THE TRIUMPH OF THE MUSIC HALL.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10756, 8 September 1900, Page 7

THE TRIUMPH OF THE MUSIC HALL.

The fact that in a comparatively small cj-y like Christchurch three variety enter-t-uimenw have been siruultaneou-ly drawing good houses during the past week, and that while the legitimate drama proves capable of attracting audiences only for some fifty or .sixty nights a year, an enterprising i__uagrr has run a continuous- series of v-ikU'UHc performances for over three hundred nighty, lends interest to a recent article by Mr. Max Botrbohm, in which he invesligatcrf parallel phenomena in England. He call* his article "The Mirror of Demos," and sew in tho success of the music-hall the triumph of democracy. The writer of a drama is working according to a definite art form; he is compelled, to a certain extent, to forget his public, and clothe ideas of bin own with action. "No play ever belongs wholly tv tho public." But in the uiu-c-hall by the frequency of tbe "turns" a linger is kept perpetually on the puke of the public. If an item finds no favour with the motley audience, it is at once exd*.(l, and something more popular put in its Htcad. Thus there is much in Mr. Beerbulun'- contention that the "entertainments " have grown, feature for feature from the " public's taste; they are tilings which the " public itself has created for its own plea- * sure."

Viewed in this light, tha entertainment at a music-ball is an interesting document to a student of human nature, and much food for reflection might bo obtained from a coaipaiison of tlua "mirror of Demos" in different countries. Such a comparison Mr., Becrbohm makes, not all iv favour of England, between London and Parisian musichall a. He complains, in t_e N first ■ place, that tha Englishman in his vaudeville entertainment, shows utter lack of all sense of beauty. The French impersonators of types of low-life a» never unpleasing to the eye. On the other hand, the patrons of the English _iu."ic-haJi demand that their favourite male "artistes" should come on the stage usually ia the'guise of unwashed drunkards, with ** seedy frock-coats, battered end greasy top*_at_, broken and amorphous boots, and "crimson noses." With these Mr. Beerbohm would have us contrast tho triia, swal-k>w-tail«d conventions of tho "caf- chantaiit," and turn with a shudder from the * coster-girl" to th© "ouvriere."

in the wcond place this critic of English music-halls finds fault with their melancholy Lxk of humour. All tho jokes deal with the ugly side of life, and the character-artist —most invariably comes on the stage "in the _epth_ of gloom or in a paroxysm of resentment." So true is it that we take our pleasures «v%. In France, on the other hand, thu impersonator trips gaily on the stage to tell the audience of some amusing incident that haa recently occurred to him j lie comes on smiling; he goes off laughing ; nor ia ho necessarily called upon to simulate intoxication in order to be considered really -amoroiw. Lastly, we aro told that the national hypocrisy with which the English ere accused is vkiblo in the music-haUs, as to „ glass. Without following him in his tfateration on this point, or altogether agreeisg with his conclusions, we are disposed to agrwt with tbe writer that a nation's musicJwSl standard ia no bad test of popular tastes and character; and we should think that from thiu point of view it might be interestteg to compare the English and color jf vaudeville entertainments. From all we can hun, tho comparison, -at any rate so far » morality isl concerned, would not be alfco4Hh*r against tha colonies.