PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 114, 15 May 1926, Page 19

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

THE STAGE IN SYDNEY. (By A Correspondent.) ] Monsieur Dandre, Madame Pavlova's husband, cheerfully offers himself as j the victim whenever the Press approaches Madame for an interview, and Monsieur : Dandre has a tidy mind; he has his wife's career all pigeon-holed and tabulated, ready for just such onslaughts by ; gorgon-like journalists. In this way he is able to save the busy danseuse from many tiring encounters, and, his English being more workable than hers, the ! result is usually more satisfactory. When j he has fed the gargantuan mouths of I the Press representatives, he presents j them for a few priceless minutes to his j Anna. And usually they are so dazzled j by her vital personality that everything j which Monsieur Dandre has previously i said flies from the mind. Though no j greater star has ever descended on our I shores, non e has been gifted -with a finer j syniplicity than Madame Pavlova. She ] is so natural that she makes you forget she is great. Novikoff, who is Anna Pavlova's dancing partner, is the second Russian j premier danseur of the Imperial Russian 1 Ballet to be selected by her for that j honour. Michael Mordkfn was the first, ; and together they captured London with j their art when Anna Pavlova was twenty- ! . three. Though not hex first time abroad, j !it was her first in England—at the \ Palace Theatre. For several seasons j they appeared together, and then, ! through a slight difference with the man- ! agement, Mordkin was no longer included \ in Pavlova's contract. She selected j I Laurent Novikoff and danced with him j until the Imperial Ballet recalled him to i Petrograd. Her next partner was j Volernini, but when the revolution put the Imperial Ballet out of action for all time, Novikoff escaped to England and before long was associated ■ with Anna Pavlova once more. j Thirza Rogers, the New Zealand girl ; with the Pavlova Ballet, has had several I excellent opportunities in Sydney to show that she has achieved distinction in her art. She has been given great prominence on each of the programmes, and nothing more exquisite than her Lady of the Late dance with M. Pianowski has been presented, always excepting the items of the incomparable Anna. Much interest in her reappearance after some year* of study will be , aroused in New Zealand the i ballet reaches the twin islands. I j It is ths dfay of the Russian here in earnest. The Don Cossacks, a Russian cheir, brought out by E. J. Carroll, are coming to Sydney this week, after playing- for a season in Melbourne. The critics there were, evidently, much impressed, for the '"Herald" says: "No one could listen unmoved. The Cossack , Choir thrills Melbourne." And another j review has it, "Ttiey thrill by their j orchesbra-like magnificence. Nobody can I afford to miss them." These people take J their name from the Don River in ' Russia, and are an instiution in their own land. Here they are led by a iady, Clara. Ebner, whose good i marshalship has led them successfully ! i round the world. One of the principal ' soloists is Serge Jaroff, a pupil of the Moscow Synod Choir, who has been [ singing publically since the age of" nine, j He is now twenty-eight. New Zealand I is sure to hear the choir later. Cos- : ] I sack dances are also included' in the j I programmes. j \ I A burlesque of "White Cargo" has j | been introduced into- the "Keep Smil- j i ing" revue at the Palace, under the title j !of "Lee Whit* Cargo." Though the play j iof the tropics has moved on to Mel-11 j bourne, the skit is going well, and the !) : revue is drawing good houses. I j "Paddy, the Next Best Thing" has | replaced- "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at the •' j , Grand Opera House, with Nellie Braoiley j as the Irish girl who tried to make up ,to her father for not being a boy by 1 being as like a boy as she was able to . be. Gertrude Page wrote the novel, . ! which, by the- way, was her sixth to be i written,, and the rst to be published. i The success it created' eventually unloaded all her previous efforfs on j reading public. Gertrude Page had unlimited faith.' to arrive so fer without persuading a publisher that she wae worthy of publication, not to speak of - being, as later she was, a best seller. { "Lilac Time" was revived here hist Saturday night with Harriet Bennet as Lili, the sweetheart of Franz Schubert (again undertaken by John Ralston). ! Miss Bennet made an individual success. ' iAn interesting feature of the perform- i ance is -the appearance of Mascotte Rals- ; ton, daughter of John, in one of the principal parts. She has been known as j Australia's most beautiful chorus girl for a' conple of years back, and this is • only her second part —the first being an 'understudy in "Primrose" -when Nellie Payne was out of the cast. When Miss Payne married in Melbourne recently, Mascotte wae given her placs in "the company. : "Polly with a Past" is still going strong in Sydney. No change of bill isspoken of, though, undoubtedly, "Daddy Long' Legs" will' be reintroduced beforeRenee Kelly packs up her grease paints I for the otheT States. "No, No, Nannette!" is playing to \ packed houses at the new St. Jamee' j Theatre. As the management say with broad smiles, the first theatre is building the second, operations being well in hand overhead on the :.-oof theatre, Which' should be open by Christmas with "Abe's ! Irish Rose," a Hibernian-Jewish comedy which has been running for three years in America. I Nellie Stewart's return to the stage J in "Sweet Nell of Old Drury," was such ! a popular success that the performance i wag repeated on two other occasions i last week. Everyone spoke of her ! golden voice "wMch filled the biggest theatre in Sydney with ease. Sydney Stirling played King Charles in the revival. In the original cast he was one of the courtiers. I