STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 272, 15 November 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

The more I see of the Pollard Company", the more I am impre'ssesu with the amount of youthful virility and capacity for genuine hard won-, on the part of practically every member, amongst principals, chorus, an. even supers. I saw them in "Djinjjjin" on Saturday afternoon last. Ii was an informal and decidedly laiv^ performance, to which a strict stag manager might have oojected; 1

for vigour, frivolity, and genuine enjoyment in looking it might have been a party of enthusiastic amateurs performing-. Ihe fixed, wearied smile, and the conventional grin of the chorus girl, or the superior fixed smirk of the leading lady, are never seen with the Pollards. They seem to absolutely enjoy their work and to treat the whole affair as a huge lark. This, I suppose, means youth. At all events, it is wonderfully inspiriting, and covers a multitude of sins, whatever the production may be.

The initial performance of "TJie Toreador" on Monday evening last was about as free from first night flaws and mishaps as any original prodtiction I remember. When one recollects that no member of the company had ever seen the new musical comedy, and that "business" had to be invented and the parts "created" by those in charge,withou t even a hint from the Australian and English performers, the Pollard Company deserve more than a little kudos for the very clever manner in which they staged and acted the comedy. Miss Connie Buttel, Mr Aylmer, and Miss Alice Edgar scored heavily; the last-named, in her part of Mrs Hoppings, gave a low comedy character study which in its own class I have not seen excelled. In this instance, too, Miss Edgar plays so easily and so naturally, and so admirably refrains from forcing her points or her humour, that I venture to predict a distinct future for her. She is a genuine and natural comedienne, and only needs increase of experience to enable her to achieve a success of considerable magnitude.

The fortunate shareholders in the London Gaiety Company must, by the way, be prayerfully grateful to "The Toreador." By the latest "Era"' I see the comedy is still going strong at the famous Strand Theatre, and a dividend of 20 per cent, has been declared for the year, with £7000 to reserve, account, and £14,814 18/4 written off dresses, etc., for depreciation. There is no doubt a musical comedy of this sort is a veritable gold mine il! it does happen to "catch on." But when it doesn't, and many don't, a theatrical venture wall beat both the proverbial "firstclass woman and second-class horse" in making the money fly.

Julius Knight, one of the most popular actors who have visited this part of the world, has been starring in a new play called "Virginia," produced for absolutely the first lime in Manchester on October 2nd, Mrs Langtry playing the heroine, Virginia, Duchess of Sees bury, and Julius Knight Sir Chas. Croftte, K.C. The play is pronounced a success. The motif of the plot, if one may use a musical term, is that of a woman who, having married a man much older than herself, in'a spirit of selfsacrifice for the sake of a mother and brother dependent on her, finds herself the object of suspicion and jealousy, and is driven to devise a means of punishing her ungracious husband. This takes the form of a pretended interest in another man, a young K.C., who, a man of the world, is only too eager for the situation; and, naturally, it happens that the intimacy (illustrated by her accompanying him alone to the theatre, and his impassioned declaration afterwards in the lady's boudoir at one o'clock in the morning) becomes perilously compromising. It reaches a point, in fact, when the lady (Virginia) might be persuaded to escape from the torture of her husband's unjust suspicions by yielding to the appeal of Sir Charles Croffte; but from the immediate danger she is saved by the intervention of a welldesigned episode. This is the request of her brother, Lord Scarlett, that she 'shall use her influence to persuade her husband's ward, Muriel, to marry him at once by special license. The happiness of their prospect —a kiss from Muriel—the sense of what her yielding to temptation must mean to these two—all this revolts Virginia from the prospect offered by the impassioned 3LC, and brings her to her senses.

A veracious chronicler states that Mr Joseph Came, the gTey-haired, scholarly-looking actor whom Brough brought out, had to keep under cover in Christchurch because every time he ventured on the street he was rushed and forcibly embraced by some middle-aged dame or another, who insisted on calling him "The Master," owing to his striking resemblance to the Eev. A. B. Worthington, the "Apostle of Truth."

The air is full —just a little too full —of Sandow. His books on physical culture, his dumb-bells and Ms developers, are Ibeing sold everywhere, and already many axe engaged in exercising their muscles in a spasmodic manner. Sandow, whom Professor Sargent, of Harvard, says is the best developed man who ever lived, will arrive on Sund,ay next by the s.s. Waikare from Sydney, inaugurating a short season of six night at the City Hall on Monday evening, November 17. He had a very successful tour throughout the Australasian States, some of the papers waxing very enthusiastic over him. The Adelaide "Register" says: "Caesar exclaimed triumphantly, 'Veni, Vidi, Vici,' and well might Eugen Sandow shout after the great ovation he received at the Tivoli on Tuesday evening, 'I came —I saw—l conquered.' Sandow is more than a strong man, he is a great artist, and a perfect showman." The Melbourne "Argus'' says of Mr and Mrs Sidney Brew, who are of the Sandow company:— "Mr and Mrs Drew an comedy artists may be ranked as as clever in comparison with those in the first rank of the Australian stage." The comedy, "When Two Hearts Are One," to be presented on Monday, is, according to accounts, screamingly funny from start to finish. With such artists, and Professor Maeeann, Mark Anthony, Little Fanny Powers, Misses Ray Jones and Nita Leete, and some fine pictures to be exhibited by the bioscope, the Sandow Company promises to be a strong attraoti'on.

