MIMES AND MUSIC (By "Orpheus.")

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 74, 28 March 1914, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC (By "Orpheus.")

THE SHOWS. GRAND OPERA HOUSE. "The Grafters," Easter Saturday. Maud Allan, 27th April. TOWN HALL. (Concert d'hainber). The Dandies, 9th May to 27th June. ' HIS, MAJESTY'S. Brennan-Fuller Vaudeville. THE KING'S TMEATRE. Pictures nightly. STAR THEATRE.' Pictures nightly. ST. THOMAS'S HALL. Pictures nightly. j EMPRESS THEATRE. j Continuous Pictures. THE NEW THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. SHORTT'S THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. PEOPLE'S PICTURE PALACE. Continuous Pictures. BRITANNIA THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. Brent Hayes, the wonderful' banjo virtuoso on the Fuller-Brennan circuit, who makes his first appearance here next. Monday evening, has had the honour to appear before not only the late King Edward, but also before other crowned heads. Four years ago he played before the Tsar of Russia, and a year later he enjoyed the honour of a Royal command performance before Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. He has also charmed the King of Italy, the late King of Denmark, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, and last, but not least, General Porfirio Diaz, the former Dictator of Mexico. Mr. Fred Shipman, after piloting Paul Dufault on a concert tour of New Zealand, has left for Melbourne. He has gone to Australia for the purpose of arranging an Australian tour of Mischa Elman, the Russian violinist. Mr. Shipman will return to New Zealand in September to pilot the violinist through the' Dominion. The Quinlan Opera Company has not repeated in Canada the success it won in Australia. Mr. Quinlan, the operatic impresario, announced the cancellation of his Montreal season {says a Montreal cable in the Sydney Sun) nearly a fortnight earlier fchan the date originally fixed upon. A loss of between 1000 and 1500 dollars is said to have resulted from each performance so far. The company sails for Halifax op the 21st, and will open during Easter week in the new theatre in Manchester. Mr. Quinlan declares that the company's tour of the Empire has not been a success. Continuous vaudeville is an assured success in Melbourne The Bijou Theatre re-opened recently on the new principle, and played to capacity houses from the start. The Melbourne Herald comments on the event, and calls it " the dawn of a new vaudeville era." Mr. Ben Fuller and his co-directors were present. Speeches were called for, and the artists were received enthusiastically. Artists on the Fuller-Brennan circuit now will go on to Warwick Major's circuit in India, playing at Colombo, Kandy, Calcutta, Bombay, and Rangoon. It is intended to link up with South Africa. China, and Japun. Messrs. George Willoughby, Ltd., will open the New Zealand tour of their new dramatic company,- headed by Cyril Mackay and Gertrude Boswell at His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland, on Easter Monday, with a dramatisation by Seva Elyarts of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," founded on Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe'e famous work. Novelty numbers are to be introduced by the Era Comedy Four, the Picaninny RagUmers, and the National Duo. The staging of scenic realisms, including a waterfall scene, ieto be on a scale of completeness. Succeeding productions by thie company will include the American drama, "At Cripple Creek, "Term of His Natirral Life," and "The Bad Girl of the Family." Mr. A. W. Batiste severs his position as touring manager of the "George Cross" Company to take over the business management of the new company. Harold Edie is .going through the Dominion preparing the way for the tour of Miss Maud Allan and the Cherniavsky Trio. The Australasian lour wil' commence in Dunedin, and her Wellington season on 27th April. Much has been written about Miss Allan, and she gained an unenviable notoriety when the introduction of her clances caused a sensation. Miss Allan does not use piearranged steps, but allows every muscle of her body to play in the spirit of the music. She has claimed that her dancing goes back to the dancing of ancient Greece, Assyria, and Egypt. Miss Allan personifies a modern revival, and while other dancers have carried her methods to extremes of morbidness, she has remained essentially a classic dancer, and has become established in the realm of the dance as an artist. Miss Ada Reeve, the famous vaudeville artist, will sail on the Orient steamer Orontes for a tour of the Eickards Tivoli circuit, stated a cable message from London, published by Sydney Sun last week. The engagement of Miss Ada Pieeve was one of the best strokes of business that Mr. Hugh D. M'lntosh did in the way of obtaining artists for Australia, when he was recently in England. Miss Reeve is one of the highestpaid women music-hall performers m the world. For several years she was a star in musical comedy, known as a singer of dainty songs, a dancer of dainty dances, and even her stage walk was said to be, an education. When j>he w t ent into variety eager managers booked her for years ahead. Recently, she wae engaged in a law /suit over a contract, and obtained monetary consideration from a South African firm. The 3. C. Williamson management has secured for Australia one of this highly successful playwright's comedies, the curiously-named '•Seven Keys to Bald Pate " It is possible that this will be purchased for London by Mr. Seyniour Hicks and Mr Frank Curzon (who is concerned with him in the new venture at the Prince of Wales's) The scene of this play is laid at Bald Pate, a mountain home of rest for tired minds. Thither goes an author who 'has a Gig money oontract for a novel. Assured by the owner of Bald Pate that he, the novelist, is the only persoD possessing a key to the house, he settles down to work there on his great story — only to find very soon that there are six others who have keys. Greatly worried and distressed by their presence, the novelist nevertheless goes on with his writing, and it is not until the last moments of the piay that- one is appriseed of the author's design — th.lt these six other persons are merely the mental creations of the novelist, the embodied figments of his imagination, the characters, in short, of 1113 great story.! , Mr Hairy Muller, general manager in New Zealand for FulJer-Brennan, states that it is proposed to make radical changes in Dunedin. The first movement 1-. to transfer vaudeville from the King's Theatre to the Princess Theatre, where Fuller's Pictures have been leigning, and to tiansfer the pictuies to the King's. Tins arrangement, says the Otago Witness, will suit the vaudeville excel-

