MIMES AND MUSIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1912, Page 15

MIMES AND MUSIC.

(By "Orpheus.") I THE SHOWS. i OPERA HOUSE. Grant-Bailey Dramatic Company, 14th to 24th December. J. C. Williamson. Boxing Night, Carrie liooret 16th to 24th January, THEATRE ROYAt,. Brennan-Fullere' Vaudeville Company. SKATING lUNK. fullers* Pictures. THB KINO'S TSKATRK, Royal And West's Picture*, BAIPHESB TfiBATRE. Continuous Pictures. STAR THttAtBIS. Star Picture Company, ST. THOMAS'S HALL, fullers' Pictures. THE NEW THEATRB, Continuous Pictures. HHORTT'B THEATRB. " Continuous Pictures. PEOPLE'S PICTURE PALACE. Continuous Pictures. 'A refreshingly diverting play, redolent of the gum-tree and the wallaby, and impregnated with the atmosphere of outback Australia, jg that which Mr. Bert Bailey and his new dramatic company aTe billed to introduce to Wellington audiences at the Opera House next Wednesday evening under the familiar title of "On Our (Selection." Readers of the popular works of the Australian writer, yteele Rttdd, know him not only for a humorist, but also for a faithful delineator of character. Hie types are drawn from reaL life, and it is not, therefore, Temarkable to find that they adapt themselves excellently to the stage. "On Our Selection" is a pleasant, jumble of two or three of the author's sketchy books. Mudh of the native wit and many of the amusing sayings in the original are said to be preserved in the piece. In addition the adapters, Messrs. Albert Edmunds and B. Smith (who are Messrs. Bert Bailey, Edmund Duggan, and Beaumont Smith), have been generous in the matter of extra comedy, and a strain of the ever-popular melodramatic interest.' The net. result of the efforts of the three is a play which provides the onlooker with amusement galore, induces roars of unrestrained laughter, and betimes awakens a. little sentiment- and a modicum of excitement. The Wellington season will run until the 24th inst. A big vaudeville company to tour New Zealand m projected by Alt, Hugh D.' M'tntosh. It will include some of the principal performers of the Richards' Circuit. A start will be made early next year. Mr. Charles Berkeley will Be the advance agent of the Williamson. New Comic Opera Company's tour in New Zealand. Miss Sybil Arundale, Mr. Talleur Andrews^ and Miss Vivien Talleur will make their first Dominion tour with the company. "The Girt in the l!ram" and "Nightbirds" are included in the repertory. Shortly to arrive in Australia from England for one of the J. 0. Williamson, Sydney prodticfekms is Mies Beatrice Terry, a. niece of Miss Ellen Terry. Her sister was Miss Minnie Terry, who was in Australia some years ago, and married Mr. Edward Owen. There is a, proposal in the- air to feuild a new theatre in Dunedin, and in this respect get up to date with the other centres in the Dominion. The City Council way take the ( matter up in the shape of a municipal opera house. Mr. G. B. Westmaeotti general manager for Mr. Oscar Asche, has been re 1 ' tamed to the end of the present Australasian tour, concluding in Jury. It is Mr. Westmacott's intention then to proceed Home in search of attractions. Another New Zealander has been favoured by the 3. C. Williamson firm with an engagement. This is Miss Margaret Jopp, contralto, who has been a pupil under Spencer Lorraine for the past four yearsj and who is at present in Dunedin. Miss Jopp, who is of a well-known family at Arrowtown, wifl leave the South for Auckland within the next three weeks to join the New Comic Opera Company. The Asche-Brayton Company will sail from the ( Bluff on Monday by the Maunganui for Melbourne. The return Australasian tour has been extended to take in Queensland, Adelaide, and Perth. From there the company will sail on the return to England in time to open in London with a revival of "Kismet" in September. Mr. Asche and Miss Brayton propose breaking the journey Home to take in China to secure the atmosphere for the Chinese spectacular play it is intended to stage in London. Miss Billie Barlow will have one of the showy parts in "The Sunshine Girl" when the George Edwardes musical comedy^ is produced in Sydney. The lady with the dashing stage style has arrived from England. Before Mr. ■Williamson persuaded her to make her third trip to Australia. Miss Barlow had been for two years in retirement. " But ifc don't agree with me," she says. "Early to bed and early to rise threatened to make me dull and stodgy, with bovine eyes. Late hours and. late rising, and plenty to do, keep me bright and lively." Miss Bessie Slaughter, the gifted English contralto, who has captivated the large audiences »t the Theatre Royal this week, will be again heard this evening in three well selected songs, namely, " The Magic of Your