The fact that Mr. Bland Holt has just purchased by cable the new Drury Lane drama, "The Best of Friends," again by Mr. Cecil Ealeigh, gives interest to the press descriptions of it. The dialogue was pronounced "slow in places," but that fact does not concern colonial playgoers. When the London critics ventured to make that remark, "The Best of Friends" was lasting from 7.45 until after midnight. Mr. Raleigh will himself cut down and polish his dialogue so as to save about 40 minutes, and when the script reaches Sydney Mr. Bland Holt will cut out another 40 minutes of superfluous talk, with the result that the Australian "first nig-ht" will at any rate escape the worst faults of the London one. The first night at Old Drury, in spite of its length, was declared highly enjoyable. "The World" remarks:—"ln point of picturesqueness, 'The Best of Friends' at Drury Lane certainly compares well with any of its predecessors. The terrace of the ducal castle, the yeomanry supper, and the market square at Johannesburg are all brilliant and animated scenes, the last in particular being unusually plausible and lifelike. The surrender of 'The Last Commando' is so cleverly put on the stage as to be almost poetic; and the final scen'j, representing the gallery of the hippodrome, is a veritaible triumph of realism, even more remarkable than the music-hall and House of Commons of bygone years." Mr. Holt will not be in New Zealand till the Christmas after next.

Aff,er the New Zealand tour of Musgrove's Musical Company, it is likely that they will play a three months' season in Melbourne, opening in "The Messenger Boy," which has had a good run in Sydney. "The Belle of New York" will also be staged with, probably, Edna (May in the name part.

Mr. Haddon Chamfbers' play, "A Modern Magdalen," (first called "Dolores") underwent a toning-down process after its first production in Adelaide. One important alteration consists in representing the heroine, Dolores, as ignorant when she takes her first false step that the man whose mistress she is to become has a wife. "Mice and Men," was revived after the new piece had run for a few nights, and on the "vice-regal command" evening "Sweet Nell" was substituted for "A Modern Magdalen." Evidently Mr. Haddon Chambers has been following the lead given by Mr. Pinero in "Iria" with poor results.

The strong poiufc about "The Sorrows of Satan," which the Muegrove Company produced at the Princess' Theatre, Melbourne, last wee-k, and which is to be produced here during the Nellie Stewart season, was the Lucio Eimanez of Mr. Harcourt Beatty. Miss Nellie Stewart was not in the cast of this piece. The chief feminine part was entrusted to Miss Alice Farleigh.

When rebuilt Sydney Her Majesty's will seat 2000 people in its stalls, dress circle, and amphitheatre. The site will be so excavated that the stalls will be on or below street level, the circle on the old stalls level, and the amphitheatre—thirty-nine steps up—on the old circle level. Entrances and exits will be on three sides — from Pitt and Market Streets, and from a lane debouching into Pittstreet. The stage will be fitted with an asbestos fire curtain. There will be twenty-eight single dressingrooms and four large ones for supers. Architect Pitt intends to provide a sliding shutter in the ceiling 'beneath the sliding roof.

"The Honesuckle- and the Bee," the rage of last pantomime season in England, and which is still a great favourite here, promises to be enlire ly eclipsed in popularity during the coming months by the same gifted composer's song, "The Sunflower 2nd the Sun," which is being applied for from all points for pantomime.

Mr Oily Deering, a very old New Zealand favourite, and now of the Hawtrey Company, tells a good story of his earlier days. Theatrical "make-up" material wae not of the quality that it is at the present time, ;iud very homely materials were often brought into use. Mr Deering was pourtraying a character blessed with a 'Cyrano de Bergerac" nose, f and used flour to aid him in the building up of this nasal structure. Having run short one evening, he despatched one of the stage hands for a small packet of 1-lour, and made up as usual. All went well till the play was well on its way, when to his horror in the midst of a big- scene, he suddenly felt his nose growing larger and larger, and portions dropping off, till at last the rest of the cast were convulsed with merriment, and he rushed from the stage amidst the suppressed shrieks of his fellow-ac-tors. The man had brought him selfraising flour!

The details of Miss Ada Willoughby's death make very sad reading. She wils suddenly taken ill, and died in the cab in her husband's, arms. Mr Reginald Sheldriek—Miss Willoughby's husband —failed to gain an entrance for her at the hospitals, and was forced to convey the dead body of his wife to Sleight the undertaker, where she lay till buried.

Miss Lettie Harms ton, a one-time member of Tom Pollard's Opera Company, writes from Yokohama, Japan, a long- descriptive letter to my colleague "Pasquin," dealing mainly with life in the "Land of the Chrysanthemum and the Geisha." Owing- to pressure on space it is impossible to tise it in its entirety. Miss Harmston is in the best of health, bat a day or two prior to writing she had a narrow escape from a serious accident. The horses attached to the carriage in which she was riding took fright, and bolted, knocking over a coolie and his jinrickshaw, smashing the rickshaw in pieces, likewise injuring the coolie, who had to be taken to the hospital. After travxelling at top speed for fully a mile, the Japanese driver managed to get the frightened animals under control, and lifted Miss Harmston from the bottom of the carriage, whither she had fallen in a d^ad-faint from fright. A Japanese policeman arrested the driver, and gaoled him for the night, but he turned up next day to take his mistress out for another drive. She also threatened him, and he disappeared. The injured coolie called for compensation for a broken rickshaw and a damaged person. He accepted eight yen (16/) in settlement, and. ran away laughing. THE DEADHEAD.