THE CITY HALL.

Evening Star, Issue 9581, 29 December 1894, Page 2

THE CITY HALL.

The third representation of ' The Old Homestead ' was given at the City Hall last night before an appreciative audience, and the same play will be staged this evening. On New Year's night Mr Kennedy will produce the comedy of ' The Librarian,' which Mr Leitch first introduced to the colonies, and in which he made such a memorable imprestuon as the Reverend Robert Sparerib. ''J he Librarian' it) a free adaptation of Von Moser's ' Der Bibliotheka.' The first production of this work in its original language «was given by some Teutonic amateurs at the German Gymnasium at King's Cross, London, under Mr Leitch's friendly supervision. The comedy was in five acts, and proved very successful. It was afterwards played at the Aquarium Theatre, Westminster, at' Mr Leitch's suggestion, and subsequently a copy of the manuscript was forwarded to Mr Leitch with permission to utilise the work, if he pleased, for the English stage. Mr Leitch's arrangement of the comedy was included amongst the list of his plays to be produced in Melbourne under «pntract with Williamson. Garner, and Musgrove, and was produced at the Princess's Theatre on the last night of his engagement with that firm. The second adaptation of the ' Librarian' was 'The Private Secretary,' produced at Cambridge, with the results that a small syndicate was formed to produce the play in London at the Prince of Wales's Theatre. Mr Beerbohm Tree was the Librarian, or Private Secretary, George Anson was the Cockney tailor. No play ever had a greater condemnation. The theatre was taken for six weeks, but about the last twa weeks the empty benches began to filL At the end of the six weeks, so much confidence had the syndicate in the piece, that they had the courage to take the Globe Theatre, and with the comedy cut down from four to three acts, and a new cast, gradually made a huge success, and each one of the syndicate a fortuns. Mr Leitch's ' Librarian' contains much more of Yon Moser's conception than 'The Private Secretary.' The garden scene alone is a play in itself. It was in New Zealand that Mr Leitch first introduced into the comedy his inimitable song "Thegood young man who died,' in the mesmeric scene in the third act, a song once heard never to be forgotten. __________^___