Theatre U.S.A., 1665 to 1957

Barnard Hewitt; McGraw-Hill, 1959

The most popular foreign playwright on our stage at this period, indeed for nearly forty years, was James M. Barrie, in whose mixture of whimsy, sentiment, and humor the touch of bitterness was not hard to overlook. Some of Barrie's success here was probably due to Charles Frohman, who produced most of his plays and was able to support them not only with his own theatre organization but also with that of the Syndicate. More was due to the discovery of an American actress uniquely qualified to embody Barrie heroines for the American audience. Although Maude Adams played many other roles--the Duke de Reichstadt in Rostand L'Aiglon, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, and Joan in Schiller Jungfrau von Orleans, she is remembered most for her Babbie in The Little Minister ( 1887), Phoebe in Quality Street ( 1901), Peter Pan ( 1905), and Maggie in What Every Woman Knows, which opened December 23, 1908, and was a great success for Miss Adams, J. M. Barrie, and Charles Frohman. Theatre Magazine reviewed it, February, 1909.

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