Voice," "The Lost Chord," and "So You Want To Be a Soldier," and her items for Monday evening and all next week will" be three favourites, "The Rosary," " Never Mind The Weather," and "An Old Romance." Another high-class turn opening on Monday is the National Duo, a couple of precocipus and unusually clever juveniles, who will appear"' in song and dance. These clever artists scored a distinct success on> their last visit here, and /should be Warmly received on their reappearance. Black and Bronte will introduce English, Scotch, and American items, and Bletsoe's Crimson Ramblers, who are now firm favourites with Wellington playgoers, will introduce an entirely new programme of songs, duets, and specialities. The present visit of Mr. Julius Knight to Australia is his fifth. Only another artist equals him in this record — Miss Grace Palotta. Both are great favourites with Australian audiences. Both have done a remarkable variety of work. Mr. Julius Knight has run the gamut of the whole dramatic scale, from costume plays to heroic drama, and again in comedy. He probably registers more successes than any star who has ever vifcited this country, and has had t a healthier influence upon the J. C. Williamson treasury than other actors in their long list of engagements. Miss Palotta has also covered the whole field of musical comedy, and has figured with marked success in farce comedy, and comedy, fn other parte of the world the Viennese actress nas won success in vaudeville, ai.'d as principal boy in pantomime, Mme. Clara Butt, who will visit Australia and New Zealand with Mr Kennerley Rumford, after next Easter, \fil\ probably arrive by way of Americai as the Chicago papers refer to her singing in tha^city at the end of the pre sent year. The remark was in connection with the appearance of her brother. Lawgon Butt, who is playing the part of Boris in "The Garden of Allah" (taken in New York by Lewis .Waller),

at the Auditorium Theatre. It seems that Mr. Butt supported Robert Mantell in Shakespeare last year. Mme. Clara j Butt, has also two sisters known to fame, classic concert singers, who sang a good deal in London as the Misses Hook some years ago The Butt-Rumford seasons in Australia date back to 1901 "Why Some Plays Fail," a paper read last month before the Gallery First Nighters' Club of London, by Mr. Austin Fryers, dealt with the changes which had swept ovev the stage since the club was founded some five-and-twenty years ago. The speaker deplored the passing pi such cosy little houses as Toole's and the old Strand 4 where "Olivette" and farcical pieces were enjoyed with an intimate sense of closeness to the performers. Burlesque had departed, the old Gaiety pieces being first dethroned by "Morocco Bound" at the Shaftesbury, after whici» musical comedy came in. Audiences were less particular ir the old days, but more talent was placed before them. The scenery was not too good, and characters would sometimes entei 1 through the first, second, or third wall, "but we took things very easily, and we helped the management by imagining the door." First-nighters had seen the creation of a new type inimical to dramatic art — the moderate actor, with a great talent for businesSj who triumphs in London's later days as an actor-manager. The group of fine artists who were formerly in one cast under a manager who ran his theatre as a business now ran , theatres" themselves separately, producing pieces not neces* sarily good, so long as there was a part exactly fitted to the actor-manager. For these and other reasons, Mr. Fryers seems to consider the modern standard not as high as it used to be. Playgoers who enjoyed Miss Ethei Irving 's comedy season will remember Miss Eily Malyon and Mr. Plumpton Wilson. Miss Malyon had the "necessary interest" in all Miss Irving's parts, but the health of the comedy actress never gave her a chance to appear in the big roles that would show her true acting ability. Now, however, Miss Malyon has been engaged for a character in "Milestones" that will give her the opportunity she has wished for in Australia. While with Miss Ethel Irving Miss Malyon and Mr. Wilson were married. Other English artists engaged for "Milestones" include Miss Gracie Noble (remembered with the Broughs), Miss Irene Brown (here with Mr. H. B. lr1 ving), Miss Mary Goulden (one of Miss Horniman s best actresses), Mr. Martin Lewis (one of London's promising juveniles), and Mr. Herbert Ford (a very experienced English actor). On the stage, as elsewhere, it is very ?u a unex P ecte d that happens, and the effect on the audience depends on U* readiness or otherwise of the actor concerned. The late Dan Barry (says a contributor to Sydney Sun) told many a good story about himself. Once he was playing the "Kelly Gang" up Mansfield way in the very heart of the Kelly country. He had a great difficulty in. finding a bellman, and at last he put on a wire' beard and paraded the streets ..iS 1861 .