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Notwithstanding these shortcomings, there are a number of pleasing theatre interiors in New York and elsewhere. The old Metropolitan Opera House, for all its elaborateness, serves its purpose, so far as decorative effect goes, pretty well. The Hudson Theatre, with its soft tans and greens, is generally pleasing. The New Amsterdam Theatre, designed in the style of the Art Nouveau, with fruits, flowers and birds, finished in soft pastel tints of many colors, contains a suggestion that has been too seldom followed; while the two theatres of Mr. Winthrop Ames, The Booth and the Little Theatre, in both of which dark finished woodwork plays a prominent part, are among the most, delightful in the city, or perhaps in the world. The effort in the Belasco Theatre is evidently to secure an interior at once sombre, dignified and elegant, and this has been adequately achieved. Such recent-theatres as the Henry Miller, The Apollo and The
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Times Square are mildly gratifying without being in any particular striking or original. When the present Century Theatre was built a very lavish amount of money was expended, and considering this fact, its auditorium cannot be considered completely satisfactory although the effect is brilliant. The Little Neighborhood Playhouse, in which a comparatively small amount was spent and which resembles the Little Theatre in some respects, is, of its sort, an excellent example.
Some of the American managers are happily at last reaching the position held especially in Germany for a number of years, in that they desire to create houses in which there will be no poor seats and in which every theatre-goer may be attentive and comfortable. This has been accomplished already far more notably than anywhere in America by Professor Max Littmann, the architect of many theatres in Berlin, Munich and elsewhere.
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