HUGH J. WARD RETURNS

Evening Star, Issue 18137, 29 November 1922, Page 5

HUGH J. WARD RETURNS

TEE WARD-FULLER PEOJECT. ATTRACTIONS FROM LONDON. Mr Hugh J. Wmxl, a leading figure in Australian theatrical circles for many years, returned to Melbourne recently, after a seven months’ business trip to Europe and America. Last year Mr Ward, in conjunction with Sir Benjamin Fuller and Mr John Fuller, set out to form a new theatrical enterprise. His trip abroad was made for the purpose of securing now talent, and the quest, Mr Ward says, has ■ been very successful. The new firm will have the use of the Fuller theatres throughout Australia and New Zealand, in addition to several now theatres, which are to be built in the principal cities. The Princess Theatre, Melbourne, is at present being completely remodelled for the new company, and a largo theatre, to be known as the St. James, is being built in Gastlereagh street, Sydney, at a total cost of £250,0CX). It is the firm’s intention to .build another theatre in Melbourne, and a second one in Sydney later. In all, the company will control twentythree theatres in Australia and New Zealand.

Referring to the now project, Mr Ward said it was proposed to stage everything from farce to grand opera, and the first production, a musical entertainment appropriate to the holiday season, would open in the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, at Christmas. To play the principal parts in the various productions ho had engaged forty artists, nineteen of whom were now on their way to Australia to Sin the Christmas production at the icess, and in a pantomime at the Palace Theatre. The company also had secured the option over operas and plays : produced at six of London’s leading theatres, including the Gaiety, Adelphi, and Drury Lane, and in a number of loading American theatres. The production rights secured included those of Oscar Strauss’s latest comic opera, ‘ The Last Waltz,’ ‘ The Gipsy Princess’ (Robert Everett) ; ‘Gabrielle’ (by the New Zealand composer, George Cluteam); also the rights of various dramatic productions, including Sapper’s ‘ Bull Dog Drummond ’ and Bairnsfather’a ‘ Old Bill, M.P.’ These wore apart from the rights of a number of American musical comedies and dramatic productions. Arrangements had been made, also, to bring out Henry Baynton, a young Shakespearean actor with a reputation in England. Among the artists engaged were Arthur Lucas (Gilbert and Sullivan tenor, of the Savoy Theatre), Mark Daly (comedian, of the Alhambra), Eva Dale {leading lady in the ‘Gipsy Princess’), May Beatty (an Australian artist, of the Gaiety), and Willie Redstone, composer of the musical comedy, ‘A Kight Out,’ who with. Hamilton Webber (another Australian) would fill the role of musical director and conductor. The choruses would all be obtained in Australia.