STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3, 3 January 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

"The Wrong Mr Wright" proved to be all that was claimed for it in the way/ of a laughter raiser. Like most of Broadhurst's farcical comedies its greatest fault is that it. is too shorty. The piece certainly is having a good run, for it does not give place ta "On and Off" till Wednesday night. It is a pity that a better curtain raiser than ''The Grey Parrot" did not precedeMr Wright, for with all respect to the bird it is duller than the alleged greyness of its plumage. I have heard "On and Off" well spoken of by all who have seen it.

The opening of His Majesty's Theatre has been successfully accomplished with no further contretemps than that of the partial failure of the electric light. This, however, must have been somewhat galling to the proprietors, who, having stinted nothing, were surely justified in. expecting that such a simple installation wpuld be in working order by the first evening. However, it was not to be, and the auditorium was disappointingly "dark during the interval, while the larger part of Act 11. was played, so to say, in the shade. It was a pity, for some of the stage effects depend on high lighting. However, electrical engineers err just the same as other humans, and the public took the shortcomings in this direction very good-temperedly. Bar the electric light fiasco the "new theatre met with universal admiration, and is certainly exceedingly comfortable. The removable roof slid off in the interval, and the difference in the atmosphere was very appreciable and grateful. The directors of.the company, with Mr. "Jim" Coates, general manager of the National Bank, occupied a box on the right-hand side. The audience was a very representative one, but owing to it being a race night few people were in evening dress, and the circle and orchestra stalls were not so brilliant in appearance as one had imagined would be the case. Some of the jokes in "The Runaway Girl" are good, others would disgrace a burnt-cork show. The oldtime "gag" of a man repeating the after-food thanksgiving, when told to address a Duke as Your Grace, was never really witty, and is worn threadbare. Moreover, Lord Coodle is not entitled to be called lour Grace. And there were several worse than mis. By the way, one more or less immoral jest missed fire, I was pleased to say. Speaking to her husband, Lord Coodle, Lady Coodle observes: "Oh, dear (I forget the hero's name) wants to marry a singing- girl," placing the accent on singini Sri. "Marry a singing girl," says the elderly peer (with the accent on marry), "that wasn't necessary m my time." I am no purist, but surely this is not witty or necessary. However, I prefer open indecency to veiled ceruleanosities and patent double entendres, from which "The Runaway Girl" is far more free than half a dozen musical comedies I could men--1 While on this subject may one ask, with prayerful earnestness, if we are ever going to get away from the alling humour of ladies' underclothes, split pants, babies, inopportune and otherwise, and bathing dresses cvrt too tight. All these things are dcs •neratelv funny, but they do pall after S a intur/or so of extant repetition. Why should the jokes of the fathers be Visited on the children to the third and fourth generation I can't understand, can your Miss Olga Nethersole, heroine of The training of an actor should be as careful, as prolonged, and as proSund as that of a painter, sculptor or musician. Women were more adaptable as actors than men for they had a more nervous tempera ment, and were more assimilative than men. While the stage and actin - now were vastly superior to 30 years ago, she was compelled to refer to the cause of the mediocrity which everywhere obtained, and which she believed resulted from the lamentable absence of the doctrine of selection. The stage was looked uponas the last resource of respectability. How often did they hear of a man, having failed in all other things, goin o- on the stage, or a woman, through some act of notoriety, placed upon the stage by speculators, and the public crowding to see the notorious one. Such abuses were harmful, and stultified the claim that acting should be regarded as a fine' art. She would have the State in each country establish a college for the training of actors, and no one should be allowed to appear in public without his diploma, any more than a lawyer or doctor was allowed to practise without one. Until such a conservatoire was established her profession would always be subject to a certain feeling of distrust on the part of the public. Madame Sarah Bernhardt has silenced the German journalist who insisted that she was a Teuton. A Jewess who read that Madame Bernhardt was born in the Fatherland wrote to the great actress, believing herself to be related to her. She received the following telegram from Hamburg: —"Madame, —You have been deceived by a scandalmongering paper. I was born in Pans, in the Rue St Honore. My mother, Julie Bernhardt, was Dutch, and my father a Frenchman." • Apropos of the above: —"When I said I would die a bachelor," says Benedick, "I did not think I should live to be married." Something the same sort of argument is used by Madame Sarah Bernhardt about her proposed German tour. "When I refused to go to Germany," she says, "I was still thrilling with the emotion of the war which I had witnessed. This emotion caused me to hoM out longer than the others. Then my ideas altered with time and events and I have replaced my deep desire for vengeance with a profound love for peace." The case of Rickards v. Barney and Mrs Fagan (otherwise Fagan and Byron) is, moralises the "Bulletin," an interesting lesson jn the ways of the theatrical world. Rickards engaged Fagan and Byron for a period of six months, at a salary of £65 a week, with the ordinary business proviso that they were not to enter into any engagement with a rival Australasian manager within six months of the termination of the Rickards' contract. Having served their term with Rickards, who offered them a re-engngement which they didn't accept, Fagan and Byron sold their services to WiTHa-mcon and Mnsjrove m fierfiaace &? tho prov'eo afore-

said. Eickards,' last week, obtained an injunction to 'restrain Fagan and Byron from fulfilling their new engagement, but He practically consented to cancel the restraining clause in their contract if they pay £250 compensation. On behalf of the Fagans, who had no legal leg to stand upon, it was pleaded that, although they received £1570 salary from Eickards for the six months previous to October 18 of they are now in an unfinancial , condition and must either work for Williamson and Musgrove or "sit here starve." Actors and their money are soon parted, seemingly.

All New Zealanders who admired "the Marvellous Craggs" (,and who did not) will be glad to hear that Mrs Cragg, the wife of J. W. Cragg, head of the gentlemen acrobats, presented her husband with a fine baoy boy on October 31. Mother and baby are both doing exceedingly well, and v J.W. is proud of the new addition to his acrobatic troupe.

I have received for review "Paling's Christmas Annual." The title cover has a handsome photo of Madame Melba. The contents are above the 'mark even for a special number. Gounod's "Nazareth" alone gives the budget of songs special value., though the words are not the same as in the original. "Will o' the Wisp" and "The Bell ringer are accurate reproductions of two very fine songs. "The Soldier's Last Message" and "The Guard Ship" are good songs, and them are. several .others that will nodoubt be popular with vocalists partial to songs that find popularity chiefly in the music halls. The .piano music includes a pretty , "Coronation" mazurka. "Baliy Eeund the, Union Jack" (words by Thomas Eae,' music by C. Trussell) i 3 a Rood stirring aong in the key of C, catchy, but with sufficient. merit to ensure it a good reception when well sung, and it presents no difficulties whatever either in the song or its accompaniment. ■•'■■ THE DEADHEAD.