THE STAGE IN SYDNEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 89, 16 April 1927, Page 26

THE STAGE IN SYDNEY.

NEW SHOWS AND PLAYERS.

(By a CORRESPONDENT.)

•'The Nervous Wreck" at the Grand Opera House is drawing packed houses. Frank Neil is a great favourite in that district, where he has passed so many years of his stage life. He has got a good little company together, with Gertie Cromer as his leading ladv, and Marv Gannon, who used to be in the Hugh Ward musical comedies, as second lead.

i good one, abounding in real comedy

Reports from Newcastle, where "Fras quita" had its Australian premiere on April 2. are very pood. Wc hear Marie Burke is better suited than ever before. It opens here on April 10 at Her Majesty's. For a while there was talk of Wardc Morgan being put into "Fras quita,"' but it was thought to lie less strenuous for him to take up his old part than to assume a new one. and less of a nervous strain. Now. unhappily, he is out of both. 'The Cousin From Nowhere" is being revived with Margery Hicklin as the ingenuous young person in question. It was the painful ; task of the manage- ! ment to try out Wardc Morgan in his former part, and find that he wai not up to it yet owing to his aeei- i dent in the Aberdeen train disaster a yeat ago. He has mad* such a brave figh towards Tcooverjt that everybody is so sorry for him. It is a terrible setback, and he is feeling it grievously. Tliurza Rogers and Robert Lascclles are doing their own speciality dances in this revival, aud adorning it thereby. "Six Cylinder Love" is a most amusing comedy, relating to a young man who bought a motor car and couldn't really afford it. Entertaining his friends with car rides and paying for the meals, etc., en route, almost ruined him. Only he has a heart as strong as a Ford engine, or he would never have come through the trials and troubles the playwrights heap upon him. Richard Tabcr and Hale Norcross arc well suited with their new parts, and Mary Ellen Hanley (Taber) is more delightful than she was in "Is Zat So!" This writer thinks that is saying a lot.

New people arc also here for "The Green Hat," though Sydney is not to pet this for some time. It is not likely that Judith Anderson will go to New Zealand, as she will be expected back in New York for a Belasco production in the American autumn, but she has pfomised a return season to Sydney. Anyway, she has been such a success that she is sure to come out again when things arc slack in America. So the new people will go down to Melbourne for the first production of "The Green Hat" in a couple of weeks from now. George Baxter is one of them. Arthur Greenaway, who is playing King Charles with Nellie Stewart in "Sweet Nell," is a most experienced and highlycultured Shakespearean actor. He is preparing some promising amateurs for a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Con servatorium in i_ few weeks. He will play Bottom. This week brought from America the principals for a new farce called "Cradle Snatchers." The play is said to be upon somewhat advanced lines. Three elderly women endeavouring to woo into matrimony three unsophisticated young men is the theme of it. The new leading lady, Olive Sloane, is uncommonly pretty, and a strapping sort of lass. Herbert and Bertha Belmorc and Jessamine Newcombe are some of the principals from England, via America. "Sweet Nell of Old Drury," with Nellie Stewart again in the star part, having made a cool fifteen thousand pouuds for the J. C. Williamson people during the Melbourne season of one month, the play ,3 being revived here this week. People were turned away every night in* Melbourne, and the piece could have had a much longer run if the theatre had not been previously arranged for another show. The management gave Nellie Stewart a diamondmounted wristlet watch on the last night, and the gallery girls presented her with an illuminated address. Dr. Moloney, who made the presentations from the sta«e said in effect, that if Nellie Stewart was soine to Canberra while the Duke and Duchess were there, and if she was not created a Dame of the British Empire she should be. It is rumouredd in Melbourne, but official circles rather pooh-pooh the idea. Only time will tell. To strengthen 'The Mikado"' it has been found necessary to put Strella Wilson into it in the part of Katusha. Winifred Williamson first was cast for it, and then one or two of the chorus girls were tried out, but the play went rather flat without a dominant personality in the skin of the unamiable old woman of China. The Gilbert and Sullivan Company are finishing up with short revivals this week, and next week they will go to Melbourne. "Ruddigore" is to be their first opening piece down there, with James Hay producing. He has had a good many sore throats during the season, and has been out of the bill more than once. Leo Darnton took over most of his parts when this happened, but the role of Hilarion in "Princess Ida" was ably undertaken by young Thomas Krodcrick for a few'nigbts. This was his first big chance, and he made a good impression.

"Charley's Aunt" is coming out of cold storage for the Easter crowds. Franfc Neil is going to do it. He has every faith in the value of the old farces as monev-makers.

"Six Cylinder Love" is changing over to the Palace this week, and the opening date of "Cradle Snatchers" is still indefinite, as the Nellie Stewart season may need an extension on the original two weeks which the management have allotted "Sweet Nell." If she can continue to sustain the part without undue fatigue the audiences can sustain her indefinitelv.

A troupe of Chinese acrobats and a jazz band have come from Hongkong on cliance of getting a good job here. They are giving a trial show for the Tivoli management this week, and will, in all probability, be booked for that circuit.

Stiffy and Mo, hurling at the audience their contemptuous epithets as usual, are what theatricals like to call "a riot"' at Fuller's these nights. They can do or say anything they like, and the audiences, which have worshipped them for years, take it all in good part.

Elizabeth Morgan has also arrived from America to play the lead in "Tip Toes.'' "Tip Toes,'' it seems, is the nom le theatre of a very able young feminine ••rook, and not a light-hearted dancer, is one would naturally suppose. With iwo other crooks of the vaudeville world -be accomplishes some brave thefts, but comes to the usual musical comedy end. The l>est young man in the cast saves 'ier from herself and her associates. It is on the cards that those two clowns from the Tivoli, Olsen and Johnson, may undertake the roles of the other two •rooks. Only the excessiveness of their •salaries may preclude it. Vaudeville artists usually turn up their noses at the salaries given for production.