STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 49, 27 February 1926, Page 22

STAGE JOTTINGS.

"I hear that 'Yvonne," just produced at Manchester, is a success, and that Mark Lester has a bright topical song: •What did the Hot Water Say to the Cold as they. Both Ran into the Bath? , "—The Playful Stallite in "London Opinion."

Miss Myra Kowe, an Auckland girl who has been working in the ballet on the Fullers' circuit for the last eight years, has been given a leading part, as a soubrette, with Jim Gerald's company, at present in Sydney. According to newspaper and office reports she is doin<* very well in her new sphere.

In the opinion of Madge White, Mai Bacon, the English comedienne, who is coming out for "Mercenary Mary," will be very popular in Australia, Miss White has played with both Miss Bacon and Jack Morrison, a very versatile actor, who will also make his Australian debut in this Hugh J. Ward attraction at the Princess at Easter. Mr. Morrison, who made his first London appearance in 1913, has taken part in numerous revues and musical comedies in that city.

Nellie Stewart is to be Sweet Nell again. And again this philanthropic woman is seeking funds for the suffering poor. Recently she asked for suggestions as to the form her appeal should take. Hundreds replied, and nearly every one suggested a performance of "Sweet Nell of Old Drury," with Miss Stewart in her famous part. At a largely attended meeting at the Hotel Australia in Sydney last week it was decided that J'Sweet Nell" should be staged, and Miss Stewart announced that she felt certain she would be able to organise a company of leading artists to support her. There were a number of Melbourne people at the meeting, and Miss Stewart was assured that many would travel to Sydney to attend the performance, which will be an historic event.

Melbourne is having an epidemic of new shows. Beresford Fowler, indomitable purveyor of highbrow drama, opened on February 22 in a repertoire of intellectual plays, including Shaw's "Candida," Ibsen's "Master Builder" and Houghton's "Hindle Wakes," a piece that raised the dust of controversy when it was first presented in the Cold Land and has since done well on the screen Fowler's first offering will be "Rutherford and Son," which was his most meritorious effort last year. Following on his heels comes Dion Boucicault, who opens on March 20 in a Barrie series with Mary Hinton (Mrs. Pitt Rivers) in some of the leading roles. Pavlova is in the offing and Chaliapine just over the skyline.—("Bulletin.") j

Says "Hamfat," in the "Sydney Bulletin": "From the managerial point of view, the most delightful 6how-town I ever visited was Taihape (M.L.). Encouraged by a deputation of Taihapians who visited our chow at Mangaweka, we coached it to their fastness over a frightful road, and found it to consist of two small pubs and a multitude of tents. But the inhabitants were hospitality itself. "Don't sell any bob tickets," we were told —the crowd would be glad enough to pay 2/6 and 4/. At those prices we got houses that made us prepared to meet cheerfully the extravagant hotel charges of which we had been warned. But there was no extortion; both publicans mentioned that their charge for theatricals was five bob a day, and that the matter of drinks had been "fixed"—a self-appointed local committee had arranged that. We drank ( deep 'with the committee until the coach left in the morning; and most of us knew nothing of the jolty journey back until he were wakened In Mangaweka again. , '

"London does not see a circus so often as it used to. In this respect it is like the re3t of England, says the "Times" of July 6. But tha programme of the Olympia entertainment, which, with its lions, was mentioned here last week, reminds us that the birthplace of the as we know it, was within a stone's throw of the Houses of Parliament. It was in the latter half of the Eighteenth Century that Phillip Astley, on leaving the Army with a fine charger presented to him by his general, came to London and exhibited feats of horsemanship in a roped circle in an open field near the site of Waterloo Station. Later on, he enclosed a piece of ground in the neighbourhood of St. Thomas' Hospital, and eventually erected a roofed building, where, in spite of several fires, he had a run of success. A circus in Paris ajai another in Dublin were opened by him; and he died in comfortable circumstances in 1814 in his seventy-third year. The programme tells that Astley's first horse lived to the age of 42 years, and, on his death from old age, his hide was tanned and made into a "thunder drum" for use in the amphitheatre in the Westminster Bridge Road."

"The circus is too big to travel, on account of the charges for trains and steamers," said Phil Wirth to a Christchurch reporter. "The small towns pay better than the larger communities. Dunedin will be cut out of our itinerary in future; it owes us £10,000. New Zealand audiences are the most enthusiastic and liberal in our intinerary." Dealing with the transport charges, Mr. Wirth said that he had just paid out £782 15/4 for railway haulage over the West Coast for next week. The railway charges for the New Zealand tour run into nearly £6000, in addition to £6000 for steamer carriage from Melbourne to Bluff, across Cook Strait, and from Auckland back to Sydney. The salaries and other expenses of the circus run into about £2500 a week. Each city charges a showman's license of from £20 to £25, and the Christchurch location cost £60 a week.

In 1889-90, when the circus visited the Dunedin Exhibition the boat charge was £300 for a full show, including 40 horses and a company of 70. The railage was then 8/ a mile; now it is 32/ a mile. The admission charges then were 2/6, 4/, and 6/ in the large towns, and 4/ and 6/ in smaller towns. Now the prices are 3/, 4/, 5/, 6/, and 7/. Mr. Wirth said that Hamilton held the record for five years for the takings at one night performance, with Hastings second, but last year, the small town of Ingham, in Queensland, beat the Hamilton figures. There was no doubt about the fact that the small towns paid 'better than the larger towns. The people came from up to forty miles around, and grave the show a great welcome. This led Mr. Wirth to speak of Dunedin. "That place owes us £10.000," he said with a shrug. "We lost £1800 this time down there, our biggest loss. Dunedin will be cut out in future. New Zealand audiences, except Dunedin, are the most liberal and enthusiastic.