THE THEATRE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8029, 6 June 1904, Page 4

THE THEATRE.

> MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC NOTES. Playwrights at their wits' ends for new themes and novel titles will doubtless be interested to learn (says the "Pelican") that a drama entitled "Emile Zola" has been produoed with great success in Valencia. This opens up an entirely new world, and if the idea catches on at all we may yet < live to see a Marie Corelli tragedy, a William Shakespeare melodrama, a George R. Sims comedy, -or a Dan Leno farce. Mr Frank Stayton's comedy, "A Maid from School," now running at Terry's Theatre, Londo__ belongs to that class of play which serves no more useful purpose than that of supplying pessimists with a peg whereon to hang a dissertation on the unprogressive condition of the British drama. The critics have/raked it fore and aft, but it still holds the boards in defiance of them all. "Little Mary" has been withdrawn in •London after the 200 th performance. During a debate at the Woman's Institute in London recently, Miss Constance' Smedley said: "ln 'Little Mary' there is the promise of a good play. It contains a good idea, but, unfortunately, the play was written by one (Mr J. M. Barrie) who was too lazy, or unable, to work it out." H. A. Jones's comedy, "Joseph Entangled," reached its himdredth performance at London Haymarket on April 18. Referring to the occasion on© writer remarked:—"ln its early youth, promise oi future popularity was not wanting ; with years — ov, rather, nights — it has developed into a comedy the like of which has long been the unattained desideratum of London playgoers ; in the future, its coat of many colours will brighten the evenings of the public for many a night to come." Maud Hobson had a warm welcome back at the hands of the great audience in Melbourne Princess's on the occasion of the first appearance of the Edwardes Gaiety Com P*ny (s&ys a Melbourne correspondent). Maud looked as handsome and as imposing as ever, and not a day older, although it is now nine years or so since she loomed among the many striking figures of the "Gaiety Girl" Company. Things theatrical are likely to be very lively soon in Sydney, with the competition of Tom Nawn's .Variety Company, Stephenson's No. 2 Musical Comedy Company, the "Marriage of Kitty " Company, the Bland Holt Company, Rickards's very strong variety company, th^Pierrots and vue Williamson Dramatic Ooß*?a_ y- Somebody (Adelaide " Critic " thtoks) is likely to drop a pound or two. 7 : 7 Mrs Patrick Campbell _a« secured a new play by- the Hon Mrs Alfred Lyttelton, the wife of the Colonial Secretary, and the initial production was dated for May 30. In this piece Mrs Campbell will represent a working girl, and ladies will be interested to hear that she wears only one costume during the three acts. The story is described as a "social problem," and deala with life in a West End dressmaking establishment.* The music-hall music (says the " Saturday Review ") has at any rate liveliness, vigour, and, if it is vulgar, it is at any rate definitely vulgar. But the serious music of the day has nothing definite in it— -the composers would seeuj. to have shrunk back in fear of becoming definite. The music they give to one personage is exactly the same as the music given to all the other. ; their mournful music is not distinguishable from their joyful. In faot, the- stuff lacks character and colour of all but the most - superficial sorts. What impressed Shakespeare's contemporaries (says the "St James's Gazette") wns not his splendour of imagination, his mastery of passion, but — his sweetness of language. Thomas Bancroft wrote of his "-fuse's sugared dainties." "Honeytongued Shakespeare," says John Weever in 1599, thinking of "Luorece" and "Venus and Adonis " ; and in the previous year Richa-rd Barnfield had (also sung of his " honey-flowing vein." The " honey " idea reappears in Joseph Warton a hundred and forty years later. Standards of criticism change, and in these days we do not admire Shakespeare mainly for his 'choice of language. The latest thing in ■" 'phones " is thei biopbotophone, an invention combining the cinematograph and phonograph. The instruments may be placed any —Stance apart. At a private demonstration at a London mueio-hall recently the cinematograph was worked from the back of the pit, the photograph being behind the screen on the stage ; the uniting power was by electricity. Amongst the pictures shown was the "Xylophone Trio," in which the movements of the players were in strict accordance with the time of the music ; the effect was moat realistic. Other examples included a song from "Lohengrin" and the drilling of a squad of German soldiers. Some lines from "The Marriage of Kitty": — "When men cease talking about , women with a capital W, women with a capital W cease to exist." — " When one has lived in the best houses of the British aristocracy, one is never surprised at anything." — "There is always a moment after dinner that the brightest woman in the world has no chance against the attractions of a good cigar." — "A woman can be nothing and everything, a delightful companion and a sensible friend, or only a poor little thing."—" Let me tell you that knowledge of a man's appetite is not the least important thing in life." Six thousand actors (says a contemporary) are stranded in Chicago, and the number is being increased daily by the closing of the theatres and the 'counter attractions of the neighbouring cities and States. Chicago, because of the Iroquois Theatre disaster, is the centre of the greatest panic which has ever overtaken amusements in America. Millions invested in theatres have been swept /away, and it is feared that worse is to come. An Australian writer thinks that no wonderment need consequently be expressed at the present inundation of the Commonwealth by American shows. Beethoven (nays the "Saturday Revie*w") worked at every bar of his musio until it was charged with precisely the meaning he intended to put into it and nothing more. He took a story— out of his own life, the 1 life of a friend, a play of Goethe or Shakespeare—and he laboured, eternally altering and improving, until at last every phase expressed just the emotions he himself felt. The evolution of his themes, as revealed in the sketch-books, show how passionately and patiently he worked at this. There is

