STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 259, 9 November 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

'"Florodora." which was still running merrily to excellent business

when the column went to press, will be replaced next week by the '"Casino Girl." This is said to fit the com-

pany "like a glove

and . proved

much more successful in New Zealand than it seems to have done in Melbourne. What is one company's meat is not infrequently another's

poison. In the "Casino Girl

imitation of Irene Frankton is one of the more notable features. On dit, it is very clever. Little Bain is also reported to score.

"The Belle of New York" will be revived for a night or so during- the seasou. This is good news. Superior critics may say what they like, but Gus Kerker's music, if frivolous, is also delightful.

"La Periehole," which the Pollards are now rehearsing every morning, has not been played in Auckland for fourteen years or more. This was by Shnonscn's troupe, and curiously enough, '"Torn Pollard" was in; the cast as the Old Priest. One of the most popular of Offenbach's operas, the revival of "LaPerichole" will give the critics something tu' ■ compare with the modern school.

The De Wynne1 Bros., head and hand balancers, whose remarkable feats created so much astonishment at the City Hall a few months bad;, will re-appear for a season with Dixs Gaiety Company, commencing on Tuesday next.

Madame Celina Bobe, said to be a brilliant violinist and a clever manipulator of the xylonophone will appear at the City Hall on Novenibeij 19th.

At the close of his Sydney season, Mr Brough, in a brief speech, outlined his plans for the next year or so. After the X.Z. season the company will return to Sydney for six weeks. Then lie goes to Western Australia, and after that to China and India. On his return from the East he would, he said, have news of some importance for theatre-goers. What can this '"news" now foreshadowed be? Surely not retirement! And yet the popularmanager must have made his "pile" years ago, and may wish for rest.

"The Belle of New York" must run "Florodora" .very close as a popular favourite. Revived in Adelaide by the Williamson Musical Comedy Company (J.C.'s second string in comic opera), Kerker's musical absurdity is meeting with huge enthusiasm. "FJoradora" was the Cup week attraction in Melbourne, by the way, and followed on the "Gondoliers."

"The Casino Girl" failed to hit the public taste in Melbourne. "The Leader" says: "In spite of brightness in mounting, the excellence of the dancing, and the unwearying vivacity of the company, .the public has not taken kindly to the piece. It is over full of emptiness even for an audience inured to the comedy opera of to-day. Buffoonen r cannot entirely take the place of humour, nor pantomime songs s\ipply the deficiency of genuine music."

Miss Alice Hollander is a New Zealander who bids fair to succeed. It will be remembered she was much admired here, and though boomed in advance on the other side to a rather injudicious extent, seems to have done well. One critic says: "The expectations aroiised concerning" the new contralto, Miss Alice Hollander, who came from New Zealand with a high reputation, have been amply sustained. The young lady possesses a voice of phenomenal quality, of extensive compass, strong, rich and pure. The predictions concerning her future success in a wider sphere are not made without warrant. She displays careful training in her methods of prodtiction, but is still lacking in some of the requirements which denote the finished artist.

Lempriere Pringle, the Tasmanian basso, with Misses Lillian Boanas and Julia Davies, two of the young ladies of the chorus from Musgrove's Grand Opera Company, and the chirpy little Herr Benno Sherek, who broke awaj' from the Monowai crowd in New Zealand, and, picking up Charles Rose, the tenor, and Clifford Walker, the monologue entertainer, in Hobart, formed themselves into a concert pa'Ky, did wonderfully fine business in the Tasmanian capital and also in Launceston.

So poor "Teddy" Lonnen has gone! His death must have been expected by his friends in the Old Country, for even here we knew on hmv slender a thread his life has hung of late, but regret that so painstaking1 a comedian should have died so young will not be the less keen on this account. When he was in New Zealand, some years ago, Lonnen made a host of friends off the stage, as well as securing- an army of admirers in his professional capacity. He came of a theatrical family, but began life in a humble fashion enough. His father and mother and both his grandparents were stage folk of the minor order. He was born in 1863, and when two years old used to tpddlc on to the boards, and delight the atidienee at performances given by a stock company, of which his father was then the manager. A couple of years later he played in his first pantomime, and continued to appear in that line until 1879, when he joined Mr Charles Dillin's Company for a year, and essayed comedy. He then started for a tour with his ■mother and father, to uloy "Box and Cox" in the West of England. But the family troupe was unfortunate, seldom finding an audience worth more than a few shillings, and often not clearing half-a-crowu for n performance. As a rule they stayed two days at each pitch, and walked from one town to another, sometimes covering marches of twenty miles, carrying their scenery and theatrical "props" with them. His first success was in "Falka." After seeing him in this. George Edward engaged him for the Gaiety Company, with whom he remained while he could stand on the boards. Mr Lonnen was an inimitable burlesque singer, and particularly successful in exploiting songs and endowing them with popularity, as witness "Killaloe." "I Shall Have Them By and Bye," "Enniscorthy." and "The Bogie Man.'" Lonnen was never a genius of the Fred Leslie stamp, but he was about the best man after Leslie, and decidedly the lightest and best dancer of his type who ever visited this colony.