STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 153, 27 June 1908, Page 12

STAGE JOTTINGS.

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATKE. June 8 to June 27 — Meynell and Gnnn. June 29 to JaJy 5 — "Tlie Tea-Girl." July 6 — Eiekards' Vaudeville Co. July 27 to Aug, 17 —, J. C. 'WllUamsoii, Pantomime ■ , .'-.'. "'• Anr;. 17 to Aug-. 29 — Frank Thornton Co. September 30 — Meynell and Gunn's Little Breadwinner Co. ! *'\' :?' OPEBA HOUBE.V '"''}';,, Wide World Picturesj .-,-.,. tgy ~. :

• 'HIS MAJESTY'S ? ' June 8 to June 27 — Meynell and Gunn. June 29 to July 5 — "Tlie Tea-Girl." July 6 i— Eiekards' Vaudeville Co. July 27 to Aug, 17 —, J. C. 'WilUamsoii,

T!he Williamson arrangements tor the American Fleet Week chance to be partir. cnlarly appropriate/. In Sydney, for .exam-, pie, while;, the fleet is; there;' The Red Mill," one of the most successful musical comedies ever staged in the-United States and ■; "Maz, Wiggs of 'the:, Cabbage Patch,", ;.'«.. comedy: .that has held the boards' for, ' five years; in. .the JJnited States . with;« undmunished ;popohirity, will be the attractions. 'When, v ,they re-;, move to Melbourne, the, Musical 'Comedy Company follows 'them with "The Prince of Pflsen" and "The Red Mill"; and at Her Theatre, Margaret | Anglin, ■ the American emotional actress, will have just started her dramatic season.. In Auckland while the fleet is iere it has been arranged that two performances of "Humpty-Dumpty" shall be given daily. - | Auckland theatregoers who witnessed tile last performance of the J. C. Wil- ; liamson Company here will apreciate the ' popularity of "A Royal Divorce." Similar scenes were enacted in Wellington on the i concluding night of the season. The I scene when men and women were struggling violently to force their way through j la narrow-passage to the stalls and fam-1 |ily circle entrance was not (says my Wellington correspondent) a very edify- j ing one. | The Frank Thornton Company were to open in invercarsrill on Tuesday in "When , Knights Were Bold." It will take the | cnmpanv till -i-uaust 17 to resell Auckland. 'The Private Secretary" is still to be found in the Thornton repertoire, and j will no doubt be staged here. The Tittel Brune production of Barries "Peter Pan," which has had rather a' I varied reception in Australia, will be the 1 Williamson attraction^for thei Dominion to follow the pantomime.:' .' v«; ! ~'■* i,' The "DoTninion" is the authority for I the statement that it is probable that the: Julms Knight Ola Humphrey Company may play a short return season through I.New Zealand, in which case the management may revive "Monsieur Beancaire,". and'; perhaps another play. "■; Messrs. Knight and Company have made them-, selves popular in these part*." ' . ■ The four best players on the London stage are ' Australians—Alice Csawfoid, Marie Lohr, Oscar Asche, and Cyril Keightley (says an enthusiastic Australian). Their promotiofiis blocked and their fame delayed, he thinks, by a group of. elderly mimes who should stop at home o' nights-and give people a chance.. Charles Wyndham (66), George Alexander (62); Beerbohm Tree (61), John Hare (65), Mary Moor*(64), and. Fanny Brough (59) wander about the London theatres in a most exasperating manner; and. are as' much beloved and applauded by theatre-goers as they were fifty years ago.-. *'?!-&-.. Private,'advices received in Wellington last week intimated, that the Pollard Juvenile „,Opera Company's season for Hobart Was, not a successful one, financially. •■ ''■'-.- '■ '," ■'

They do their entertaining on a big scale in New York. Recently W. K. Vanderbilt, the Railway (and 'several other kinds of) King "bought the house? for a performance Of "The Meriry Widow" at the "New Amsterdam Theatre there, which hold* about 2000 people, and must have cost.him something over £600.

