MIMES AND MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 127, 30 May 1914, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC

(By "Orpheus.") THE SHOWS. GRAND OPKRA HOUSE. George Willoughby, in season. Wellington Dramatic Club, Ist, 2nd, and 3rd June. "The Rosary," 20th June to 2nd July. Wellington Operatic Society, "Paul Jones," Bth to 15th July. Harry Lauder, 3rd and 4th August. TOWN HALL. (Concert Chamber). The Dandies, in season. HIS MAJESTY'S. Brennsm-FuHer Vaudeville. THE KING'S I'HEATBE, Pictures nightly. STAR THEATRE, Pictures nightly. EMPRESS THEATER Continuous Pictures. SHORTT'S THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. PEOPLE'S PICTURE PALACE. Continuous Pictures. BRITANNIA THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. When Julius Knight tours the Dominion later in the. year his repertoire will consist of revivals of "Tho Royal Divorce," "The Scarlet Pimpernel," "Monsieur Beaucaire," and "The Sign of the Cross." Tho seating accommodation provided in the Cbristchurch picture theatres i& as follows : — Colosseum 2286, Hie Majesty's 1479, Sydenham 900, Queen's 863, Grand 628, 'and Globe 340. Monday night will see the first appearance of the dramatic section of the New Zealand. Natives' Association, when "Charley's Aunt" will be staged at the Grand Opera House. Though the club ie a new one, the members have made many successful appearances before local audiences, and can be i - elied upon to give a creditable representation. Last year they produced "The Private Secretary" very successfully. The characters have been well cast, 'and Mr. Norman Aitken and Dr. Hales should be well suited in the eading parts. "Charley' 6 Aunt" will be played for three nights. Next Monday week the Fuller-Bren-nan management will inaugurate continuous vaudeville at tho National Amphitheatre. Forty-three imported artists, who have finished their contracts with the firm, will return to England and America from Sydney next week. Sixteen new acts are due next Monday to replace them. Mr. Frank Greene has taken Mr. Leslie Holland's place in the revue "Come Over Here" in Melbourne, on the latter's departure for South Africa to appear with the J. C. Williamson's musical comedy company. The English members of "Mr. Wtt" Company were due to sail from London on i^nci May. Miss May Congdon, remembered for her work as leading lady with Meynell and Gunn's first dramatic company, playing "The Midnight Wedding" and "The Fatal Wedding," will be included in the company, playing the important role of Mrs. Gregory. Mr. Borneo Gardiner, of Wellington, "The New Zealand Sifileur," who has achieved such conspicuous success in England and Ireland, has just concluded a fortnight's engagement at the London Pavilion. He has an excellentlypainted New Zealand scene as background, and_ while enchanting his audience with his wonderful whistling, goes through the pretence of boiling a billy j and getting breakfast in the open air. j Madame Melba, who, it was recently cabled, had decided to tour Australia with the Boston Opera Company, made her farewell appearance in Paris as Desdemona, and will shortly leave for Australia. She hsis cancelled her engagements owing to the illness of her father, and will return to Europe early in 1915, later proceeding to America. t The first appearance of the J. C. 'Williamson Company in South Africa, at Capetown, on 24th April, with the Australian chorus, as well as various principals from this country, is announced by the Cape Argus " as a great pantomime success." Miss Eileen Redmond, of Sydney, is* praised as a pretty Princess, while Mr. Harry Phydora as King Grabbus, and Mr. George Miller as the Dame, are said to have kept the fun going briskly. Miss Minnie Love, from London, joined the company at Cape* town as principal boy. Miss Una Bourne, the Melbourne pianist, who gave a command performance before the Queen at Buckingham Palace on the 21st inst., played three pieces, and at the Queen's request added one of her own compositions. Queen Mary, who was delighted with the performance, asked Miss Bourne many questions about Australia, and showed how intensely interested she is in the welfare of the Commonwealth. Miss Winnie Volt, a young English actress, who made a big success in Sydney in the revue "Come Over Here," will be the principal boy in the Dominion tour of "The Forty Thieves." The firm are not sending Miss Lonnen, mainly because she was through this country with the Royal 'Comic Opera Company. Miss Ma-rio Eaton will appear a© Abdullah, and the cast will be identical with that which appeared in Sydney and Melbourne. Mrs. Ben J. Fuller is generously subsidising a cot in the Renwick Hospital for Infants (Sydney). It is*-to