STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 57, 8 March 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

Managers for Madame Amelita GalliCurci announce that the Metropolitan star will retire from the operatic stage at the close of the present season and devote her time in the future to concert work.

$Kate Howarde and her Australian company produced a pantomime in Rockhampton without a male dame. The part was filled by Cora Warner. It is said that the only other instance in Australia of a woman appearing as the dame was when Maggie Moore took the usually masculine role.

Mr. Reg. Newberry, the New Zealand tenor, has gone from Italy to Vienna. In this centre he will study under Professor Ulanowsky, director of the conservatory, who is well known as having trained some famous singers, and who is responsible also for the production of various operas in Vienna. Mr. Newberry is hopeful of making his appearance before long either in opera or on the concert platform.

In the recent London production of "Peter Pan"—the twenty-sixth consecutive annual presentation of the classic in London — the veteran George Shelton, appeared in the part of Smee. Shelton has never missed a session of the play and has played Smee all the time. His monopoly of the role of the old pirate must amount to a world's record. An interesting reappearance, after an absence of 24 years, was that of Sir Gerald du Maurier in the double roles of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook.

People go to the play late in Cairo— any time between 10 o'clock and midnight—and the play usually lasts many hours (writes a New York "Herald-Tri-bune" correspondent). An Egyptian audience feels itself cheated in less than a five or six-hour drama, and is so intensely interested in almost any play that it argues, gesticulates, quarrels. In the entr'actes there have been occasions when members of the audience have come to blows in a disagreement over actor, actress or theme. The play is a vital, vibrant thing in Cairo —not to he accepted or discarded without question.

Members of the Auckland Little Theatre Society will start activities at the Town Hall on April 2 and conclude on April 5. They will begin operations by offering a sensational play entitled "The Man They Buried," by Karen Branson. This remarkable work is bound to cause considerable discussion. The author describes it as a comedy of fear. Although the subject chosen is one of great importance to all, touching as it does on the greatest scourge to humanity, so delicate is her treatment, so earnest her work, that her play may be truthfully styled a comedy. Her satire is delightful, and although she pokes good nature and brilliant fun at the medical profession, one may rest assured that the medicos generally will be among her greatest admirers. When it was produced by Leon H. Lion at the Ambassadors' Treatre, London, in 1928, it caused a sensation. The "Sunday Express" said of it: "A most interesting play. Some of the scenes are brilliant. ... If you have brains, go and see them. If you haven't, stay away."

William Faversham, the famous actor, now in Australia, was born in London and educated in Essex at Hillmartin College. For a time he served in the Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment -of Warwickshire, but at seventeen found his way on to the stage, and for two years appeared in London. Then he migrated to America, and began his long 6eries of successes in all kinda of drama, in Shakespearean roles and in comedy. He originated many famous characters in the U.S.A., and was Romeo t& the Juliet of Maude Adam's, a character in which he toured the United States -with tremendous success a few years ago. Faversham's fame does not rest entirely on classical roles, however, for he is known far and wide for his performance in "The Squaw Man," which he has revived from time to time. Another drama which achieved great; popularity when he appeared in it was "Leah Kleschna." Mr. Faversham, although most of his work has been in America, spends all his holidays at his English home, "The Old Manor," Chiddingfold, Surrey.

Undaunted by previous unhappy experiences, Mr. Gregan MeMahon, whose production of John Drinkwater's "Bird in Hand," has been about the best line of comedy Melbourne has seen in years, has formed the Gregan MeMahon Players, and proposes to give regular seasons of the best of modem plays at the Bijou Theatre, states the "Graphic." Eight plays are to be produced annually, commencing with Somerset Maugham's "The Circle" and Norman MacEwan's imaginative drama, "Jacob's Ladder," to be staged next month. Subscribers are being enrolled who will get preferential reserve seats, both front and back, at reasonable prices, and Mr. MeMahon will also conduct a school of acting. Sydney possesses at least two of these little theatres—the Playbox, where Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude" has' lately had numerous productions, and the Turret Theatre. Mr. MeMahon might well take a leaf out of the book of the Sydney Playbox and organise an occasional Continental supper and cabaret on the lines of those which are becoming a feature of Sydney's artistic life.

It is almost certain that the remarkable boy violinist, Yelmdi Menuhin, who has startled the world by his wonderful performances, will be heard shortly in Australia under the management of J. and N. Tait, and it is to be hoped, in New Zealand. Yehudi Menuhin has been described as the world's greatest musical phenomenon. Twelve years of age—ran age when the cleverest child-players are but learning the rudiments of violin playing — he electrified the world's best critics by his playing of the three concertos of the three great composers —Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. He seems to know by instinct all that other great violin virtuosi have taken years to learn, and his technique astonishes in the same degree as his emotional powers. Despite the most tempting offers which come from all parts of the world, the parents of Yehudi Menuhin absolutely refuse to allow him to accept engagements for a period of over two months every year. This has been done under not only medical advice, but on the strong recommendation of some of the greatest musicians in the world to-day. Menuhin's parents are deeply religious, and look upon their wonder-child as "Something precious which has been ' given to us to cherish and not to spoil." For his twelfth birthday an American millionaire gave the boy a £12,000 Stradivarius, and his parents recently declined an offer of £1000 to allow Menuhin to play outside the peripd allotted to him for professional engagements.