; "Dolores Drummond, who ; played here in "the.good old times," has just completed her' seventy-second year.; Her last appearance on the stage, in London was. in "Peter's Mother," when, she completed' fifty-two. years on the stage. The theatre (says Mr. Shorter,in the "Sphere?') ...has gone through many agonies. For generations It was wicked; to-day, the great mass of English people regard. it as a sheer amusement, and managers conduct it like: a business. Only a very small percentage of the English people refard it as an art. Mr. G. D. Portus, manager for Tait's, is in Dunedin making arrangements for tlie New Zealand tour of the'"Merrymakers," which commences at InvercargU! on July- 11. His many friends in this city will he sorry to learn that he has had to undergo an operation in Dunedin Hospital, made necessary by an Old injury.. He hipes to be about shortly. Miss Ida Barnard, erstwhile' of the Williamson's epera chorus, is appearing with Mr. Seyiftour Hicks' London Company in "A Ureas Rehearsal."

Stage" is. decidedly rough on the ability of the Mnglisb to peare. The efficiency of our stage in Shekespearean eefcing rapidly declines, says the paper. WheTc, especially, are* our heroines «f Shakespeare? Wo have no practice, nw study to compare with the German; a» loyalty, even, to match the German.

' There are suae plucky people behind the footlights- The "Mann.watu ' Times" states that th*' Geach Dramatic Company, which played at Paimerston North on Friday and-Saturday, came through from Mastertoit, where one member, under urgent, meiical advice, had a bad '• abscess removed from his face. He could not well be reptaced, and so appeared each evening, after taking the dressings from the 1 wound, filling it with cotton wool in order that the "make-up" might be practicable, and replacing them after the performance. To make endurance possible at all, cocaine had to be injected on each occasion.

Mass Margaret Anglm/one of the most talented and charming actresses of the higher American stage, who opens in '"The Tbief" in, Sydney to-ndght, is just 32 years old. Unfortunately there is every probability that we in New Zealand are not going to. see' the very strong company of which she is the hr-ad.

. During the fih'al performance of the i Julius Knight-Ola Humphrey' Company in Wellington, the supernumeraries engaged in the production took the opof making presentations to the stage manager, Mr Thomas-Foster, and his 'assistant, Mr Paul Leathum. It was explained by the "spokesman for the donors that supernumeraries.were not in the habit of ihaking such pre-seiitatioiis, but because of the ' tajot, consideration. and general thoughtfillness shown' to them during the Reason, the}' had determined to present some souvenir of their appreciation. ' ' ..':.'' . "They say'l can't play Hamlet, but since I've been with'the Shubcrts I've played every hariilet' from' New York to San Francisco." That is the way Eddie [Foy, ! a shining light on the Americari variety stage, introduces his latest vaudeville "turn?' / ~/.

The last Liverpool Grand 'National Steeplechase race is being produced ,all over Great Britain by means of the biograph. The film depicts the' race from start to finish.

Fred: Graham and hfe; wife, 7 Nellie Dent, are now on the high seas, en route to Lo.n,don. They left Wellington, :•* ti»e latter end of last week by the Athenic. .

My Wellington correspondent thinks the Rickards combination now in season tfiereuinqueationably : the strongest vaudeville organisation shat has ever been .seen' in. l the Dominion. "Although the. nightly expenses'are placed at £125, the three New Zealand towns so fax visited have,.it .is aaid, swelled the tveajsasrg..

Huntley Wrigni, after a lengthy tour through the. United States in "The Dairymaids," is once more in London. Respecting America he has' formed some fairly definite opinions, which be has been rash enough to commit to.paper;-,;,"America ? Mr. Wright declares, "is a country of extremes, of continuous surprises. New York in August is,as hot as the interior of a raging volcano, as bitterly cold in winter as an ice-store. Its high places teem wtia oribery and corruption, but a lady smoking a cigarette in a public restaurant is at once requested - 'tip .leava? In the matter of news, the papers are something more .than up-to-date; yet in their: columns one is" daily confronted' with .the time-worn jest that although every Englishman' wears an eye-glass, he never can see-a joke. For a- charming opera like *Veronique' playgoers; .over there have no taste, but a Dead Man's Gullet drama, full of cowboys and revolvers, and with the stage strewn with dead. Indians, will draw the town. The principal difference to a London actor is that the New York runs are shorter than at home, and the rest of the time is devoted to touring. Then comes the awful experience of 'one-night sands.' During my wanderings I met a well-known English actress who had just played forty otowns in forty nights. Mentioning this to an American actor, he scoffingly boasted that he himself had done 200 towns in as many nights."

