MIMES AND MUSIC. UNKNOWN COMING EVENTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 45, 22 February 1908, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC. UNKNOWN COMING EVENTS.

OPERA HOUSE. Ca;ter, in ee-.oin tn Z3Ui February i.eutm ng Com)mnv, 2Sc.ii Much u> 17;h April. .1. C. W ll.an.son, 18th Arml to 9th Mi\: H. Geach. 11th May t^ May. J. C. Williamson, 23rd May to liili June. Allan Hamilton, 20ib June to 4th Jiliy. E. (leacu, 16th July to 25th July. .i. C. WUhauuon, 14th August to 21st .August. Allan Haiuiltou, 2nd September to 22nd Septertibfr. iilanr" Holt, 3rd October to 30th October. Vest's Pictures, 25th November to 19tU December. J. 0. Williamson, 26th December to 14th January THEATRE ROYAL. Fuller* Vtude\:l!e Company. HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. Royal Picture Syndicate, in season. TOWN HALL. Clr* Butt, 3rd March and sth March. The next dramatic event of importancean Wellington will bo the return of the Herbert Flemming Company, with & large repertoire of now prices. Mr George Matheson, the advance manager of J. C. Williamson's "BrowBter's Millions" Company, who was unable, through illness, to proceed to Australia with the company, is making rapid progress towards recovery. Miss Eosina Buckmann will play the leading female >-ole in "Erminie," which is to be produced by tho Duuedin Amateur Op ei'atic Society at an early date. Gieat interest is being evinced in tho return of Madame Clara Butt and Mr. Kennerley Rumford, «iid the concerts to be given on the 3rd and sth of . next month in the Town Hall should reilect the success of the previous season. This will 'be Madame Butt's fina.' appears nee in New Zealand, as the possessor of "Hie Voice" leaves on the 6th March for Australia, where a series of farewell concerts are to be- given in the principal cities there beiore her return to ' England. The Julius Knight company's revival repertoire is to be strengthened by the inclusion of "Tho Prisoner of Zenda," and Anthony Hope's popular romance 6hould receive ful' justice with Mr. Knight in the role of Kudolph Eassendyll and Miss Ola Humphrey as the Princess Fin via. An excellent indication of the way in which •'The Merry Widow" has captured Great Britain is afforded by the fact that when the George Edwardcs Company began a season in Glasgow last December the wholS of the theatre was sold out for the entire n-onth. to which its stay was limited, before the curtain rose on the first production there. After an absence of over two years, Mr. Johr F. Sheridan, with a strong company and new pieces, .is said to bo contemplating another descent on New Zealand. "The Widow O'Brien" will probably visit the Dominion m April next, producing amonjst other pieces ''The Girl from Venud' 1 and "The Montey makers," with possibly a revival of that successful musical comedy, "The Earl end the Girl." Several now aitists will accompany him on the New Zealand tour, "which will probably commenco at Auckland. "The Little Breadwinner," a Meynell

and Gunn attraction, is an enormous success in the West, tho receipts rivalling those, of "The Fatal Wedding." This success was confidently predicted by those "in tho know" prior to the oioducton of the play. After \i run of six weeks "The Scarlet Pimpernel" has been replaced by th 6 "Claudian," at the Theatre Royal. Sydney. The principal parts — Clnudian and Aim id a — were played by Julius Knight and Miss Ola Humphrey. Bevived after ten years, this dfama attracted a big audience. It was staged on a generous scale, and the great earthquake scene was followed by prolonged applause. Amid a scene of considerable enthusiasm Julius Knight was handed, on Saturday night last, a gold laurel wreath. The incident recalled vividly to me the old Wilson Barrett clays. Wilson owned a tame laurel wreath, which was tenderly cherished by a servitor in tho property room, and regularly buzzed athwart tne footlights when occasion demanded. Only the heavenly recorder knows at how many first nights the gilded mass of garden stuff did service. Gazing at "Claudian" last week, it seemed to me that the defunct mime who first played in that deadly -piece was back on earth once more. The mighty legs, tho robes, the chest, tho Olympian calm (not to say stolidity) of the hero, al l were there — and of a