THE SYDNEY STAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1926, Page 28

THE SYDNEY STAGE.

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

(By a Correspondent).

Dorothy Branton. is going into the legitimate drama at long last. She has joined Guy Bates Post as leading lady, and will open in Perth wit_ him, playing three pieces in sixteen nights. These are "The Bad Man," "The Masquerader," and '"The C_m__" The last named is due in Sydney early in July. Her engagement was effected principally because the heroine of "The Climax" is a singing part. Long ago Florence Young used to play it at charity matinees in Sydney. Ella Shields is going" to sing again at the Tivoli in a week. Arrangements had been made for her to take the leading part in "Our Liz." which will follow Nellie Stewart in "Sweet Nell" at the Grand Opera House, but at the last minute it was found that the terms of her contract with the Tivoli Theatres management did not permit of her takin2 engagements under other firms. Wilfred Cotton is producing "Our Liz." Frederic Bentley, the new comedian of "Hose Marie," is of the small and somewhat weedy type. Though his is not the style of humour to set the Thames on fire, he gets over the footlights in his own quiet way, and more by vocal tricks than gymnastics. He has been in management for himself a lot on the other side. Once he took a Folies Bergeres company to England.

"The Misleading Lady," an American comedy, which has been an easy vehicle for countless amateur societies to show off their talent for years past, is now coming to Sydney in professional guise. Nellie Bramley is be that rather hot-tempered young woman, Helen Steele, at the Palace Theatre, in a week or so. George Cross will be, what the programme ingenuously calls, "a defeated lover," and Rutland Beckett a cave man. Once more the strong, silent man.

"Eose Marie 1 * has settled in for the winter. It has success in capitals spelr all over it. First it ia expensive, and, what is rarer, it seems to he worth the expense. It is practically played 'by a new company, and those few veterans who have crept in are so well placed as to seem to have grown on the script. Harriet Beflnet is almost too good to be true- She is a singing actress —the adjective in perfect balance with tbe notm —and has so much personality that first-nighters were taken unaware:!, and wondered if a dramatic star had not wandered into the cast by mistake. Having been trained for the operatic stage, she knows quite a lot about the technique of singing—something very unusual in musical comediennes. She had a mellifluous mezzo voice, and if some of the music is a trifle high for her range, she is clever enough to camouflage her top notes so that their thinness is not unpleasant. A Californian girl, she is able to produce a FrenchCanadian accent, which is singularly attrac-tive and' astonishingly like the real thing. Her performance in '"Lilac Time," though sweet and charming, hardly prepared Sydney for this, and New Zealanders have missed something through her being withdrawn from the cast of the latter piece. Adela Crane will sing the part of Lili, the Court glass—laker's daughter, and Schubert's sweetheart, in "Lilac Time" instead. ""'Seventh Heaven" has nafc caught on here, and some people, notably Re_ry Carpen herself, are putting it down to the fact that the brave Chico (Frank Harvey's part) comes back from the war blind. It hits home too hard to a great many people, who refuse to recogt nise a happy ending when the hero is disabled in this way. He might be covered in bandages and hobbling on crutches and still the reunion of the lovers would constitute a happy ending with a promising future, but the sightless man is a shock to keen sensibilities. There is a rumour that a slight alteration in the script might be made and the vital point turned away. As far as the acting goes, the playgoers of Sydney should roll up in large numbers to see it—particularly the exquisite pathos of Remy Carpen. Nellie Stewart has been entirely responsible for the revival of "Sweet Nell of Old Dr_ry" down to the last detail. Though the season is only for a week, there is a hint that a longer season might grow out of it later on. Artbur Greenaway is playing King Charles. Feodor Chaliapiri, Russia's greatest singer, who is to visit New Zealand shortly, little patience with the conventional idea of what constitutes a great singer, a man with a big voice. He considers it absurd to look upon the voice as in any sense the end when it is only the means. Of course, he admits that a singer must have a good voice in order to sing, but the art consists not in the voice, but in the uJe that is made of it. According to Chaliapin, a singer's work is never done. There 13 always more to learn, even in the most familiar song. A singer who is completely satisfied is a singer lost. That is what he declares to be the trouble with much of the singing that is heard to-day. Singerhave grown disinclined to work. When they have obtained applause, they cease to make any effort to improve themselves, and lounge back contentedly, believing that they have solved the problem of their art. But applause is really nothing. It is pleasant to have. - and without it an artist's life would be hard indeed. Still, its only real value i 3 as an encouragement and an incentive to go on and do better.