MIMES AND MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 55, 2 September 1916, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC

(Bj "Orpheus.")

THE SHOWS. GRAND OPERA HOUSE Horace Goldin, Magician, in season to 7th September. George Marlow's Shakespearean Company, 9th September. J. and N. Tait, "Peg o' My Heart," loth October. HIS MAJESTY'S. Fuller Vaudeville. THE KING'S THEATRE. Pictures nightly, CROWN THEATRE. I Pictures nightly. [ STAS THEATRE. Pictures nlthtly. NEW THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. EMPRESS THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. SHORTT'S THEATRE. Continuous Pictures. PEOPLE'S PICTURE PALACB. Continuous Pictures. BRITANNIA THEATRE. Contiguous Pictures. OPERA HOUSE. Contiguous ricturu.

"The newly-formed dramatic club under the auspices of the New Zealand Natives' Association i* to make its initial bow to an audience in that well-known laughter-maker, "Dr. Bill." The comedy is being cast, and with the talent available the club should make a success in its first production. Mr. Charles Blake is to undertake tlie producing and stage management, besides playing the leading part.

MissCeli* Ghiloni is looking forward to a visit to America when her present contract with the J. C. Williamson management expires. "I believe," she says, "in seeing the acting of other countries. Some years ago I went to London for the same purpose. I don't intend to stay in America."

E. J. Carroll and Beaumont Smith are jointly concerned in the coming production in Sydney of Henry Lawson's "While the Billy Boils." Mr. Carroll, it will be remembered, introduced "Bunty Pulls the Strings" and "The Scrape of the Pen" to this country. He has large theatrical and picture interests in Queensland.

It is. a long time since Wellington has witnessed Shakespearean.; plays, and the advent of the Allan Wilkie Company in a season comprising "Hamlet," "The Merchant of Venice," "Twelfth Night," "Othello," "Romeo and Juliet," and "As You Like It" should be welcomed. The venture has justified itself in Melbourne ; and Sydney, and Wellington theatre-goers will welcome two such interpreters of Shakespearean characters' as Mr. Allan Wilkie and Miss Fredeswyd-e Hunter-Watts, who come to New Zealand with a fine record.

"Peg o' My Heart" comes to New Zealand on the conclusion of its present season in Melbourne. The tour will open at Wellington, and will embrace Aucklajid, Dunedin, Christchurch, Inver-£a-Tgill, Napier, Gisborne, Wanganui, and several other towns. According to present arrangements the company will appear at Wellington on 10th October.

The many people who have read " The Sentimental Bloke," by C. J. Dennis, will be interested to learn that Lawrence Campbell, the Australian elocutionist, has arranged to give recitals of selections from the book, commencing in Sydney on 9th September. At the- conclusion of his Sydney and Melbourne seasons he will make a tour of New Zealand. Good judges regard him as being particularly fitted to reveal the humour and quaint underlying nobility of Dennis's hero. The tour will be under the direction of J. and N. Tait.

The extraordinary success o£ the Paul Dufault tour in New Zealand and Australia reached its climax during the Brisbane season just finished, when even the optimism of Manager Shipman hardly anticipated such unparalleled enthusiasm as was displayed over the return of the great tenor. The opening day of the seat sale constituted a record for any attraction in Brisbane. Four concerts were originally scheduled, but the Ipswich concert was cancelled so that an extra Brisbane concert could be arranged. At this final concert, in His Majesty's Theatre, not only was every seat occupied, and every inch of standing room allowed by law utilised, but a temporary platform was built over the footlights, so that the stage could accommodate nearly 200 more auditors, while 80 more filled the_ orchestra pit. The Brisbane Daily Mail describes the scene as " one of the most remarkable witnessed in His Majesty's Theatre for years." Unless the war ends earlier than most people expect, Sir Thomas Beecham will have to find new tenors for Ids English opera, says a London paper. The recruiting officer has his eye on Sir Thomas's three trusty leaders of light and airy song; Mr., Frank Mullins, age about thirty, weight 18 to 20 stone; Mr. Maurice D'Oisly, about thirty, 16 to 17 stone; Mr. Frederick Blarney, about twenty-nine, 16 to 18 stone. These three harmonic towers have already appeared before their respective tribunals. Mr. Blarney has been granted exemption until late in August, and his two * brethren, with already short temporary exemption to their credit, are appealing for further grace, and they have been notified that their case is "still pending." ' Mr. Julius Grant, managing director of the Bert Bailey Co., tells of his first experience as a theatrical manager. While on the staff of the William Anderson management he was chosen to manage the No. 1 .Company on an important tour of the north. All went well to start with, and the newly-fledged manager was' beginning to congratulate himself that the tour would show the profit all theatrical managers look for. But half way through the tour the company struck a run of bad luck. Managerial dreams began to fade away like a beautiful vision, even as the treasury faded with each successive town. Mr. Grant, being treasurer as well as manager, was at his wits' end to make the proverbial ends meet; to wire for funds looked to him too much like an admission of failure. At Gympie, after he had paid treasury and all accounts, he found himself absolutely penniless, with his hotel board owing. But he set his teeth and went out and pawned every article of jewellery he possessed. Evidently bad luck, finding Mr. Grant impervious to his buffetings, retired in disgust, for from that clay onward tho treasury began to fill, then overflow. A proud young manager returned' from his maiden trial in charge *• showing a profit of £10,000 on the trip. Lord_ Kitchener once figured prominently in the rehearsal of a Drnry Lane drama in Augustus Harris's time, and the incident was related in the Century Magazine by Mr. Hermann Klein some years ago (says the "Druid" in the Era). The army of sappers had to be trained to represent British troops in a march through Trafalgar-square, and were put through their paces over and over again with extreme patience by a stranger—a tall, soldierly man wearing a frock coat and a tall hat. When the rehearsal ended, Harris beckoned to his friend and said, "Klein, I want lo introduce you to my friend. Major Kitchener, who has been kind enough to help me with the soldiering work. What do you think of it? Did you ever see such fighting and marching on the stage