STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 19, 23 January 1926, Page 22

STAGE JOTTINGS.

It is probable that Maud Fane '""ill : be returning to England soon. Her contract is nearly up, and she has farming interests on the other side which must not be neglected for too long. Josie Melville made special appear- ! ances in "Leave It To Jane," by way of j eaying farewell to Australian audiences. ' She leaves shortly on a trip abroad, and the J. C. Williamson management j arranged with her to sing some of her i most popular numbers during the per- i formance of the muaical comedy at Her j Majesty's. j Warde Morgan, leading man of; "Katja," has a fine tenor voice, which i was trained by George Utley, the Lon- ! don singing master of John McCormack. and Rosina Buckman. Originally he ap- i peared in Shakeepeare, and afterwards j played in modern drama and comedy, j until he was advised to make the most | of his voice by entering musical comedy. The war interrupted his career, but on returning to London he again played in musical shows there until he accepted his present engagement as Prince Carl in "Katja." In the past decade many Australian music-hall people have been crowded out of their own theatres by importations from the U.S.A., but a countermovement is now in progress. Con Coleano, called "the Wizard on the j Wire," has recently made a genuine hit j at the New York Hippodrome (says a ; writer in the Sydney "Bulletin"). The j Three Aussies (otherwise Ross, Barker, j and McLennan) are doing extremely well j on the Keith circuit. They are jazz; musicians who were discovered in a Mcl- I bourne dance-hall and graduated thence j to the Tivoli. The Eclair Twins have also made good in Xew York with a dancing act. They have their own jazz band, and are approaching- the RollsRoyce stage of vaudeville affluence. Mr. Arthur Styan, the popular character actor, died at Armadale, Victoria, last week. Mr. Styan, who was 50 years of age, has left a widow. He had been in ill-health. He was a son of Mr. Harry Smith Styan, solicitor, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, and had been on the Australian stage for nearly 25 years. He was an old and popular member of the Green , Room Club, and one of the founders and original members of the Actors' Federation. Mr. Styan was a versatile artist in both comedy and drama. Among his best j known parts in recent years was the title role in "Chu Chin* Chow". Since then he has appeared in drama with Miss Muriel Starr and Mr. Frank Har-: vey. "White Cargo" will be produced in Australia and New Zealand shortly. The principals, who will come from America, include Helen Stransky as Tondeleyo, and Leon Gordon, the autJior, as Langford. This play has been decried on account of its theme and praised for its virility. It has been successfully produced in America and England, and translations have been iriade for European countries. "White Cargo" is at preeent having a good run , in Vienna It is quite evident that Austrians don't know what the play is all about, writes a correspondent. They flock to it because it is "different," exotic. The idea of mixed ec-lour marriages has never presented itself as a problem in Austria, where the negro population consists of two or three hotel porters, kept for show, So Austriana do not see why they should get excited about it. The story of how a young woman, little more than a schoolgirl, made £17,000 on the production of "The Beggars Opera," at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, W., and then lost it all, has come to light. Miss Marian Wilson said to a "Daily Mail" reporter that %vhen 19 she helped to start the production, in the summer of 1920, with £700 given to her by her father. The sum was intended to help her on a career, and her | father said that if she did not "make j good" she would have have to perform household duties at home. "The production was a great success, running for nearly four years," Misa Wilson recalled. "In September, 1921, when I was 20, I was so enthusiastic over its success that I helped to start a season of British ballet at the Kingsway Theatre, W.C. It was a complete failure, and L. that and other theatrical enterprises I lost nearly J all the money that I was making on 'The Beggar's Opera. , But Ido not regret I losing the money. I had a good run for it!" The theatrical thrill of the year has been the first production in London of j Scan O'Casey's Irish drama "Juno and ! the Paycock." It was given at the Royalty, and if unbounded applause and wonderful criticisms can make a great j success of a great play, then Scan 1 O'Casey's fame and fortune should be secure. He is still a young man. His first essay at wage-earning was as a shop-boy. Since then he has been navvy, transport worker and latterly bricklayer. When he sent his first play to the Abbey Theatre, it was so crudely written that Lady Gregory, W. B. Yeats and Lennox Robinson could hardly read it, but they quickly discerned its merits. Now London hae endorsed their verdict, and there is great curiosity as to O'Casey's new work, which the Abbey triumvirate declare to be superior to his previous efforts. The title is an excellent one—"Tie Plough and the Stars." His first play was "The Shadow of a Gunman." In all three he has introduced his own friends — in several instances without even altering their names. Signorina Toti dal Monte, who is to make a concert tour of Australia this year, has been winning fresh successes in opera in Chicago, to which city she returned toward the end of November to! sing the role of Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" at the Auditorium with the Chicago Opera Company, under the baton of Roberto Moranzoni,, recently one of the Metropolitan conductors. The artistic soprano is eulogised for the ease and grace of her interpretation of "Una Voce" and the other well-known music, and for the resource with which, in the lesson scene, she sang some variations on "The Carnival of Venice." She seems to have fully confirmed the glowing impressions of last season, when hardened Chicago critics were stirred by the new voice which had come to them from Italy by way of Australia. One reviewer, typical of all, says of her most recent performance that she was brilliant, facile, and absolutely true in intonation, and that she came back to Chicago with as much applause as when she said farewell to it last year. There was another feature of interest in this cast, in the presence of Charges Hackett as Count Almaviva, He also receives great praise for his polished art; he looked a handsome, dashing count, we aTe told, and sang admirably.