b© called "The Joan-Fay Cot," after the names of Mm. Fuller's two daughters. Mru Fuller is a native of Aucklaild, and as Lily Thompson — her maiden name — she made a number of appearances* in amateur theatrical work. With the Auckland Operatic Society she played Tesea in "Th» Gondoliers" and Pitti Sing in "The Mikado." Mr. Fred. Niblo and his wife (Mice Josephine Cohan) motored from Sydney to Melbourne prior to the opening of "Never Say Die" at the Theatre RoyaJ, and had their first glimpse m real earnest of the back country in addition to various exciting experiences. One night a tiro received two punctures in quick succession, whilst a steady rain that was falling made things far from comfortable. "And did you walk to an hotel?" someone asked tho comedian, who was relating his adventures. "No," said Niblo, "I thought of 'Never Say Die' (which 1 took as my watchword), and mended the punctures. When we got going again and I turned the bend in the road I lound that we had only been a couple of hundred yards from an hotol all the time!" The directors of the J. C. Williamson management have decided to venture into the moving picture field. Mr. Hugh Ward, it is said, is conferring in New York with a group of theatrical managers, 'who intend to film and screen successful plays produced by them. The advertising a popular play gets nowadays makes its success on the biograph assured. The intention of the firm is to deal only with pictures that will provide a complete entertainment — in other words, star films. These will be shown in the afternoons. In Sydney it ia intended to use Her Majesty's Theatre, and in, Melbourne the Theatre Royal. Any vacant dates at theatres on the Williamson circuit will also be filled by star pictures. There will be no change regarding the evening entertainments. They will be, as now, the spoken drama and musical attractions. With the erection of the new theatre in Bathurst-street, however, tho firm will convert ooe of it« most central Sydney,

theatres into a moving picture house, where night shows will bo given. Interesting evidence was given in London recently during the hearing of the suit in which the London Theatres of Variety, Ltd., is asking the Court for an injunction to restrain Will Evans, the well-known comedian, from appearing at the Gaiety Theatre and other places of amusement. According to counsel's opening statement, Mr. Evans contracted with the plaintiffs, who own 22 music halls in London, to give four performances a night at various of their halls, within a radius of 12 miles, at a salary of £80 a week. Mr. Seymour Hicks, the well-known actor and author, gave evidence that the strain imposed upon artists in a music hall was infinitely greater than that in a theatre. "The smoke on the stage often knocks you down," declared the witness. Miss Violet Lorraine said that it was easier to play principal boy in a pantomime than to sing four songs several times a. night in the halls. The formation of a new company in Christchurch to erect the new picture theatre in Cathedral-square is more interesting than many people think (writes "Prompter" in the Canterbury Times). Tho fact that ifc is to seat 1200, and will draw its supplies from 'New Zealand Pictures, Limited, induces me to prophesy that there- will be developments in connection with at least one of the city's bigger picture houses. The Fuller-Brennan firm is to build a new vaudeville house in Christchurch, and, without stating anything ac a fact, I would not be surprised if the new place went up in Gloucesfcer-etreet, the Little Great White Way of Christchurch. Tho thing is quite feasible. The Colosseum site might be used, and the name might even be taken over by the new play--house. 1 don't mak« this known as a statement of fact or as a rumour; it is merely an idea. A theatre capable of seating 1200 is too big for a continuous picture house in Christchurch with the present competition, and the orchestral project that I hear is proposed for the new place will find it difficult to get players. So you see the course I propose does not eound a wild idea at all. Again, the lease of His Majesty's will be expiring one of these days, and that must lie considered too, but I should say that the big theatre does too well for a move to be contemplated. Still, time will show. Mr. John Bunny, the extraordinary fat man who figures in the motion plays of the Vitagraph Company of America, has a,_ tremendous grievance against civilisation. He contends that his many admirers throughout the world are not content to see him in the film, but are always too pleased to view him in the flesh. The result is that, when Bunny goes abroad in America, he is no sooner recognised than he is mobbed