STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 230, 26 September 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

"The Lady Slavey," a good, old play with some pleasant and other endurable variations, has been played during the week by Mr J. F. Sheridan and his company. Mr Sheridan's three characters are all comical enough in their own broad kind, and everything goes briskly and well. One wng there is that cannot be too severely censured for its senseless vulgarity, I was pleased to sue itihat at latex per.roruia.n'ces it was a.t lesast toned down oonei'd'einably, but it would be betlier omitted, for o-tiher-wdse tike pertfotr-maoiioe isi uutexceptionable. Mr Sheridan has plenty of other things up his sleeve, and he may be expected to play his never failing i "draw" in the "Widow O'lirien," A new i piece goes up to-odg'ht.

The Woods-Williamson Company on Saturday committed themselves to 1 a version of Marie Corelli'a "Barabbas." The experiment, while wise enough from the business poinf of view (to judge from the houses) was, from the artistic and critical standpoint, one which I should be sorry to help to encourage. The extremely good acting of some of the principals, .together with a few really powerful scenes in the play, saved the situation. It is a remarkable fact that this piece seems to be doing better than any of its predecessors, which included two good things at least. I don't know quite whether one should feel superior or snubbed!

George Musgrove's Company includes the last fragments of the ill-starred "Josephine Stanton Opera Company," which toured this colony many moons ago —in the persons of the evergreen Henry Hallain and the shapely Noremberg. The last oi all the chorus girls from America is she. Miss Stanton is resting in Melbourne, while Mr Hallam tours with the Comic Opera Company. Misfortune dogged that venture of Hallam's from the start. He opened well, but things went wrong. Two or -three of the company left him before he reached Invercargill— one on the veiy eve of a new piece. In Australia it was the same tale—good business to begin with, disorganisation in the company, disaster quickly, till in tlhe end HaJhun thrtew up the sponge and disbanded the organisation. The company scattered to the four winda save for the remnant that went with Josephine Stanton to Musgrove. There was some likely materia] in that company—mainly masculine, such as Van Dyne, Kunkel, and another comedian, whose name has slipped my memory. But they're all gone.

Probably no play at a West End theatre ever met with such a unanimous chorus of disapproval as the one-act horror, "The Soothing System," which Mr Arthur Bourchier presented on Thursdaynight (says a London contemporary). The feelings of the audience in the reserved portions of the house were expressed in a very outspoken way after the fall of the curtain, and Mr Bourchier was severely censured for producing a hideous play, in which nearly all the characters suffered from brain disease and homicidal mania. Six ladies left their stalls when the horrible scene, in which the lunatics, rendered murderous by the thunderstorm, turn on the two visitors to the asylum, Was depicted. Mr Bourchier "could not understand" this feeling of disapprobation. I can—especially when I remember that awful melodrama with the crypt scene in its last act staged by a melodramatic company visiting Auckland. But, really, one would have thought that Mr Bourchier would have stopped short of this.

It is reported that contracts have been signed under which Madame Patti will appear at a concert on November 27 at VVeber and Field's new West End theatre in New York. - The fee stated ie £ 2700, and the seats are to be sold by auction.

Mr Musgrove has finxully decided only to visit Auckland and Wellington on bis projected Sh«kesipea,rian tour. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Twelfth Night" wall be the productions.

Herr Benno Scherek has booked the foi lowing dales for Mise Ada Crossley's New Zealand tour:—Wellington, November 27 j ChrisLchurcb, November 30; Dunedin, December 2; Auckland, December 7. Prom Auckland Miss Crossley returns to England.

The Daniel Frawley Company, which appcare here in a few weeks' time, hail an enthusiastic send-off at the conclusion of their Sydney season. The company is now in Brisbane, where they succeeded Williamson's Mtisical Comedy Company at His Majesty's. The Comedy Company went further north. The Sydney "Daily Telegraph," which was responsible ijf the statement that Mr vieo. Musgrove was early retiring from management in Australia, publishes Mr Musgrove'e denial of the assertion. Mr Musgrove says the statement is absurd in view of his many interests in the country. He has gone to West Australia with the "Sweet Nell" Dramatic Company, headed by Miss Nellie Stewart, and after the season there he will return to Melbourne and Sydney some time in October. After a short stay in these cities he will leave for England via America, with the object of procuring fresh pieces for Australia, and selecting special players to present them. One of the attractions now pleasing London audiences that Mr Musgrove has decided to bring to Australia is the coloured opera company, appearing in "In Dahomey" at the Shaftesbury. The colonial season will begin at Adelaide in April next. In the meantime the Musgrove Comic Opera Company now playing in New Zealand, under the guidance of Mr Allan Hamilton, will afterwards visit Sydney and then "West Australia, wnile the Shakespearian company now in Sydney will play a short season in New Zealand, visiting the t\ro principal cities, and then go to Melbourne, opening at the Princess Theatre on Boxing Day in "Twelfth following this up with a final season in West Australia. Mr Musgrove is being represented by Mr Charles Westmacott with the Shakespearian company, and Mr Ernest Collins is his representative in Melbourne. Invercargill has decided to erect a theatre, induced thereto by the facts that the only building where a theatrical company could put up had been sold for a wool store, and that Wanganui has made such a success of its municipal theatre. The idea is to include the Town Hall in the same building as the theatre. Oamaru will probably follow suit, as that populous town has lost its only theatre. Howsoever small the business, to be done theatrically in the smaller towns, the theatre is so much a part of the local life that the gradual municipalisation of the theatre in the colony seems slowly growing, at any rate in the small towns where the dividends on Thespian property are small

The latest London "Era" has a photo of Mr Charles Arnold and a two-column interview with the popular actor. The concluding paragraph of the ,chat is rather significant of the actor's early return to harness: "Mr Arnold has for the past few months been living quietly at Beekenham with his wife, but he tells us that as the loneliness of their evenings in the country creeps on, they both feel an indescribable desire to again face the footlights."

