THE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2854, 19 August 1916, Page 6

THE THEATRE

« _ (By "Sylvius.")

"San Toy" To-night. • Bizarre and piquant both in music and .•: setting, "San Toy," to ho produced by the local Operatic Society this .ovoning' at the Grand Opera House, should succeed in attracting the public- Of late we have been served with a'', liberal helping of irresponsible foolery, clever and laughable in its way. that comes under the heading or revue- (though it reviews nothing—except perhaps a latter-day trend towards the risque and vulgar), which leached Jits highest level in the case of the Tivoli Follies'. In "San Toy" we will get back to something legitimate, an entertainment which has the vertabral support of a plot, a logical sequence of situations and musical numbers in sympathy with.them. ; "San Toy" takes high rank with that sparkling series of musical comedies so woll produced by the late Mr. Geo,. Edwardes, of the .Gaiety, in London, a quarter of a century ago., Nekg to "The Geisha;" it was. the most popular of its gonre, and since then has been frequently revived,, always with success. The society has arranged a very strong cast (on paper) of admittedly good entertainers. AVith Messrs. A. W. Newton, Norman Aitken, W. AY! Crawford, and Zante AVood in important comedy roles, there should be no weakness in that direction, whilst the lover element has been entrusted 'to Miss Helen Gard'ner, Mr. V. It. Meredith, and Mr. Herbert Woods. Mr. Tom Pollard has put forth his best' efforts iu the production, and Mr. Bernard Page will wield the baton. Tho season will extend until next Saturday evening. To Support Horace, Goldin. As a rule a magician needs no supports, or traps, or baggy sleeves, but in tho case of Horace Goldin, a very tine vaudeville, support is being given him on the'grounds that even in magio ono can have too much of a good thing. The Tivoli Company that is to travel New Zealand with tho mystic, will include;-Mary King Scott, "tho country girl from Virginia"; Mannetti anil Sidelli, comedy acrobats, who exceed tho limit: Gosward, tho French clown; Big Bill Pruitt, "the cowboy Caruso"; Hay and Crawford, dainty dancers; and Margarot Jewell, an Australian soprano, and protogeo of Molba's. ; Tito Goldin carnival is to commenco at the Grand Opera House on August 30. Virginian Born and Brod. To New Zealand with tho Russian illusionist Horaco Goldin, comes Miss Marie King Scott, who hails from Virginia (she was really born in the Blue Ridge Mountains), and who is known all over America as "That Country Girl." Miss Scott came to Mr. Hugh 1). M'lntbsh on a flying contract, but she has been persuaded to stay over for a New Zealand tour. She says: "As a .matter of fact, I did want to see New Zealand. People' have talked to mo so much about it. They 'say that it is tho breeding-place of all the reforms there are, that it has extirpated .poverty, and that, its steamy regions forco the Yosemite A r alley into a back seat. So I'm glad to bo win' over. . AVe Southerners love the English : always did, affd always shall. A 7 ou | mav go right through my home State with a fine ralce and not find one man or woman who isnt' nro-AUy. All our old families boast English or Scotch origin. I try in my stage nonsense to bring a little bit of 'rural Virginia right home to the folks. People tell me that the sort of American I tai.fr is not the sort they're used to. and I'm not surprised at that. I heard .what you call American.accents in Aus■tralia that. I couldn't'"find i anywhere else oh-earth. My talk's Virginian, anyway. There are as many varieties yf local dialect in America as there are varieties of fleas in Mexico." Miss Wysli AYynne, . tho famous English comedian, recently in Australia, picked Miss Scott's at the most original vaudevillo act. she had seen. It is-very characteristic, very human, and always vory funny.-, . ■ -t London Doings. Mr. Harry Cohen, formerly treasurer with tho Maud Allan-Cherniavsky Company and the Plimmer-Hall Comedy Company, writes from London to say that ho has been round the shows there.; "The American pieces, 'Daddy Loiiglegs' (with Charles AVaJdrou in the load and Dorothy Dix in the cast), and 'Hobson's Choice' (a second 'Bunty,' but Lancashire in dialect), have been great successes. New revues aro going on everywhere. 'Razzlo Dazzle' at Drury Lane is a stupendous show, that beggars description. It embraces a series of astonisliing scenes' that would make old Bland Holt's production mere pygmies. It seemed as though tho whplp of tho British Navy was on iu one scene; in another tho Niagara Falls bad been gathered in, and yet another of the highlands of Scotland (in which the chorus was 850 strong, and wore all tho tartans imaginable), was bewilderingly beautiful. For 'tho last scono tlio whole flooring of the great stage was taken up and some wonderful skating was dono on a block of ice 50ft. by 60ft. I hate to think what the* production must have cost." "Grand opera (Beecham) is raging at the Aldwj'ch, but I havo not seen it yet. 'Butterfly' was played the other night, with Rosina Buckman (not the spelling) in the namo part. Met her iu town—she has put on condition/ sure I Heard Thelma Peterson singing at the Trocadero Restaurant the other night. Albert AVhelan (you remember Albert) was my neighbour at the Troc. Borneo Gardiner is whistling at some other place. Bump into any number of New Zealanders, in and out of khaki. Lor, wliat a. small placo this old world of ours is!" Notes., The late Charles Klein (author of tho popular play "Tho Musio Master"), who was lost on the Lusitania, left an estate now appraised at 169,306 dollars. To his brother, Herman (tho London vocal authority) he bequeathed 5000 dollars; to another brother, Manuel (a composer and formerly conductor at tho New York Hippodrome), he left 1000 dollars. i Miss Nance O'Neil toured Australia fourteen years ago the company included Mr. and Mrs. AA'm. Bernard and their daughter "Dot," who used to play one of Triplet's children in "Masks and Faces." Recently, I received a copy of the illustrated supplement of the Now York "Morning Telegraph," and discovered among the Fox Film stars a beautiful portrait of Miss Dorothy Bernard, still rocognisahlo as tho little "Dot" who : used to amuso everyone with her baby I eutenoss. Heigh-ho, how the years fly! Mr. AVill J. Douglas, tho, general manager for the Fuller A r audeville Circuit, now in America, writes from AVashington to say that ho has dropped across plenty of good material for tho vaudevijlo market of Australasia, and has fixed up many contracts with artists to tour Australia and New Zealand. Tho following is tba full cast of Wag. nor's "Tristan and Isolde," produced threo months ago at the Aldwych Theatre under tho direction of Sir TTibmas Beecham; with a New Zoaland girl as Isolde: —Tristan, Frank Mullings; Isolde, Rosina Buckman; Brangano, Juliette Autran: King Mark, Roliert Radford; Kurvenal, Percy Homing; Melot, Horbert Langloy; sh'ailor, Frederick Blarney, shepherd, 17. Byndon-Ayres; steersman, E. Gild-fng-Clarke.