GOSSIP FROM STAGE AND STUDIO.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4513, 15 November 1884, Page 4

GOSSIP FROM STAGE AND STUDIO.

(By Euterpe.)

Chocvers and Kennedy are performing in Liverpool.

Signor de Vivo is manager of the Pappen heim Opera Company in 'Frisco.

" At the Molbourno Bijou Miss de Grey's company has opened in " Moths," a dramatic version of Ouida's novel of that name.

The Woodroffe Glass-blowers are having a very successful time in Western Australia.

After doing splendid business for five months in Sydney, Hiscocks's Federal Minstrels have returned to Melbourne.

Miss Carry Nelson is still wandering about the by-places of the colony, being last heard of in the extreme north of the South Island.

Walter Reynolds is on the way to 'Frisco from New York. He has with him a number of English and continental pieces which he intends ta adapt.

Mr John Morley is stated to be engaged upon a life of John Stuart Mill foi his series of English Men of Letters, and for the same series Sir James FitzJames Stephen has undertaken to prepare a volume on Carlyle.

Two new plays by Robert Buchanan, author, poet, and dramatist, are to be produced in New York this season, and the writer is likely to cross the Atlantic to superintend their presentation.

Madame Sara Bernhardt did the sleepwalking scene as Lady Macbeth in her bare feet, without a suggestion of sandal or other foot-gear. The effect was realistic, but scarcely pleasant to look upon.

Lawrence Barrett, the American actor, who will shortly visit Australia, will revisit London in the, season of 1885-86, and play in the Lyceum Theatre under Irving s management.

Miss Georgie Smithson, the variety actress, has come down from Arrowtown and joined her husband, Mr Holloway, who is engaged as clown with Chiarini's Circus in Christchurch. Her arm has been successfully set.

A season of old English comedy has been inaugurated at the Melbourne Theatre Royal by a Company which includes the veteran Hoskins, Mr Greville, and Mrs Chippendale. The character of the acting is said to be fairly mediocre,

Nothing like realism! A theatrical manager proposes to produce " Hamlet" with a real brook for the fair Ophelia to drown herself in. The next thing we may expect will be a rival manager introducing a real ghost.

Messrs John L. Hall and Allan Hamilton, latoof the MarieLanyon Dramatio Company, have takon a fifteen years' lease of a piece oi land in Central George-street, Lauceston, for the purpose of erecting an Academy of Music thereupon.

The Girola Yacht Party have been performing in tho country towns of Wellington. Mr Miliis is the mainstay of the party, and without him it would be speedily wrecked. Miss Tottie Verne's "skipping rope dance " is said to be a clever performance.

What a Sydney paper terms "the dreary, maudlin, and sickly sensationalism of 'The Wages of Sin,'" has been withdrawn from theTheatreßoyalof thatcity, and Halliday's adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel, " Notre Dame," put on instead.

Handel's " Israel in Egypt" is to be performed in the Choral Hall on Tuesday, under the conductorship of Mr J. Knox. The soloists are: Soprano, Mies Stevenson j con tralto, Miss Corbett; tenor, Dr. Cobbett; basses, Messrs Osborne and Taylor. The choruses will bo trying.

Miss Emily Faitbfull, during her recent visit to the United States, arranged with the Fowler and Wells Company to become tho American publishers of her new book, entitled, "Three Visits to America." The work is in the press, and will appear simultaneously in New York and London.

In a notice of the revival at Drury Lane Theatre of Messrs Pettitt and Harris* popular drama, "The Worlds the "Pull Mall" speaks of Mr Harry Jackson's per formaneo of tho part of the comic Jew in that piece as inimitable. Harry Jackßon, as many old Auckland playgoers will remember, had his training on the colonial stage, and was well-known in this city.

Tbo latest theatrical novelty in New York is the performance of " Othello " by a genuine black and tan negro company. They are said to play the tragedy very creditably. But Desdemona with thick lips, woolly hair, no whites to her eyes, a flat bulbous nose, and her ankles planted in the centre of her spacious feet, is unthinkable.

