DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7525, 15 April 1890, Page 2

DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

By the Man in thb Pit.

The production of Planquette's opera, " Paul Jones," by the Nellie Stewart Opera Company, under the management of the MacMahon Brothers, at the Opera House, Melbourne, on the 27th March, was a big success. There was an enormous audience, included amongst which were the Governor and Lady Hopetoun, RearAdmiral Lord and Lady Charles Scott, and Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales. The opera is said to be full of musical merit and rich in smart libretto, and is mounted with unexampled splendour. The scenery, which was painted by Messrs Heniaaaings and Habbe, is well done and most appropriate. Mis? Stewart plays the part of xoone, the. heroine; Madame Marian Burton is Paul Jones, the hero; and Mr Woodfleld takes the tenor part, Miss Ida Osborne and Miss Aggie Kelton have prominent parts in the production, whilst Messrs G. H. Snazelle and Geo. Leitch have charge of the comedy business. All the members of the Company come in for praise at the hands of the critics, Madame Burton especially earning much Hcudos both for her acting and singing. Altogether the production is considered one of the best of its kind ever seen in Melbourne, and a long run is looked forward to for it. , Although thei-e may. be some doubt abou fc Mr,.Charles Warner being "the greatest living actor," there can be hone about his business ability. This will be admitted by all who remember the..tact shown by him during his i-cehfc iuijC-Ssfiil toiir through this colony. One continually notices in English papers, devoted to the doings of the stage, chatty little pars about the genial comedian, who thinks it worth his while to be courteous to those from whom he has in the p_sb received assistance and consideration, and to whom he may again be under obligation in the future. Consequently his name is kept green in many places, and he reaps the advantage of being civil to those who, can render him such small services as are inestimable to those who depend upon {aublic favour for their livelihood. The atest instance of Mr Warner's attention to this necessary detail, appears in a letter written by him to an English paper, from Auckland, under date Christmas Day, in which he gives a picture of himself and his daughter "sitting fanning themselves with palate leaves aha eating strawberries and cream." He also gives some interesting items about his tour through New Zealand and states that after a. return visit to Melbourne, Adelaide,- and Sydney, he willpossibly play in America. The JDaily Telegraph says that Mr Toole's best joke at the Green-room supper suffered a little in the reporting of. it., He described being lifted out of bed and across the room after a severe attack of gout by his friends Mr Henry Irving and Mr Bancroft, and then he added as an aside," They were two of the best walking gentlemen I ever came The jest was received with rdars of laughter by the actors present, ;'-

Mr Robert Buchanan's version of Clarissa Harlowe has proved a - great success at tbe Vaudeville Theatre, London, where Miss Winifred Emery's impersonation of the heroine is described as "the moet beautiful type of pure English womanhood and piteous despair that the modern stage has seen since Miss Ellen Terry gave us Olivia." The story is told in four acts. In the first we have the abduction of Clarissa from ncr country home by Lovelace and her dissolute London friends; in the second the repentance of the drunken Philip Belford, who discovers from his lost sister Hetty that he has sold poor Clarissa iiito the hands of her rakish destroyer ;;in the third, the mock marriage in Lovelace's town mansion by a Scotch scoundrel disguised as a parson, and the victory of Lovelace over the utterly defenceless girl; and lastly the pathetic death of Clarissa, in which Miss Emery moved her audience to abundant tears. I * The benefit performance which is being i organised at the Empire Theatre in aid of the survivors of The Charge of the Light Brigade, promises, says an Eagllsh paper, to be a great success. "Ift-'is believed that 522 000 will be raised, and it Is just possible that not only may a cottage home be secured for those Bnrvivors-whd need it, hut that a nerhtftnent institution, may be establtshecffor otharold soldiers as these pass away. The idea of the benefit, originated with Miss Amy Roselle (Mrs Arthur Dacre), who is just now reciting Tennyson's po&m at this house With marked and even growing success, and who was Impressed with the difference between the popular and the official acceptance of the Laureate's injunction to, * honour the W__^-Wu-'--i^J-i#r was to leave England for the "United StateJß on the 15th March. New England amateurs are looking forward to hear the favourite tenor in "Elijah.".. Bach's *' Christmas Oratorio," "Israelin Egypt," the "Redemption," and, "St. John, 1 ? a new work written by Mr Parker,' an American composer. Mr Lloyd is expected back in London towards the middle of June. It has been fbtttid by experience daring the past year in London that tjaere are certain great American actresses Whose Seatness has never been discovered eir own country, and whose plentiful lack Of talents i« in fine coaatrast with their wonderful assurance. They take theatres, they take apartments j.% the best hotels, they command the homage of flatterers and fools, and when suddenly they disappear there are only left to mourn their los* the proprietors they have duped and the poor artists they have not paid for their labours.

The Hollanders have had their appetite whetted for English plays by the translation of "The Profligate," "The Middleman," and several otner,recefct plays, and now they are eager to see " Little-Xord Fauntteroy,'; consequently this pretty little piece is being translated in"-o Dutch, and will shortly be produced by the Royal Dutch c . Comedy Company;; in, the chief cities ot the country of dams. Mr J. L. Toole, the famous comedian, who has jaist arrived in Australia, made his first apoearance on a theatre stage at the Haymarfcet Theatre, Lon<|&s, early in the fifties, for the benefit of the manager, when, as an ambitious amateur, he took a certain number of tickets for the privilege of being allowed to play. •'Dr. Bill,"a farcical comedy in three acts, adapted by Hamilton Aide from " Le Doeteur Jojo," which wa3 brought out in Paris about two years ago, has been produced at the Avenue Theatre, London, and is voted one of the most amusing pieces seen for a long time. The story centres on tne awkward adventures of one Dr. Wm. Brown, who has just married and retired from his medical career, which has ojWefly been spent ia attending to the*' of a number of ladies of the ballet, whose hearts and patronage he haa £yon by his readiness to give certificates of indisposition whenever they wanted a night off, and by whom he is familiarly known as " Dr Bin." After Ma marriage he seta into a

number of laughable fixes through his former clients, whose existence his wife is ignorant of; and Ms endeavours to keep his past pranks in the dark are productive of endless fun. The jpiece, in spite of being "a little scored right from the Jump, and immediately after the first production a large number of applicatloaa were made for the American and colonial rights. ■-