AUSTRALIAN THEATRICAL WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 19, 23 January 1926, Page 28

AUSTRALIAN THEATRICAL WORLD.

"KATJA" SCORES IN SYDNEY(SpeciaI to "Star" by M.M.) SYDNEY, January 12. "Katja," Sydney's latest musical comedy, with Marie Burke in almost as effective a role as "Wildflower," and with a" reorganised company, has completely caught the public fancy here.' It introduces a number of new faces— some of them genuinely funny faces, as in the case of R. Barrett-Lennard, the new comedian who lives up to the name —and some flower-like ones, such as Margery Hicklin's and Babetfe Odeal's — two typical English girls who have good soubrette parts. C. Warde Morgan plays the hero prince, and was specially engaged for that role in England, though on his arrival here he was put into "The Farmer's Wife" to play a Devonshire yokel. After a few weeks of that in Melbourne he came to Sydney to take up his original contract, and his baritone voice and good appearance has made him many friends amongst us. Cecil Kellaway, that fine old stalwart, h-as a better part than is usually his lot, and does a hand spring in the second act like a frisky youngster. Josie Melville has gone to London under the sheltering wing of E. J. and Mrs. Tait to gain more experience iv the dancing world. When she returns to us it is probable she will be classified strictly as a dancer. On the same boat went Ailsa Graham, who came back to her native land some three years ago to play Lady Nona Tybar in "If Winter Comes." Just before leaving she announced her engagement to a Melbourne man, but refused to disclose the name except to a few select friends. An old-time nigger minstrel show is winning plaudits in Melbourne and is just about due in Sydney at the Tivoli. Probably you will get it later on. veteran Charles Pope and Reginald Roberts have been blacked up, the first as an "end man," the latter as interlocutor. A syncopated orchestra plays the melodies that our grandfathers loved, and here and there in the audience a feeble old voice can be detected joining in the choruses Kitty Reidy's lucky engagement In London as lead in "Wildflower" is said to be due to her having the good fortune to meet the manager who was responsible for the production on the boat going Homewards, when her voice at ship's concerts and her sweet personality impressed him. Howard Worster has a part in the same piece, but, of course, he has played in London before. A picturesque figure in "Katja" is Ary ed Leoni, an Italian, who lately became a naturalised American, and who was in Sydney a few years ago for a short time, but could not find his stage footing. At that time he appeared with the Repertory Society here in "Liliom," itaving come with credentials of his rendering the same part in the original in European capitals. He plays an aristocrat turned minstrel, and the clevoted lover of Katja, albeit his luck is out in favour of Katja's "hereditary enemy," Prince Carl. Naturally, what could a musical v comedy prima donna do but marry a "hereditary enemy" in any selfrespecting musical comedy. Bobbie Simmers, well known in Auckland amateur theatrical circles, is now understudying Leyland. Hodgeson in "Leave It To Jane."

Nora JicManus comes into her own at last when she returns to her own dear Auckland in "Whirled Into Happiness." OT course she has been seen already in this play in Melbourne, and was considered far superior to the originalactress cast for it. She has*lso played in "Betty," so you are really getting a fully-fledged leading lady in Nora, though she has had to wait her turn to take up the parts permanently. Elma Gibbs, who has gone over your way to play Maude Fane's part in "Leave It To Jane," is a Newcastle girl, who had the luck to as Fifi in "The Belle of New Yorfj»by one of J. C. Williamson stage managers, during an amateur season of that good old evergreen in her native town. She was immediately engaged to understudy the golden haired Maude, and did so in "Primrose" as well as the later piece, she played for Maude Fane in Sydney for some time and with great applause and much encouragement from the management. Marie Burke, with her mother and her little daughter, Paddy, has a house at Rose Bay, in Sydney, and has quite settled down to stay in Australasia for the present. Gladys Moncrieff, who with her husband, Tom Moore, is going to England and the Continent, via America passed through Auckland last week on the Niagara. She has a personal invitation to call on Franz Lehar, the composer of "The Merry Widow," if she gets as far as Vienna. Muriel Starr has finished her contract with the J. C. Williamson Firm, and is shortly setting out for New Zealand with a company of her own, in which the Big Firm will only have a part share, and provide the theatres. Harvey Adams will be her leading man, a return to his original place in her company when she toured South Africa a few years ago. At present Muriel is resting after a most strenuous season in Melbourne and Sydney of revivals and farewells, and her •company's personnel has not been chosen. To her most popular roles are likely to be added Nellie Denver in "The Silver King." and Josephine in "A Royal Divorce," when she reaches the happy shores of New Zealand. "The Farmer's Wife" is as excellent a show as Sydney has seen in a decade, the parts all being played by just the right people. A fine character actress has been revealed to us in Susan Richmond, whose study of an English old maid with a mid-Victorian mind is unique in its way. Mary MacGregor has a gentle part, and manages a Devonshire accent not discreditably. The farmer, who has most of the good things of the piece, is in the hands of Townsend! Whitling. He was out our way some years ago with Ethel Irving. During the war he tried his own hand at practical farming in the south of -England, and held the ground for two years. His is a racy performance, savoring of the soil. His wife, Violet Ley, also appears in the plky. The sensation of this week in Sydney is the first appearance as a professional of Mrs. Pitt Rivers, the daughter of the ex-Governor-General. Lord Forster. Favourably known as an amateur with the Repertory Society here, her ambitions have grown of late, and she will burst! upon local audiences as a fully-fledged leading lady as Lady Mary Carlisle, in a revival of "Monsieur Beaucaire," that Old World romance that, up till now, hag been the happy hunting ground of Julius Knight when seeking histrionic laurels. Frank Harvey is cast for Beaucaire, and Mrs. Pitt Rivers, who in future will be known by the simple stage name of Mary Hinton, has stepped in Muriel Starr's vacant place with the ompany recently later playing "Secrets" and "Within the Law."