STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 258, 28 October 1916, Page 14

STAGE JOTTINGS.

After.the Jfew Zealand tour "Peg o* My Heart , will return to Sydney lor another season- ' The first ' season iir Sydney ran to 111 performances.

Sybil Arundsle, known in Australia as a shapely panto, boy, and a bright musi-cal-comedy girl, ihas taken to the "legitimate." At latest from. London- she was playing Madge Tltheradge's part in "Tiger Cub" on tour.

The Academy of Music (Xiondon), to which so many Australian Melbas go (the "Bulletm" saye)', baa had to give up opera performances owing to lack of young men singers; and of all its old clerical, staff the only one remaining is a soldier who has done his bit and- come back.

Dorothy Gardiner is back on. the Fuller circuit in Australia —with Gnthbert Rose and Kitty Checkett, who's got a singing bird in her voice-box. The combination (says the "Bulletin) brought a peck of good wishes from the Maoriland circuit where their wholesome fun left the edgo-of-the-workl people rocking on a seventh wave of merriment.

KeEgioue bodies in Sydney are taking a lively interest in the suggested production of "Damaged Goods" by the J. C. Williamson management. From several pulpits sermons have been preached: al■leady, and Church papers are freely discussing- the play from a propaganda standpoint. The Christ Church, St. Laurence. "Monthly Paper" concludes a leading article on the subject of advising l parishioners ac follows: "Go to. see it; give your support to such a noble venture on the part of theatrical managers, i Take your sons and your daughters, too. if they are old enough to see it Pray that the blessing of Almighty God may hp. upon it, and it will be one of the best things that has happened in Sydney since its existence that "Damaged Goods' was staged here."

The difficulty of *V»rryinjr on" in London theatres increases from day to day,, says the "Weekly Dieoatob." Last year the Zeppelin .raids and the darkened streets constituted a heavy discount on playgoing. This year managers have been hit by the tax on antnsementa, the ehortaga of petrol and the consequent lack of taxi-cabs, and, finally, the dearth of juvenuile actore for leading parfca. In spite of all these handicaps there U unwonted a>ctivity in tho theatres which arc at a premium. Never have there been more plays in rehearsal for immediate production, and tie regular "first-nighters" have a glut of attractions in store. On the whole, too, the new plays promiee fa-r more novelty than usual.

Everyone (writes a correspondent of tlie London "Times") has seen the enormous crowds flocking to the various cinemas where the great pictures of "The Battle of the Somme" are being shown. To what object are the proceeds being devoted? Your readers might be startled to know that the people who are benefiting by tho pictures showing the magnificent heroism of our 6oldiers arethe cinema proprietors. I have ascertained that the cost of hiring the- Slum for the first week was but £40, and each week the cost is- proportionately leas. At one West End house I am informed that over £1,000 has been taken at the doors. Wiiy have the authorities let slip a most valuable source of revenue. when military charitiei are crying aloud for aaeietance, when we hear of the dieties* of those waiting for pensions I It would not h»vo been too much to aek the cinema proprietors to pay a royalty oi 25 per cent on their gross takings. And even then they would be making a handsome profit.

The stage board of moving picture censors of Ohio do not look kindly upon proposals for the filming of Shakespeare. Juliet is cut out of " Romeo and Juliet " because—to quote the sagacious censors Verbatim—" hero is a girl just in her teens conducting herself and opening her window in the night, or possibly in the early hours of morning to a young man to whom she has never been properly introduced. Tliis play abounds in the very kisses and love scones which this board has repeatedly condemned. There axe too many street scenes of extreme violence. Reduce these to a flash of about 10ft. The board has frequently announced it 3 disapproval of the administration of sleeping potions, and all such scenes in the play must come out." "Antony and Cleopatra may be screened provided Cleopatra is elimi-nated—carryings-on with a married man and her cruelty to servants make her an impossibility." Lear is not approved, as being a menace to family life, and containing.too many "shameful and scandalous discords." Now, perhaps, Hall Came won't be quite so proud of hia likeness to the discredited Shakespeare.

News was received in London recently that tbo brilliant young actor, Baeil Hallam —his real name was Basil Hallam Radford—had been killed at the front Last summer he joined the Kite Balloon Section of the Royal Flying Corps, and quite recently he wae promoted commander. He was a Charterhouse boy, who sang and danced himself into the hearts of London theatregoers after an apprenticeship under Sγ Herbert Tree. Born in 1889, he made his flrst stage appearance in Aflril, 1908. He played in Shakespeare and (in New York) in " The Flag Lieutenant," till "The Blindness of Virtue" gave him the part of Archie Graham. B«t these and other roles were but preliminary to tbe success he scored when, in April, 1914, he appeared as "Gilbert the Filbert" at thoPalace , Theatre. Never, perhaps, was there such I a happy combination as that of "Gilbert" and Miss Elsie Janie. But hie triumphs ! never spoiled him; he was a real " good i fellow." He " danced off" out of the ■ limelight in June last year.

Mr. Oscar Asche and Mies LSy Brayton nave just produced "Chu-Chin-Chow" at His Majesty's Theatre, London, and tlisecret is out that the origin of the "mnsicai tale of the Bast" is "The Forty Thieves." A drama a hundred years old, I and an opera, have co far represented the curiously little use made of "The I Forty Thieves" in the theatre, always excepting burlesque and pantomime, wherein the adventures of Ali Baba have' , jnst come second dn popularity to those Jof "Aladdin." In each case there has •been a difference from the story which ;hae become conventional. Two or three o. c the most familiar characters do not appear in the original tale at ali. Mr. Asche hae rejected them, hat has introduced others—taking Burton's incomparable translation for his starting point. The death of Dr. F. Osmond Carr, one o : the most tuneful of English light opera composers, took place suddenly at Uxbridge, Middlesex, last month. " Ho was fifty-eight. Hβ wrote the music to a score of burlesques, mueical comedies, and comic operas, including Gilbert'a "His Excellency." His most successful effort was "Morocco Bound," produced at i tie Sa*ite*bury The*ta« in ISA