MIMES AND MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 144, 19 June 1915, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC

(By "Orpheus ") THE "SHOWS. GRAND OPERA HOUSK. 'Altai Dooms zeth July to 10th August. HJS MAJESTY'S. Breantn-FuHer Vaudeville. THK KING'S THEATBB. Pictures nightly. STAR THEATRE, rictxir&s nightly. NEW THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. EMPRESS THEATKH Continuous Pictures. SHORTT'S THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. PEOM-E'S PICTURE PALACE. Continuous Pictures. P-RITANNIA THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. OPERA HOUSE. Continuous Pictures. Prior to leaving Sydney for America Mr. Fred Niblo was presented with a handsome silver cup by the members of tho company who have been associated with him for three years. AUen Doone, the popular Irish-Ameri-can actor, and his company are at present in the North. , The company will visit Wellington next montn, opening in the Grand Opera House on the 26th July, and remaining in season until 10th August. During the season Mr. Doone will stage six plays, the opening piece being " Barry of Ballymore," his latest success. Mr. Frank Levy is acting as touring manager of the company. _ Mr. John Hopkins, who has been associated with Branßcombe, Ltd., for several years past, has severed his connection with the firm, and left for Sydney yesterday.^ Mr. Hopkins was guiding the destinies of "The Violets," when an exceptional offer was made to him by Mr Peter Dawson. This engagement Mr. Hopkins has accepted, and it will mean a complete tour of Australia and the East, and probably a tour of England, Mr, Harrington Reynolds, who is familiarly known aa Father Kelly of the "Rosary," has taken a long lease of the Palace Gardens Theatre, Brisbane, and it is his intention to produce high-class comedies as well as to revive some of the old favourites. He will have associated with him a company of comedy artists, who will be known as Harrington Reynolds's Comedy Players. German critics have lately had an opportunity to laud Richard Strauss, hailing him as the culmination and quintessence of the modern German idea, in musical art. The climax is reached by one writer (the musical critic of the Borsen Courier, Berlin), who sees in the figure of Richard 'Strauss' Salome, "a dramatic self-sacrificing German martyr, glorified in the brilliancy of beautiful floating tones. 1 ' This because Strauss' opera neroine is "all German force and individuality." It will be news that the erotic Salome is a, martyr, and that a German one. Musical News observes that many hard things have been and are being said by Britishers about Germans and Germany, but not a soul has ever said anything so spiteful as that the salacious Salome is typically German. In Adelaide a new company that opened at the Tivoli Theatre last week ■was known as "Cannot's Follies." It is six months since Mr M'lntosh introduced "potted pantomime" to Sydney audiences, and in that time the variety programme, grouped under the catchy title, has been enjoyed by the jrabliu of Melbourne, Ade* laide, and Brisbane. West Australia has not yetbeen touched by the "Follies," and there is a possibility of a Hew Zealand tour being arranged. "'After a successful American tour (says the Era) Miss . Tittell-Brune, the wellknown Australian actress, is now taking the leading role in an All-British filmdrama, entitled^ "Iron Justice." 'Miss Tittell-Brune will be supported in her first film-drama by a strong cast, including Miss Sidney Fairbrother and Mr. Julian Royce. "The well-known Australian actress !" We always had the idea sbe was a well-known American.—Sydney Herald. Harry Corson Clarke and his wife, who is known on the stage as Margaret Dale Owen, have returned to New York after a four years' world's tour. Mr. Clarke will be remembered in Wellington for his striking impersonation of Blackie Daw, in "Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford.'' Mr. Clarke makes tho confession in a Dramatic Mirror interview that the actor receives greater appreciation in Australia than in any other country in the globe. "How does a Sydney or Melbourne first night compare to a New York premiere?" he was asked. "All the difference in the world," was the reply. "That peculiai specie of , Broadway life, known as tht deathwatch,' does not peneuatb vo tht, Antipodeß. Premieres in Australia are occasions for tremendous ovations. An air of enthusiasm and good will prevails J throughout the theatre. As a result, the i actor's nerves are not on edge with fear and nervousness, as is the case in New York." Aggie Thorn, who gave up the stage > for matrimony a few years ago, is returning to her first love (says the .Bulletin). She left for the United States under tho kindly wing of Mrs. Fred Niblo, who is going to give the Australian an influential push in Wilson's big selection. Aggie does not intend to resume house' keeping under the Stars and Stripes. i Ah approximate estimate of the attendances recorded to " On Our Selection " since its premiere at the Palace Theatre, Sydney, little more than three years ago, shows a grand total of something over one million. The play has I been presented close on six hundred times, most of the company having performed their parts the total number of presentations. Among those who have never been absent from the cast are :—: — Messrs. Bert Bailey, Guy Hastings, .Fred Mac Donald, Arthur Bertram, William Driscoll, Edmund Duggan, Misses Lama Roberts, Lilias Adeson, Queenie Softon, and Alfreda Bevan. This probably constitutes a record unequalled in Australia. Referring to the death of Mr. Frank Musgrove, Sydney Daily Telegraph says :— Mr. Frank Musgrove, lessee of the Criterion Theatre, and a well-known entrepreneur, died at a private hospital at Fairfield, Melbourne, from pneumonia. The deceased had only recently Teturned from a tour of New Zealand, where he piloted Miss Nellie Stewart's j " Sweet Nell '* Company blue ugh the • principal cities, and in conversation with several Sydney friends before his departure for Melbourne remarked that he i never felt bettsr in his life, the trip | having built him up wonderfully. A few days back, however, he contracted a severe cold, and, pneumonia supervening, ,he succumbed to the illness. Mr. Musgrove, who was a brother of Mr. George Musgrove and Mr Harry Musgrove, had been for inanv years associated with theatrical enterp*u»>.. He was for some time the proprietor of a lucrative moving pictur« show business in Pitt-street, and ■was one of the original introducers of the touring cars that were a source of profit to the first people to try them. Few men are said to have had a better knowledge of the show business or to j hav> more fully enjoyed the confidence of the artists with whom he was as-boc'i&U-*1 and the public alike. Mr. Musgrce v/as abom 42 years of age. He ■was educate at Scotch College, and was champion of the schcM in 1892. He pl-yed senior football for Fitzroy, and first-grade cricket for East Melbourne.