by a. tumultuous mob of citizens, all apparently intent on getting a close embrace and shaking his fat and florid hand. Popularity of this sort is all right in its way, but it is rather disturbing to an adipose comedian who is too modest to enjoy this extempore adulation, and invariably too breathless to run away. Recently ho was discovered snatching a j few quiet moments in a secluded retreat at a Yankee watering place, and, during the rest of his stay m the town, his walks abroad were merely long public meetings, with himself as the centre of violent rejoicing. Bunny is getting a, little tired of life now, and declares that there are many things to be preferred to the appreciation that collects a crowd quicker than a fire. Personally he would prefer an effective disguise, or some other method by which he could escape enthusiastic notice. Only two of Franz Lehar's operettas, of which a dozen have succeeded in Vienna, have reached Australia, namely, "The Merry Widow" and "The Count of Luxemburg." On 13th June, however (says the Sydney Morning Herald), the J. C. Williamson management will add a third charming work to the list by staging "Gipsy Love" ("Zigeuner liebe"), at Her Majesty's Theatre. There will be a new prima donna from London, Elsie Spain, tall, with fine eyes and classic features, as Ilona, the heiress in love with a gipsy ; Miss Gertrude Glynn, very tall and slender, realising Turgenieffs allusion to "young saplings," who understudied Gertrude Millar as "Lady Babbie" at Daly's Theatre, and will play that character ; Derek Hudson, a young baritone, who has sung Wolfram and the grand opera repertoire with the Beecham Company, and will appear as Joszi, a gipsy ; and Mr. Field Fisher, a new English comedian, cast as Dragotin, Ilona's father. These English artists are now rehearsing under Wybert Stamford, with Olive Godwin, Celia Ghiloni, Dorothy Brunton, and other favourite Australian singers, and the "producer" thus has in hand a goodly store of vocal talent for this light, but essentially musical, work. The first of the J. C. Williamson attractions for New Zealand is "The Forty Thieves" pantomime, which opens in Auckland on 29th June. Julius Knight was to have commenced a New Zealand tour at Auckland on 10th August, but arrangements are now being made for the opening on 7th September. Arrangements have been made for a New Zealand tour of "Bunty Pulls the Strings." The tour commences at Auckland en 12th October. Other firm* are booking tours in New Zealand, and one of these is for a. high-class vaudeville company keaded by Le Roi, a vronderful illusionist. This show is due to open at Auckland on 28th September. There is also a possibility that Hugh Buckler and Violet Paget, of the Little Theatre Company, will be throngh these parts with a high-class repertoire, including several Bernard Shaw plays. Arrangements are now being made for tho tour, which will commence in August. Add to these the various Willoughby attractions, including "The Rosary" Dramatic Company, opening in Wellington on 25th June, and the American Musical Comedy Company, Harry Lauder and Co., and some Dandies. It is seldom that the creator of a leading role in a big English or American success i« specially brought out to Australia to play the same part here, which has been done for the production of "The Rosary," which Georgs Willoughby presents at the Princess Theatre. The leading character, that of Father Brian Kelly, was created by Mr. Harrington Reynolds in tho original New York production, and he was specially engaged in America to portray the same' part in Australia and New Zealand. Writing by the laet mail from South Africa, where the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company is neaa'ing the end of its season prior to leaving for Australia,, Mr. Harold Ashton mentions that the firm has had a rather narrow escape from losing its Australian chorus, which, says Mr. Aehton, ha* never been equalled in South Africa. "There is hardly a girl who ha-s not had a proposal," ho says. "Some of thorn havo had half a dozen, and the most eligible young men in tho various towns, especially Johannesburg, have boen amongst the suitors. I can assure you that it took me all my time to keep the chorus together; but I have succeeded, though I don't know how many masculino hearts havo been crushed in the process. At any rate, the chorus will go back intact to Australia, and if, whvn the season in the Commonwealth is over, there is immediately an exodus of chorus ladies back to South Africa, Australia's loss will be Africa's gain. The Australian theatrical _ girl seems to exercise a wonderful fascination over the susceptible but Uietnmiaating young South Ajrigan." ' '" 'I