sudden the wreath of other days appeared too. By my halidon, but it was depressing to think of the years that the locust had masticated ; and nlmost I wept into my hat. — R.N. in Poverty Point iv tho Bulletin. According to the London Tribune, Mr. J. €. Williamson has arranged for Miss Margaret Anglin, on her coming visit to Australia, to appear in Pinero's "His House in Order," as well as in "Tho Thief.'' The chiei male parts in these plays are to be sustained by Mr. G. S. Titheradge, of whom tho Tribune speaks as "on-e of the foremost actors of our own stage," and ono of the greatest living authorities on daffodil and rose growing. "His charming and talented daughter, Madgp," adds the London journal, "is with At. Cyril Maude' it tho Playhouse, and his son is about to join his father's profession." Many Australians (says the BritishAustralasian) will regret" to hear of the recent death of Mr. Luscombc Seardle, at the age of fifty. After leaving Australia, Mr. Seardlo sought theatrical fortune in all quarters of Vne globs, and until the South African war broke out was proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Johannesburg. Subsequently he went to America, and collaborated with the poetess Ella Wheeler Wilcox in writing a religious drama, "Mizpnh," for the London production of which arrangements have been made with the Lyceum proprietary. Moving pictures aro much in e\'idence at tho variety theatres ot Great Britain. They are, acording to the London Daily Telegraph, bocoming a regular end growing feature of almost every vaudeville entertainment. For the New Year the Empire undertook to supply an animated steeplechase calendar, which should bo a full and exciting record of the past season. From vaTious meetings during the year the management had industriously collected films depicting notable- falls and illustrating tho strange attitudes assumed by horses I and riders. Tt is possible that "Mother Gooes"

may be given a few nights' run in Melbourne before Easter (snyit Table Talk). Thx Williamson Proprietary 1 now regard the Christmas to Easter period as the naiiual- -pantomime spmoiT, but as Easter will be late this yeai, may find time to give' lovers of tho popular "Mother Goose" another turn of their fnAourite.. After Easter "Peter Pan" goes up at Her Majesty's, 'Melbourne A new violinist, said to be even more brilliant than » Kubclik or Marie Hall, is to appear in London next month. She is a young Canadian, only seventeen years of age, Kathleen Parlow by name. A romantic story is Lold of her discovery. Dr. Grosz, a Berlin concert agent, passing along a London street, heard her playing in one of the houses. "y an offer of £50 to a detective (though one cannot help suspecting this detail of being apocryphal), the young lady's identity was discovered, and she was engaged to play in Berlin and Copenhagen, and subsequently in North and South America. The whole story stiggests the advertising agent. — but wo shall hear in March what the young lady can do. "D.," ia the Bulletin. One of the most satisfactory features of "Claudian" is the colour-scheming and the grouping of the players. This is the sort, of thing at which Julius Knight is" a past,inaster. Ho ~has a pretty talent for blending shades, designing costumes, and the like, and takes that job on his own shoulders' with heroic energy. (In the present show all tha dresses, with the exception of those worn by his fellow star, Ola. Humphrey, are Julius* design.) The vineyard scene, wherein the robes of the peasants are made to harmonise with -,the green and purple-black of the grapes, is aa bright as a- Streeton landscape, >and worth paying much good money to view. Dr. Ernest. Walker's "History of Music in England," r 'just published by the Clarendon Press at tho very reasonable price of 7s 6d, is an admirable book, and really fills a gap in tho literature of the subject; says a contemporary. Dr. Walker is a fearless and yet courteous^ critic. He is not afraid to find fault even with the idol of the British con-cert-goer, the great George FrederJc Handel. His judgment of Sir Arthur Sullivan is somewhat on the side of severity : and he is not carried away beyond the possibility of sober criticism, even by tho present unbounded popularity, of Sir Edwaid Elgar. The book is not, like so