TRANSITIONS ON STAGE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 557, 12 July 1909, Page 4

TRANSITIONS ON STAGE.

; ;:, THE KINEMATOGRAPH: ; .".;.'■:;■ , ■ ( (By Telestrapb.-Spoclal Correspondent.* . ' .TV ; ; ■■ Auoklancl, July u./ Isthe asoendiint star of the modern musical comedy about to set? That is the question which is agitating the minds of theatrical entrepreneurs at the presont day, judging by some;of the; trashy productions which have'appeared on tho boards in the Dominion lately. ; It is apparent that the public 'would heartily welcome a return to the days of Gilbert.and Sullivan and to the comic operas' which once proved so immensely popular. . ..•; / Musloal Comedy to Qo.—comlo Opera to '■ '''..'■■■' : /'; Return. ■••■;■ ;v.-;-; ) .In conversation with a "Herald"' representative Mr.. Allan Hamilton, a well-known figure in the theatrical world, ventured it as his opinion that' the old-time comic opora was coming back to public favour, 'auo that the present-day musical comedy would shortly bo a thing of the past He was, however, a bold man who'.'confidently thought, ho could gauge public opinion and struck out in. some now line. As likely as not, his theatrical barque would become wreckod on the rocks of adversity. Plotures Oust Vaudeville, and Will Competo With Melcdrama. Mr. Hamilton .fully endorsed Mr. John Fuller's remarks as to tho groat scarcity of clever or oven ordinarily-gifted vaudeville artists in Australasia at the, present time, and tho contention that tho only way of serving up a suitable menu for public favour was to import artists from England—an oxpensivo business and one which could not ho v undertaken permanently. In New Zealand the living picture shows, in Mr. Hamilton's opinion, are not only eating into tho vitals ofy vaudeville, but such arc the improvements that are being effected almost overy day in the kineinatograpkic art in tho way of playe, such as Shakespearean productions and others performed by sorao of tho world's greatest living notors and actresses, that before long tlioy must seriously cut into tho melodrama business, Altogether tho success of tho kinematograph was fraught with many interesting possibilities in the theatrical firmament..