MIMES AND MUSIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 21, 25 January 1913, Page 13

MIMES AND MUSIC.

(By "Orpheus.") THE SHOWS. r ' OPERA-HOUSE. "The Girt In the Train" from 25th January. The Emerald Isle, 17th and lSth February. THE.ATRE ROYAL. Brennan-Fullers' Vaudeville Company. HIS MAJESTY'S. Fullers' Pictures. THE KINO'S THEATRS, ' Royal and West's Victuret, STAR TBIUTUB. Star Picture company. ST. THOMAB'S HAtL 4 fullers' Pictures. EMPRESS THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. THE , NEW THEATRB. Continuous Pictures. fiHORTT'S THEATRB. Continuous Pictures. PEOPLE'S PICTURE PALACE. Continuous Pictures. The musical critic of the Australasian writes thus of "The Girl in the Train," which will be staged here this (Saturday) evening : " Theatregoers are likely to take •The Girl in the Train' closely to their hearts. Since .the Gilbert and Sullivan series we have had nothing that has been thoroughly satisfying, and that has provided a good plot.- Witty dialogue, a Bubcurrent of satire 'and music, not only captivating in itself, but also relative and vital to. the scheme. To say that 'The Girl in the Train' gets as near to this combination Of qualities as possible is only, weighing out a slightly, overflowing measure of appreciation. Not that the piece is by-any means faultless. But for* every moment of mediocrity there, are nine compensating ones of brilliancy and this percentage should satisfy the' most exacting theatregoer." It is said that the score of "The Girl in the Train" is really sparkling. It is interesting to note that it comprises much concerted music 4 besides • several taking solos, the work of the chorus lasting in all at least thirty minutes. The leadina theme— "Oh, - Sleeping Car"~with a waltz refrain, appears in a ballad for the heroine- in the first act. There are many other exuberant and artistic ' melodies, each of which is typical of the composer's' versatile gifts, while the brisk dance for the gay company in the second act usually wins such enthusiastic applause that the curtain has to be raised again and again. - After her vaudeville tour in Australia, Miss Florence Baines (now at the Tivoli) intends to recommence play-produc-tion on her own account. She has. an Australian play, and also a new Lancashire drama, "Miss Martha," the latter being written by herself. To .hold a record for anything nowa" days is regarded as high honour, so Mr. William Anderson must feel a proud mati in holding the record as. the Australian play producer. He has staged more Australian plays than all the other managers together, and they have been wholly Australian so far as could be managed from the penning to the acting, for everything- has been made here for them, while the . company . are almost wholly Australian. "The Girl of the Never. Never, "> at present scoring, a success aWlie King's Theatre, /Irfelbourne, is th'g^i^st Australiaif-'HrodbctKn, and in eVery respect ; a successor to the* rifanyl ■ fine examples pfVAustralian peiimanghip that ha\eibeen seen on the Sir Herbert Tree has gone on a private visit to the United States, after an absence thjerefrpm^of sixteen years. Rumour says that he • means to bring back 'with him for presentation at His Majesty's the Chinese drama of "The Daughter of Heaven," which has taken iNeW'York by storm, and Parker's play |of "Disraeli," in .which Mr. George Arliss, in 'the title role, has scored" a genuine triumph. Sir Herberts next Shakespearean production is to be "Love's Labour Lost." ■ - "Dagonet," in the Referee, quotes the following amusing letter he has received from an aspirant to the stage :— "Sir,— I have been in domestic service for Borne years, and am anxious to get out of it. Could you give me a letter to Sir George Alexander, as I should like to go on the stag©? Having always been with firstclass families, I should be more at home in society plays than melodrama. The Sunday off will be a great boon to me, as my young man is in' a' business where he doesn't, get his eveningß. If you think the theatres are going to be open on Sundays, don't trouble, as that would alter my plans." Ivy Ray, once chorus and understudy in the J. C. Williamson Companies, has "struck it" in London (says a par. in' the Bulletin). When she left Sydney eighteen months ago she dropped into "principal girl" work at Liverpool pantomime. After this she assisted Bert Gilbert in a sketch at London Colisseum. Then this happened (Stage, 31st October) :— "Bert Gilbert lost his, voice, and his sketch, 'The Ticket Collector,' was off the, bill on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. However, one's loss is another's gain, and Miss Ivy Ray, his -clever and dainty partner, put on a singing and monologue act, and held the stag© for fourteen minutes, charming