In a recent interview in an English journal, Mise Ada Crossley relates an amusing experience which happened one night last season: "I was engaged to sing at an 'At Home' in Grosvenor Square, but the coachman by mistake set me down at a corresponding number in Grosvenor Gardens. There was an awning over the entrance and every sign of an entertainment in full swing, so, without noticing the surroundings further, I went in, took off my wraps, and made my way to the hostess. She appeared surprised, the more so as I was perfectly nonchalant, but knowing me from sight ou the concert platform, she soon guessed the situation. 'You are singing at Grosvenor Square to - night,' she said graciously. Then the mistake dawned upon me, but the most amusing part of my blunder was that both 'ladiee, though friends, were rival hostesses, and had an almost exact interchange of guests that evening, as I found later."

Referring to the production of a dramatisation of "David Oopperfield" in London, a writer in "M.A.P." cays: "I shall never forget the indignation caused in London some years ago by the production at the Opera Comique of ah American adaptation of "The Old Curiosity Shop," wherein the most curious, but not the most treasured, article of all was a cheeky Little Nell in silks and frills and high-heeJed shoes, who cheered herself in her affliction with the worse affliction of a banjo, and performed high-kick dances when she ought to have been saying her prayers! It was a very shocking business altogether, and the faces of the critics —'those of Mr Moy Thomas and Mr- William Archer especially —were set with the expression of insufferable gloom, fco which there came no relieving light when Quilp fell into the Thames, and Little Nell, who arrived in time to witness his final struggles for life, picked his hat up from the wharf and tossed it to him with the feeling remark: 'Hi! You've left some of your luggage!" .

The Melbourne verdict on "Resurrection" is much what the English was; no acting or staging can redeem a play which in itself is depressing, and a poor dramatic composition. The" critics universally warmly praise Miss Maud Jeffries, on whose shoulders the weight of the''play falls, and Mr Julius Knight, who appears in the difficult role of Prince NeMudof. The correspondent of bhe "Referee," dealing with the performance , says: The possibilities oi the story are almost unlimited, but they are not fully exploited. The fault ik all with the dramatists; none is with the management under 2lr J. C. Williamson's direction, and the supervision of Mr Clyde Meyne'll, Mr Tree's general manager, for the staging was realistic, while the scenic effects generally were superb; none is with the cast, for it wae an capable one. Those who adapted the play from the novel, Messrs Bataille and Morton, are wholly to blame, for the faults are evident, one being that there are too many short and unsatisfying scenes, some of which come on and go off without advancing the story to an adequate extent.

A roseate .hue 'has been given to theatrical life in Australia from both the players and managers' points of view by Mr Charles Arnold to am English interviewer. Mr Arnold says:—''The expenses of living in that country are very little in excess of those which prevail while touring in the English provinces. The salaries, however, anre much better, ranging from 60 to 75 per cent, more than are obtainable in the United Kingdom. There is a further distinct advantage in that tthe seasons sure much longer in Australia; a ownager never thinks of engaging a company far leas tihan 40 weeks, and very little time Is lost dn travelling. We .travelled our company for 52 weeks, of which period they only lost a fortnight in journeyiing from one place to another. The theatres in Melbourne and Sydney are irp-to-date in every detail. The highest price is 6/, and tihe lowest 1/; and, wi'flh a euccessful play, the receipts run up to as high a figure as from £350 to £370 a night. In one -week, when presenting 'What Happened 'to Jones,' I pfayed 'to £1913, whkih was the amount realised for seven This piece ran for seven weeks in Melbourne and eight weeks In iSydnrp. There is no city of the sizre of Melbourne in England where the same Results could be obtained. ,.

There are some theatrical managers who will not regard Mr Arnold's attractive picture ac a strikingly accurate one, so far as their very recent experiences of the two great Australian cities are concerned. New Zealand has benefited by this faot in the large number of good companies touring this colony during tihe past twelve months.

Jacobs, the young German who is to be the ealo violinist of the Ada Crossley tour, is reported to be an artist of qnite exceptional attainments, and the favourite pupil of the great Joachim, the first of living violinists. Jacobs is only twenty-two yeans. For the past two years he has been making a great name on bh« Continent, and at Nice during the season just closed he created a furore.

Miss Peggy Pryde, one of the most popular of Mr Rickarda' importations from England, will visit Australia again next year, and on this occasion will tour New Zealand. Miss Pryde leaves England for a tour of South Africa in about two months' time, and then comes on to Australia.

Miss Romer, as she waa known on the stage, mother of Robert Brough and of Miss Brenda Gibson, died recently on' board the Orita on the way to England. Paralysis was the cause of her decease. It is eight years since Miss Romer left off being about the finest representative of the stately elderly countess and the dignified draw-ing-room parent that Australia has seen for many years.. In the palmy days of the Brough Company there was no lady in Australia who could surpass her as the shocked peeress in a castle when her daughter had made a mesalliance, or her son had become entangled with a barmaid; or as the lofty moral relative whose' son-in-law had been found under circumstances that required explanation in the company of a Greek statue which had come to life while the family was at the theatre. » THM DEADHEAD.