In one scene in' her newest failure in London, Mrs Langtry gets down oh the floor in the attitude of a scrubwoman and crawls all over the stage, making believe to look for a pearl. "Mrs Langtry, on her hands and knees," writes a correspondent, "is seen to different advantage than ever before. ' She was given- well, hard earned applause, but I wonder how her dress withstood it" .„ ~.,..,

About £2000 oare been spent on the dressing of the "Belle of Mayfair," which has just replaced "Miss Hook of Holland" lat the Melbourne Royal. Mr., (Qeo. Titheradge says of the Lonjdon stage:—"Formerly it was a merit for an actor to lose his individuality in his part; now, it is, above all things, desirable that he. should retain it, once his manner; is known to the, Londoner. ConsequentJy there is a tendency on the part of. P.l* v *"lghi« :tp run in a gToove, to avoid the bourgeois side <jf life, to have nothing less socially important than a baronet.*' Altogether the British drama to-day must have very nearly reached its lowest phase, thinks the actor. There is a probability of three big vaudeville, attractions running through New 'Zealand during the current year (says the "Sydney Referee"). Miss Florence Raines' company, with "Miss Lancashire Limited," will begin its New Zealand tour at the latter end of February. The company is at present in Westraiia.;

Joe Coyne plays Prince Danilo in "The Merry Widow" in London., The other day, according to the correspondent of a New York paper, he was telling of the trouble he has with his clothes. "Stage clothes riever.wear out, but you see, in that waltz I use my right arm so much | that the sleeve gets frayed. Instead of buying a new coat for mc each time they have to- put in new sleeves. You would hardly believe that I have worn out three setg-of sleeves, but it is true all the same. This last set, though, won't doi You see, the coat is a year old, and naturally has faded a little; so, of course, anew sleeve doesn't match. Hence mc for the tailors." •'- '-,"*.. . -~

Bland Holt's Adelaide season, just concluded, was both the longest and most profitable season ever experienced in Adelaide. : The company did! tremendous business right through, and on his farewell: night an immense* audience was present to-bid him good-bye. Bland Holt would not make a speech, but read a few lines' which he had Written about the season. < •'/; '-".:'■" ' ■-, •> It is stated that Miss Marie; Lloyd and Little Tich have signed contracts with the "Syndicate" halls which will suffice them until they resolve on* retiring into private life. Another well-known comedian is known to be' "booked up" till the end of 1914, at, a salary of £200 per week. It is understood that at the beginning pf 1915-' he intends to claim an old age pension. vi Miss Madge Mcintosh, who is just completing an Auckland season, was the original Mrs. Warren in George Bernard Shaw's play "Mrs.-Warren's Profession," produced by the Stage Society in London. •She toured with Olga Nethe'rsoll in America, and was in partnership with both C. V. France and Lumsden Hare, the latter, of whom had just returned from his Australian engagements. Lumsden Hare is now in America with Ethel Barrymore. "My last engagement," says Miss Mcintosh, "was with H. "V. Irving, but before that I played the Erhpress Josephine in 'The Great Conspiracy;'a Napoleonic piece, under the managerhent of James Frohman, at the Duke of York's. Sir John Hare played Napoleon.'' Queensland audiences have been giving Meynell and Gunn's '"Little Breadwinand "Stepmother" Company a good reception. Tlie two dramas mentioned, and "The Fatal have everywhere drawn packed houses. The company opens at Christchurch on August 6, and gradually works its way. to Auckland,, where it is due September'3oV '. ~ , Florence Young was out of the cast of "The Merry Widow" the" other day owing to a relaxed throat, and her place in the cast was taken by Miss Nellie Wilson, with some success.

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