all present with her personality and fine voice. The management was so satisfied with resulte that it paid the full week's salary— -in itself sufficient proof of Miss Ray's success." One of the best exponents of comic inebriation on the Australian stage is Mr. Victor Prince, who appears in "Nightbirds" (which the Williamson Opera Company produces here shortly) as the guzzling governor of the luxurious new ag« prison. Two phases of his hilarity, the night at the Arum Lily Club and the morning after are cameos of art. The way he celebrates and the way he cerbetates are the inspirations of a firstclass low comedian. Mr. Prince, the son of the old favourite Gilbert and Sullivan actor, Howard Vernon, was born, ill the dressing-room of a Japaneeo thea,tre, and the tirst thing his baby hands tightened on was a stick of carmine grease painti Ha immediately proceeded, previous to devouring it, to redden his infantile nose. Hie fate was eealed. Kismefc' was written upon the act. The following is the cast of principal characters taking part in the forthcoming production of the four-act • comedy drama "The Emerald Isle," by the Wellington Celtic Dramatic Club at the Opera House," on Monday and Tuesday, 17th and 18th ' ' February : —Harry O'Connor, Mr. Leslie Campbell ; Barney Rooney. Mr. Charles Gamble ; Edward Griswold, Mr. Daniel Moriarty ; Humpy Dargon, Mr. Denis Kelly ; Michael O'Connor, Mr. John Turner ; John Cullenford, Mr. Charles M'Erlean ; Inspector Keys, Mr. Peter Fleming ; Reilly, Mr. Richard Duffy ; Private Higgins, Mr. Frank Skinner ; Grace Redmond, Miss Ivy Scott; Molly O'Connor, Miss Maggie Hannan j Mary Rooney, Miss Ida Barringtbn, i At latest advices the various London theatres which produce pantomime were busy in preparation of their s-tneral Christmas dishes of that sort. Historic Drury Lane was to bo given up to "The Sleeping Beauty." Mr. Charles Hawtrey renders at the Garrick "AVhere i the Rainbow Ehds," .a children's piece of las.t year,' which turned out well. At I the Lyceum "Th& Forty Thievst, 1 wijl

once , again emerge into prominence, while other theatres will press other nursery tales into spectacular service. At the. Duke of York's, of course, "Peter" Pan," in the' charming person of Mies Pauline Chase, will work b.is customary magic, not only with Wendy and the rest, but with audiences that by this time know every line of the play, and the whole bag of Peter's tricks. More than "one piece was running vigorously out of the old year into the new. The leading musical comedy puccesses — "Gipsy Love," at Daly's; 'Princess Caprice," at the Shaftesbury; "The Girl in the Taxi," at the Lyric-, "The Sunshine Girl" (new edition), at the Gaiety, were all booming, despite the monthG of prosperity already behind them, while the more recent "The Dancing Mistress," at the Adelphi, was promising still another triumph in that line for Mr. George Edwardee. In comedy and drama various plays are hall-marked as successes. "The. Turning Point. ' at the St. James's, with Sir George Alexander and Ethel Irving in command, and "Drake" at' His Majesty's, were conspicuous in that regard. "Milestones," produced in March last, etill crowds the Royalty. At the Comedy, Mr. Graham Moffatt seems to have found another "Buhty" in "A Scrape o' the Pen"; at the Vaudeville, Mies Hilda Trevelyan and Mr. Edmund Givens were announcing the 120 th performance of "Little Miss Llewellyn," while Mr. Allan Aynesworth's venture into management at the Criterion has found his "Ready Money" approaching its 150 th performance. Various new plays were in the middle of last month trying their paces, but Mr. Cyril Maude seemed to be well -established at the Playhouse with his French farcecomedy, "The Little Cafe" ; while '-'The Glad Eye," at the Strand, was still bubling gaiety after 450 performances. "C.0.M." in the Bulletin : Now that the Sydney picture show combine is practically complete, and the firms which made capital out of their independence have been brought into line, the suburban shows are likely to be squeezed out in large numbers, and the suburban crowds forced to come into town for their jiggergraph entertainment. But will the crowds come in? They have gone to the local shows because the cheap amusement was afc their door. Were these shows made impossible along their 'present lines, through the charge for the ufie of films being 'put up enormously, cheap vaudeville performances would probably replace them, to the great loss of the combine. Pictures. in and of themselves are not a tremendously strong attraction. The 'public mostly finds in watching them a cheap - and .pleasant mode of killing time. Nobody is going to pay theatre prices for the best of them and nobody is going to make long and frequent journeys^ from the suburbs , to see