lently, but it will not be appreciated by the picture patrons, who go as much to the Princess on account of the theatre as for the pictures. The King's has never had a proper following, but the Princess is a favourite house. Vaudeville should do well there — certainly better than at the King's. The transfer is to be made at Easter. Meanwhile extensive schemes for improvements and alterations are contemplated and will be carried out in due course. Over £500 is to be spent in painting and redecorating the Princess, which is also to be improved by the addition of tiers of boxes on each side of the stage. In Christchurch the name of the Opera. House in Tuam street is to be altered to the National. The London Times has received the following letter, signed by Mmes. Pavlova, Karsavina, Kyasht. Karma, and Phyllis Bedells : — "The news that the great Danish danseuse, Mile. Adeline Genee, begins with her season at the London Coliseum next month a series of performances prior to her final retirement from the stage will be received with sadness by all who have been fascinated by her beautiful personality and delighted 'with her exquisite dancing. We, as representing only a tiny handful of her sister-artists who give way to no one in their admiration of Mile. Genee's art, venture to suggest that j such an occasion should not be passed over without some recognition of the hours of delight which she has given to all lovers of dancing From the moment when she, a young Danish danseuse, made her first appearance in London, Mile. Genee has endeared herself to the heart of the British public, and her career has been marked by a series of artistic triumphs. May we, therefore, hope that those who love the art of dancing will help up in offering Mile. Genee some small token of our affection and admiration for her, which she would afterwards treasure as a keepsake, reminding her of the affectionate esteem by which siie was held in this country?" Miss Eileen Boyd, of Sydney, and well-known in New Zealand, is winning continued favour in the concert world of London and the provinces. Fulfilling a recent engagement at Torquay, she caught a severe cold, and had to cancel immediate engagements as the result ; but the care of a leading London throat specialist promptly brought her back to active work. Miss Boyd's press notices show that she has made a hit as the contralto of the Peter Dawson. Concert Company, which has set out upon a tour of England. Ireland Scotland, and Wales. After this tour Mr. Dawson will visit Australia about May. Miss Br>yd has recently sung at Harrogate, Ufracombe, Weymouth, Scarborough, , Bridlington, Weston-super-Mare, Blackpoo], Felixstowe, Cromer, Lewes, and other places, and this, with her lessons in grand opera and oratorio with leading teachers, is keeping her very busy. One of the attractions in the programme of the Peter Dawson Company is "Parody Pie," clever skits on wellknown songs. These parodies have been written by Stodart-Walker and others, and set to music by Madame Liza Lehniann There are laughable solos for the members of the quartet — one of Miss Boyd's is a parody on " Casablanca "—" — and other familiar music treated with scorn may be recognised under the title of "Blink to me only with thine eyesJ' and an amusing parody of " The Andw and the Song.* Tosti's "Good-bye," of course, has proved an easy victim. The new version represents a waiter reminding the diner of his presence in the ivords— "Tip me straight on the palm and start." These parodies have become immensely popular on the tour, marking the travels of the company with a continuous peal of laughter. Miss Boyd sang in London, at the Aeolian Hall on sth February, and one of her recent appearances, at Glasgow, possesses added interest to Australians from the fact that Miss Rosina Buckmann was in the same programme, and the notices show that it was well received. The Glasgow Herald, writing of Miss Boyd's solos, describes her singing as of gieat power and charm. Mr. Arthur E. Greenaway, one of a limited group of clever Australian actors whose stage experience has become cosmopolitan, has left for London {states Sydney Morning Herald). This wellknown actor, who was born in Melbourne, began his career under the late William Hollow ay, and was the youthful Romeo to Essie Jenyns's girlish Juliet, and was able as Sebastian in "Twelfth Night" to make-up as the twin brother of her Viola m a wonderful way. Mr. Greenaway's first- experience away from home was with the same manager's Shakespearean company in South Atrica as juvenile lead, and in 1897 he was in England, and toured for two years with the tragedian Osmond Tearle. On one occasion the young actor, originally well schooled in "Hamlet" by William Hoskins, played that gieat character at four hours' notice on the sudden illness of Tearle, and thus saved the show from closing. Altogether, the Australian remained for eight years on the English 6tage, and then for live years he supported Richard Mansfield continuously in America ; and he regards him as the greatest actor-manager he ever met. Mansfield created Monsieui Bnaucaiie (subsequently played m London byWaller), and in a revival in- New York Greenaway was the Rakell. The Australian also played both Mark Antony and Julius Caesar at different time? in New York to Mansfield 'e Brutus. Whilst in' New York the latu J. C. Williamson engaged him to support Miss Tittell Brune in Australia, and he played Romeo to her Juliet, and Jacky in "Sunday," and other parts. On this side he joined Miss Nance O'Neill's company for America again, and ultimately returning to London supported Miss Jessie Mil ward in "The School for Husbands" at the Gamck, and H. R. Roberts (anothei Australian) in "The Prince Chap" at the London Criterion. This was followed by a second tour of the Cape, and he was then engaged for "The Scarlet Pimpernel" m his own country, which he is now leaving after making a hit as Sam Sibley in "'Milestones" with the Julius Kinght Company, closing his connection with' them as Orloff in "Diplomacy " Mr. Greenaway prefers Australian life, with ite surf and its sun but a professional career in London places an actor within six days of the vast possibilities of the American stage, and, when once he is favourably known there, thus frees him by a quick change from anxiety as to constant engagements.