* "ag^g the bell and shouting, To-night, to-night," etc. There was a good house, but as soon as the resourceful Daii made his entrance as Ned Kelly a disgusted voice from the back seats exclaimed, "That's not Ned Kelly 5 that's the,old cow that was ringing the bell!" It -was in Bendigo that Mt. C. R. Stanford, now playing with the MarloW Company at the Sydney Adelphi, was in an awkward predicament owing to an unrehearsed effect. He was playing the villain, and in. one scene wa-s attempting to murder a hapless female (Miss Helen Fergus) With a large knife. Whilst the struggle was progressing a tall young farmer in the stalls got so excited that he rushed down the aisle, put his foot on the orchestra raif, and leapt lightly on to the stage. He seized the surprised nctor by the shoulders, and the audience heard the villain in suppressed but emphatic tones exclaim, "Get off, you d*—— fool, get off." He got off, assisted by t#o Btage hands, and the murderous struggle was Tesumed as if nothing had happened. On one occasion the veteran actor Ned Holloway (since deceased) got oltt of a tight place rather neatly. A member of the company with whom Ned had to play a long scene had been looking on the wine when it was red, and was very uncertain as to his lines. In fact, he bungled his scene bo badly that Ned could do nothing with him. However, the old man was not to be done. He gravely walked to the centre opening, and looking reproachfully at the offending actor he addressed him in his best melodramatic manner as follows : "I will now send my daughter to you, and I" pray to Heaven, that she will get on "better with you than I have done. Farewell!" And old Ned made a dignified exit. Ned Holloway suggests Ned Duggan (who will be in Wellington "Ori Our Selection" Company next week). Some years ago Edmund Duggan was touring the small towns of New South Wales in partnership with Jimmy South, just deceased. At Bulli they announced the "Lights o' London," but put up "Our Boys" instead— a totally different kind of play. The audience were very dissatisfied, and when Duggan, who was playing the aristocratic Sh- Geoffrey Champneys, was in the middle of one of his most noliehed speeches, he could endure the interjections no longer. Stepping to the footlights he roared : "If there's any more of this I'll come down myself and put you out, and," he added, tapping himself on the chest, "Ned Dug- [ gane the man that can do it!" Then he resumed the stately Sir Geoffrey marine!, and the comedy proceeded in peace. It was rather trying for the unfortunate actor in Mr. Randolph Bedford's play , "The Lady of the Pluck-up" when he had to ask, "Am I acting crook?" and the gallery as one man shouted "Yes!" A similar incident happened a few weelcs ago at the Bijou, Melbourne. ' An' actor had to say, "Now is the time to act," and he no sooner utteTed the words than a stentorian, "god" yelled, "Then why the devil don't yer!" The Christmas programme has now been definitely determined for the Theatre Royal, Sydney. "Harbour Lights," which play will be staged to-night for a fortnight, will ,be followed by a production of "Faust" on an ambitious scale, Mr, Jerrold Robertehaw. well known in London for sinister, saturnine parts, has been engaged by Mr. J. C. Williamson to play Mepliistopheles, and Mies Beatrice Terry, v niece of Mise Ellen Terry, will come to Australia for 1 the role of Marguerite. t Mr. Eric Maxon has been retained to impersonate Faust, and the "Ben Hur" principals will make up the remainder of the cast. The version of "Faust" will be that played by Mr. George Rignold with great success. The story will open with an accurate picture of Nuremberg in the daya^ Faust was supposed to live. As in Sir Henry Irving s production, the Brocken, it is promised, will be a managerial tour de force. The witches' Sabbath will be illustrated, with the celebrants riding across the moon on broomsticks, and wisps and wildfires revelling on the hillside. Mephistopheles and Faust will ascend to the summit of the mountains, the former to urge on the dances, the latter to recoil from the scene. The act will close with the golden rain, Other efforts of the scenic artists will be directed to Marguerite's garden, which will be characterised by simple beauty, and the sinking of the City of Nuremberg, when tho apotheosis is staged. Another spectacle will be the return of the soldiem from the war. The music will be drawn by Herr Siapoffski from Berlioz's "Faust,"' and the works of Verdi and Meyerbeer. The chorus now appealing in "Ben Hur" will be retained for the production..