them. . Moreo.ver, when the .Combine is well on its feet, the Referendum Drooosak will be carried, and then everybody connected with the proposed monopoly will have to pay a fine, and the organisation will be smashed up and the names of a lot of proprietors of jiggergraphs will be Mud. . And to.be called Mud in such a connection may not bo at all a good advt. "Sketch Artist" writes in the Sydney Sun:— "l have, just finished reading a hall-column of an article headed 'Artists' Paradise, 1 in which Mr. Earl Taylor expresses his views on vaudeville in Australia, and compares the life of an Australian vaudeville performer with those in America. Mr. Taylor says, 'for comfort, ease, and happiness Australia has America beat to a frazzle. Now that is a very American way of saying that Australian Vaudeville is a 'joy ride.' To those 'who belttHg" to ''tftis country and others who 'bl6w in' from other countries ('BIoW ins' is a name giyentq tho?e vaudevillians who come to Australia without hiving a vaudeville is just as strenuous as any, country where there are only 'one hpuee a night shows.' And as for lost fime, we 11 ,% ask "The M'Banns,' as,k 'Kara,' ask 'Zomaii,' 'Bi-ber-ti,' and many other of the world's best performers, people whose names are headlined and topped in the best and greatest vaudeville programmes; they will tell you stories of lost time that would make tho jump from Chicago to Seattle a one-night stand tour. And if lost* time can be handed out to old campaigners like thctee people, who stand high in the 'business,' now would a performer of lesser note get on? .And after thinking that out and finding . tho answer just ' imagine' how a 'bl6w-in' would suffer at the hands of a vaudeville manager! 1, myself, am a performer, and have been very lucky in my work, and personally have no kick coming, but there are hundreds of good Aue^ tralian performers who are compelled to do all sorts of drudgery to eke out an existence. I know , of one well-known and favourite 'comedienne' who had to work in a clothing factory, because the money she got could not buy her ballet skirts and shoes, let alone allow her to have any luxury in the shape of a fourcourse dinner. > There are hundreds of Australian vaudeville performers, and good ones, too, who return from a long engagement, say 16 weeks, with as much money as will keep them, in rooms and living on one meal a day, not more than a month. Yefc very many, of them seem willing to come, this way, and one hears really little grumbling. Theatrical clips :—ln: — In America the Roman Catholic Church has decided upon the establishment of a National Catholic Theatre, and in connection with it there is an attempt to organise a censorship of plays all over the 1 United States. . . . Mr.' Tom Pollard is to stage "The Geisha" for the Dunedin Operatic and Musical Society in April at His Majesty's Theatre. . . . Mr. Chas. Frohman has commissioned Paul Rubens, composer of "Miss Hook of Holland," to write him a new musical comedy, and he is now. busy with it. Its title will be "The X-Ray Girl." .... Mr. Hugh Wilson has definitely accepted the management of the King' 6 Pictures, Brisbane, and will leave for his new home in a few days. . . . Mr. Harry Clay Blaney, American playwright ana play producer, accompanied by his wife, arrived. at Sydney the other day by the Sonoma, and is making a colonial tour. He ", is managing director of Blaney's group of theatres in New York. . . . "The Merry Widow" has been played in every country in the world except China and Greenland., . . . There were 234 performances of .Massenet's operas given at .the three subventioned opera houses in Paris last season Herbert Leigh, who played Wealth in "Every woman" in Wellington, has left the Williamson companies and has joined William Anderson. . . . 'Will H. Fox, who was here last year with the Rickards Vaudeville Company, was appearing at the Manchester Alhambra when the mails left London Fred. Bluett, the well-known Australian comedian, leaves for England shortly. . . . Mr. Bert. Gilbert, well known in New Zealand, was in , the Birmingham pantomime at the Prince of Wales's Theatre at Christmas. In the same cast, as the principal girl, was Miss Irene Dillon, who was for some years in the J. C. Williamson musical comedy companies. . . . When Mile. Gaby Deslys landed in America last Novembev she declared at the Customs office jewels valued at £65,000 and gowns at £5000. . . . Jules Garrison and his Roman Maids have niada their farewell appear anee at the National Ampi theatre-, Sydney, and are now on thcii homeward , way to America Tyrone Power,. ■who waA in New Zealand with the late Edith Crane, is now with Williamson, Faversham, and Co., playing in "Bunty Pulls the Strings," f 'Bought and Paid .lor," and "Julius Caesar. • i