MIMES AND MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 121, 22 May 1920, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC

(By "Orpheus.")

THE SHOWS. Concert Chamber—"The Dandies," in season. Jtii« iiaj«!3i>y's—Vaudeville. The Kind's Theatre—Picturen. Artcraft Theatre—l'iccurei. Our Theatre—Picture.. New Theatre—Picture*. Empress Theatre —Pictures. Shortt's Theirs— Picture, Strand Theatre—Pictures. Sritannia Theatre—Picturnn. hveryhody's Theatre—Pictures. Queen's Theatre—Picture.. Paramount Theatra—Flctnrea 111 July a return season will be played here by Allan .Wilkie's Company. , The opening play will be "A Temporary Gentleman." Wish Wynne is again in Australia, under the management of the Fullers. She will visit New Zealand in due course. • . . "Ruddig6re," a little known but amusing Gilbert and Sullivan opera, has been " revived in New; York, with apparent success, by the American Singers' Compar.y. "Hamlet" is still a great "draw," according to Mr. Martin Harvey. When ifc .was announced at Glasgow recently he found on his arrival that the house had been entirely sold out for the first week. Miss Vesta. Tilley (Lady de Frece), who has.been a great favourite in Eng : lish "variety" for a number of years, has announced that she will retire from the stage after an appearance at the London .Coliseum this month.

The Allan Wilkie Dramatic Company will conclude its Auckland season at the end of this week. The company is due to show at Ashburton on the 25th inst., at Timaru on the 26th, and Waimate on the 27th, at Onmaru on the 23th, and the Dunedin season opens on the 29th inst. "The Luck of the Navy" will be played at each of the southern towns, and will be the first play of the Dunedin season.- . The brilliant young Australian soprano, Miss Gertrude Johnson, who created such a favourable impression here as a member of the J. C. Williamson Grand Opera Co. some months ago, isjto commence a concert tour of New Zealand next month, under the direction of Mr. "Victor Beck. Miss Johnson was greatly admired for her work in "Lucia di Lammermoor " and "Rigoletto." She is at present in Melbourne, and will arrive in Auckland in June and give three concerts there. .-■-.' ■ •Mr. Allan Wilkie's specially selected Comedy Company, which is touring the smaller towns throughout New Zealand with "The .Rotters," opens their first circuit at Pukekohe on the 17th inst; Mr. Wilkie's cast includes- Miss Hebe Barlow (late from South Africa, and of the Leonard R-aine Companies), Mr. Harry Dore, Mr." Fred Browne, Mr. Bernard Beeby. Miss Osborne, Miss Fanny Kutnet 1, Miss A. Scrivenor, and Miss Tibbies Pryce. Mr. Percy Olliffe is business .manager,.and Mr. Frank Levy lias gone ahead as advance agent.

, Amusement lovers will be interested to hear that the popular combination of artists, known as the English Pierrots, will visit Wellington shortly. The company, whilst retaining such old favourites as Messrs. Turner, Austin, Lawrence, Cook, and Lyle, has undergone changes following- on "the wholesale marriages of the ladies in Western Australia. Without exception all the ladies of the present company are new to New Zealand. . A great feature is the .ladies' orchestra.'■' "The Better 'Ole," which is to tour the North Island shortly, is the .selfsame play that ran for two years in London, with Arthur Bnurchier as Old Bill, and is founded on tin.' three redoubtable characters that Bairnsfather created 1 in his ever-famous "Fragments, from France." The hxut, act is placed in tho trenches in France, thn ap.cnntl is a railway siding in Boulogne, the third \b bescone is laid in Blighty. Old- Bill is hind the lines in billets, and finally the played by Mr. Lionel Walsh, Alf is Mr. Hubert Lee, and the impressionable 'Erb is played by Mr. Harry sToung..

M. Benno Moisiowitsch is tile husband of Miss Daisy Kennedy, whose violin recitals recsntly delighted Now Zealand music lovers. He is appearing in Sydney at present, and will visit New Zealand about August, for a. concert tour. Miss Kennedy, unfortunately, became ill.shortly after her return to Australia, and will be unable for some weeks to resume playing in public. Messrs. J. and N. Tait, who are arranging^ for the Moisiewitsch tour, will subsequently conduct a series of concerts by the famous tenor. Mr. John MacCormack. . .

; Carter the Great, magician and illusionist, will tour the Dominion under the management.of Mr. Scott Colville. After an absence of eight years, Carter recently played a lengthy season in the Belmont Theatre, and the press commented on the fact that it was the first occasion that a prestidigitateur had appeared in a leading New York ■ theatre. Carter carries an enormous amount of paraphernalia- for the presentation of his spectacular illusions, many of which found their origin in the East. Carter is at present in Australia.

The announcement w.as published in the Australian press a few days ago that the Commonwealth Government had officially invited the famous war correspondent, Lowell Thomas, to visit Australia to deliver his lecture, illustrated with moving pictures, "With the Anzacs in Palestine. Mr. Lowell Thomas, it was stated, would leave England for Australia early in July. His lectures have been delivered in England and America under the auspices of the British Government, and give an illuminating idea of the remarkable achievements of the Australian and New Zealand troops in Palestine. The moving pictures are said to ba wonderful. ■ - The "commonwealth" plan of sharing receipts among members of a theatrical company, instead of paying salaries, is usually a sign that times are very bad for those associated with the company; but in New York a group of. actors and actresses who. were playing "on commonwealth ' received salaries of 200 dollars a week each. They had intended to give repertory productions, with, the usual changes, but after the first play had failed they found by chance in a bookshop a copy of Mr. St. John Ervine's play of Irish lifs, ''John Ferguson." This ran from May to October of last year. Mr. John Hopkins received cable, ad-' vice from his Melbourne representative this week to the effect that Miss Vera Carew, a bi-illiani young soprano, had 1 accepted an' engagement to tour the Do—: minion in support of Gesaroni, theItalian operatic basso, who opens in Auckland early in.July. Miss Carew is one of the most prominent of Australian vocalists, and has met with great success on the concert stage. Miss Rosa Walton, the charming exponent of songs at the piano, at present appearing with.The ' Dandies of 1920, is to be transferred, to the Cesaroni Concert Company, which will shortly commence a Dominion tour under the John Hopkins direction.