many of its class, a mere pasticcio of extracts from musical dictionaries, but is a thoroughly fresh and independent study of its subject. Paying a visit recently to the new theatre, "Prospero," of the Weekly Press," was agreeably surprised at the amount of progress made in connection with the work of decoration and furnishing sinco he vra6. there some months back. The dome has been beautifully and most artistically painted, whilst the general colour scheme of the decorations — cream and gold — contrasts finely with the deep- blue of the stalls seats and the crimson of those in tho dross circle. The whole • apnsaranro is exceedingly handsome, and those who attend on •the- first night, when everything is ready and the wholo building lit up, will bo perfectly charmed with it. All the nppointmcnt'S arc most modern and up-to-date, and the great desideratum has been achieved. This is, that a fino line of sight of the stage can bo obtajned everywhere in the house. Mr. Williamson's company opens the

new theatre with ''The Blue Moon" next Tuesday. According to Mr. Cartor, the clever American wizard who is now in Wellington, the new theatre is the bestequipped and most comfortable that lie has scon in Australasia. "Beginning with this good start, it is to be hoped that tho management will tee llmt (he public gets its full share of comfort in the new building," says si writer in the Canterbury Times. "Thcio Jtre some leforms which might well be adapted from American and English theatres for which the time is v^ry ripe. Chief among this is the abolition of the abominable early-door system and (he substitution of the practice of throwing opei> every seat in the house for reservation. This system is gonerally observed in American theatres, and a number of English ones have recently adopted it with satisfactory result*.'" Messrs. Meynell and Gunn have formed a new comic opera company for a tour of Australia with Paul Rubons' successful p>ece, "Miss Hook of Holland," which is now in its second year at the Prince of Wales's Theatre. The enterprise is being organised on a very complete scale, with Mr. Victor Champion as musical director, and Mr. C. St. John Dcnton as general manager, and Mr. Walter Everard as manager. In all, about 26 people were to sail from London yesterday by the Omrah. Miss Ruth Lincoln will be the new prima donno, Miss Alice Epson In second parts, Miss> Emmeline Orford soubrette, and 1 a long list of caret ully .chosen artists will include Misses Helen Rose, Edith Denton, Gwendoline Boyco, Amy Perriss, Messrs. Darcy Lanr, Arthur Appleby, Edwin Brett, Wm. T. Croniivell, Vernon Davidson, Tom Payne, and C. N. Wenman. Messrs. Meynell and Gunn have also formed a new company in Sydney to produce a now melodrama, "Tho Littlo Breadwinner," now doing well at Perth. When the dramatic company headed by Miss Madge M'lntosh and Mt. Harrourt Beatty ultimately opens in Sydney at the Criterion, a new play by Walter Howard entitled "Why Men Love Women," in which the melodramatic eiement is less accentuated than in hip other successful pieces, will be produced. Theatrical clips :— Miss Alice Pollard is appearing as Haidee in "The Thieves" at His Majesty's, Johannesburg. . . Mr Philip Newbury and Madame Emily Spadu are on board the Asturias, due at Sydney on 6th March. . . . Miss May Chevalier is appearing in a oneaefc play, "The Nelson Touch," written by Mr. Frederick Fenn, and preceding "The Education of Elizabeth," at the London Haymarkefc Theatre. ... It is understood that Miss Rosina Buckmann will be a member of the Comic Opera Company which is being formed under the aegis of Mr. George Musgrove. . . . Mr. "Johnnie" Wallace has bpen engaged, to stage manage John Uren's incoming shows at Melbourne Royal when Meynell and Gunn vacate '*' ,' m * ' Thßre is a Plaintive ditty in "The Girls of Gottenberp," entitled "Two Little Sausages," which has apparently become popular. The other day a lady entered a Sydney music-seller's and asked for "Two Littlo Sausages, pleass; not too high." . Mr. Richard Badger, a retired wino m»rchant, of Eastbourne (Eng ), has left £3000 to the Shakespeare Memorial Committee for a memorial to the poet in London. . . Mark Hambourg, the celebrated Russian pianist, is expected to reach Sydney on 14th July, and open the tour there.