the art of Beethoven— he set truth of expression above everything, continuing the work begun by Mozart. On his death-bed he read the works of Handel. "There," he said, " there is truth." The story of the " Three Little Maids," the opening piece of Edwardes's Gaiety Company at Melbourne Princess's, is as follows : — The three little maids are the daughters of a country clergyman dwelling in the quiet seclusion of Market Mallory, where " nothing ever happens, not even the unexpected." ' Its rest-fulness, its peacefulness and its dulness do not satisfy the aspirations of these charming maidens, who welcome with delight the announcement that the great lady of the place is bringing down with her three London swells. Their father sees in this the beneficent workings of Providence, though his gratitude is tempered by the statement that three belles of society are also to accompany the party. The maids, however, are "not dismayed, and are confident that by the power of their innocent fascinations they w_l be able to hold their own against any antagonists. This belief .is, thoroughly justified. The men succumb to their attractiveness, and enter with eagerness into the game of flirtation. Lady St Mallory, by inviting the girls to London, and offering them employment in the Bond Street tea-rooms, where dukes and ' duchesses assemble to say nice things about those they hate, and vice versa, and men about town spend their time in ogling the pretty waitresses, gives to the course of true love an opportunity of extension. These chances are not neglected, and matters are brought to a culmination at the grand ball given at Mallory by the lady paramount, where the maids bring their suitors to the point of declaration, and assert their triumph over their rivals. The knowledge that another Edwardes Gaiety Company was booked for Australia created liveliest expectations in the human breast here and hereabouts (wrote Adelaide "Critic's" Melbourne correspondent), and those expectations were realised or disappointed — accprding to the tastes of the expectant ones — at the Princess's on May 14, when the oompany was flashed upon an audience of the brightest and best. Summing up broadly, I hold that this Gaiety Oompany is not up to the level of the "Gaiety Girl" collection in female attractions and lady -like accomplishments, and is weaker in the mass. The " Three Little Maids " are not backed by an effective and alluring chorus, and when the intervals between things 'in a musical play are not gracefully filled in with a background of bouncing, bounding and most melodious maidens, there is apt to be a suggestion of thinness all through. G. P. Huntley is easily first in my estimation, and that of the people. He figures as Lord Cheyne, a long military Johnnie out of the Guards, very swagger, 'an edifying ass, and an adept at the language that would appear to be fast superceding English in England, and whioh is very .much affected in Australia too by superior people immediately they find they have not got to black boots for a livi__*. Huntley's 'dude is delicious burlesque, and true burlesque, too,- for the likeness and true character are _ever lost under the broad humour of the representation. Whenever the "Three Little Maids" gives the slightesthint of lapsing into anything approaching inanition, on rolls Huntley's swagger pink idiot, and all is well again. Whatever he. does is good; if he simply swanks round and talks, the house is satisfied, the picture is so brightly done, the phrase is always so characteristic, the figure so true to type. It is rich, rollicking caricature. Next to Huntley, considered as a. source of joy, is Miss Madge Crichton, a small, dark, winsome womanlet, with a birdlike boul and a pretty way of doing all sorts of little things. Her simplest effort has a charm, and she sings several pleasant trifles most ' daintily^ The other two little maids are Misses Delia Mason and Elsa Ryan, both picturesque and sparkling actresses. Maurice Farkoa, the French tenor, who is confidently expected to work destruction amongst the female electors of the Commonwealth, is a trifle too galvanic, his spasms are occasionally uncalled for, but he sings feelingly, with a nice voice, .and a nice sense of the humour and proportion of things. The " Three Little Maids " is brightly staged, and yet has not the lavish appearancs of the average burlesque. The story itself is of no account, and the show has a very visible tail, the last act running thin. Considered as a whole, the show is gay enough to fetch Melbournet and Melbourne may be credited with being duly fetched.