performance. As a matter of fact, he would never let anyone know what the final words were. During the first performance he would produce them on a bit of paper, which he handed to whoever had to say the words, and they were said unrehearsed. This “tag” superstitition is a very old theatrical one, but nowadays it is not conformed to generally—every word of most plays is rphearsed in production. The black cat superstition obtains the “wrong way round” with Chaliapine. The Albert Hall black cat (it is not perpetually the same identical cat, of course, but it comes of one family of cats) is famous with art-

ists who appear there, and consequently I was very much taken aback when Albert Coates, the musical conductor, once warned me. “For goodness’ sake don’t let Chaliapine see that cat; he will walk straight out ot the place if you do.” “But black cats are lucky,” I said. “In Russia they are terribly unlucky,” Mr. Coates explained. The still persistent idea that it is unlucky to start a new play on a Friday lam definitely against. Indeed, I consider that Friday is almost the best opening night in the week. A play's second night is generally apt to be a bad one, but if you begin on a Friday you get your second performance on Saturday, when there is almost certain to be a good audience. For practical purposes this is good for the play and the players, who are probably suffering from the reaction of their first night; from a cynical point of view your second night falling on a Saturday gives you at least one pretty full house, however bad your play may be! “Macbeth,” for some mysterious reason, is generally looked upon as being an “unlucky play,” which is no doubt the reason why quotations from it are sternly discouraged in theatres. It is supposed to be a terrible thing for onyone to say a line from “Mac--1 beth” on a first night, j Whistling in a dressing-room is regarded as another form of stage j crime, calculated to bring down misi fortune upon the inmates of the room 1 if not upon the whole play. The “antidote” to whistling in a dressing room is for the offender to go outside at once and turn round three times. To crack or break a looking-glass is held to be sure and certain bad luck, but to break a tumbler —by accident, of course—-is thought to be a most fortunate thing to do. An umbrella, that true and trusted friend to so many old-time comedians, must never on any account be opened on the stage. I am very fond of the circus, but I am forced to admit that there are some grounds for the common belief that plays about the circus, however good they may be, will have no luck about them. There have been a numof of Instances of such plays failing to attract audiences. Most actors and actresses like to get telegrams and messages wishing them “good luck” on the first night of a play in which they are acting But I have had at least one star under my management who did not —Alice Delysia, I mean. She is French, and it seems that in France to wish an artist "good luck” before a first performance is considered to be an unlucky thing to do. So those who know this fact about Delysia never wish her “good luck” (at least, not in these words) on her first nights.