WHAT PLAYWRIGHTS EARN.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2691, 14 December 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHAT PLAYWRIGHTS EARN.

: Mr W. S. Gilbert, we gather from nn article, in the October Idler, was one of the first playwrights to insist upon payment by results," obviously tho fairest methbd. ' Hence a sliding scale has been adopted, which works in this fashion. An author of established but not pro-eminbnt-T-reputatiori will take six per cent, upon all takings until an amount sufficient to' cover the weekly - expenses l of tho theatre is reached. This, of course!’; differs enormously Tho Lyceum curtain cannot be raised at a cost. of loss than il7o a performance. A“ Society " play like the “Masqueraders" or. “Vanity Fair," played at a “ Society' house," will cost the, manager £6OO to £7OO a’week. A heavy melodrama like the “ Swordman's Daughter " will cost more j a farce like the “Now Boy" much loss. Then tho holding capacities vary. Two hundred - pounds can be squeezed into the pit alone; but barely that sum into the whole of Terry’s. Tho Haymarket and St. James* crammed,’ can bring in some ; £225 to £240 o. night. The Lyceum holds £420;, Drury Lane still more; the Gaiety about £3OO. . !

The incomes of playwrights vary, of course, but the .best known of thorn seem to do remarkably well. ‘ Eight years'and more ago, Mr Henry Arthur Jones stated that already his share of “-The - Silver King " had brought him £IO,OOO, and that, play is running'to'this day, Mr Sydney Grundy, when Reproached with forsaking comedy for melodrama, retorted with the eloquence of his i btink-book, which, iu twelve months, showed on advance froth £BOO to £SOOO. Imagine the fortune which Mr Gilbert's “ Pygmalion and Galatea" must have earned., For a quarter ofa century it has been a favourite play, and probably £25,000 would be no excessive estimate of the earnings for its author of this one play. . In tbo theatre, as in the canvas booth, the, writer points out, it is'the monstrosity which drawsTo “ The Private Secretary," dr-'to “ Chijrl'ey’sv’Auht,"‘ to’ a grotesque , travesty of nature, One .must go for the irresistible attraction, the colossal sums.- In -the -case;of, the formonlho; author, or .rather 1 - adaptor, Mr Charles: Hawtrey, was manager also, and his profits havo been placed at £IOO,OOO. “ Charley’s Aunt," on the other hand, can boast a writer, Mr Brandon Thomas, who has now received fees upon over seven thousand performances I At an absurdly low estimate, this means at least £30,000, and as with Mr Kipling’s “ Tomlinson,’’ V the tale is still to run.” These are the big figures, and there is, of course, another side to the picture, Few authors, tor instance; would refuse a commission to write a play for two.or three hundred pounds, but that is largely because success or failure is little better than a “ toss-

Up.” ■«; But there are also the fortunes which were sold for a songMr J. SI. Barrie's houao-boat comedy, ** Walker, London,” was one of those. Its author was unknown as a writer for the stage. He had his dramatic spurs to win. And when Mr Toole offered him £250 for all rights in the piece ho took it, .and in gaining a name for success lost thousands. With ; his second play, “ The Professor’s Love Story,” Mr Barrie was in a different position.,, Ho could claim Treasonable terms, and the. comedy has , earned him probably as much as.ihe.best of his books. Mr Hall Caine’s reward for the “Ben-my-Chree,” his dramatised version of “ The Deemster/’ was, it is added, twice as much as even his hovel brought him. ** And so, in all likelihood, will it be with ‘The Manxman unequalled success though the novel has been—rbefore stage has done.with the story.”