A writer in the London -" Pictorial World," referring to the factthat Mr George Darrell has been elected a member of the Savage Club, says that though still a young man, be has written and pro duced more successful dramas than all the other colonial authors together, and that the experiment of introducing a purely colonial drama by a recognised colonial dramatist-the./?) _< experiment of the kind—is not unworthy of comment and encouragement.

Mrs G. B. Lewis's season in Christchurch is now well advanced. According to "Pasquin," in the "Otago Witness,'' the ladies of Mrs Lewis's Company) excepting of course the bright and particular, star, do not invite much notice, and their weakness was painfully apparent in a very peculiar comedydrama entitled "Clouds." This piece shows in every line the magic touch of the amateur playwright. There are.plenty of characters, but nearly one half of them do nothing, and their, presence upon the stage at all needs explanation. '

.Williamson, Gamer, and Musgrove's Opera Bouffe Company; have opened a new season in the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, with " Les Cloches do Corneville," Miss Emma Chambers, a new arrival, in the role of Serpoletto, , This lady made a very favourable- impression by her vivacious manner,- clever acting, and agreeable vocalisation. : Miss Nellie Stewart appeared as Germaine, and Mr Brennir as the Marquis of Corneville. Mr Woodfield's Grenicheux is criticised for his throaty production of voice, while Mr Kelly still earns kudos for his Gaspard.

Sims and Pottitt's "In the Ranks" is being played in the Melbourne Opera House to capital business. The " Leader " says :—" It is tame, although sensational, thin, although the passions in their intensest mood, are worked upon, and uninteresting because common-place and platitudinal. That it should be vulgar is but natural." Th. same paper, in expressing pleasure at seeing to the front Mrs Woodridge (who willbo remembered in Auckland) remarks : —" A finer old woman, or one professionally and privately more worthy of respect there is not on the colonial stage."

The Sydney branch of the Fraternity of Mutual Imps recently gave a first-class variety "social" in the Sydney Opera House, before a crowded "house " of members and privileged friends. Mr Chas. Harding, who was one of the performers sang the " Death of Nelson." The Fraternity of Mutual Imps is a unique association of Press and Stage, consisting as it does of press-writers and members of the theatrical and musical professions. It was founded.by. Mr H. F. Towle in Christchurch several years ago, and the idea found such favour that Dunedin, Melbourne, and Sydney Boon followed suit, and there is talk now of a branch being opened in Auckland.

The principal change in Pollard's Juveniles (now in Dunedin) is that the juveniles on this occasion are, with one exception, girls, and not boys; and secondly, that several of them are (ivoiving the paradox) not juveniles at all. The management s6em, in fact, to have shifted from their old_ ground, and how put forward casts in which the chorus parts are taken by children, and the principal parts by young ladies verging upon womanhood ;' or, in other words, the Pollard children of years gone by, the Misses Maud and May Pollard, being no longer children, are disappointing in their singing, while Miss de Lome (an Aucklondgirl)is said to have a most promising soprano.

The Dunning Opera Company finished their New Zealand tour in Invercargill, where they did the biggest five nights'' business they had in the colony, "Rip" being played on the fourth night to nearly £400. On the morning of the fire Dunning a"d George Dean turned out at 4 o'clock, and, in their pants and nightshirts, got out the wardrobe, which was uninsured.! jSihce then the Company have played a fortnight to bad business in Hobart. When the mail left Melbourne it was reported that tbey were to open in Adelaide on the 15th met. George Dean has left the Comply to_ fulfil a short engagement with J. S. Smith (husband of Frances Simerison) in the Hobart E rinbition buildiog. It is a kind of promenade concert for which there have a'so been • ngaged Herr Scholt's band Butchelder's Minstrelß, and Colonel Ike Austin, tho famons sharp-shooter, etc They were to open On Monday Uwt.