FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

Evening Star, Issue 20558, 9 August 1930, Page 21

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

[By LOITERER.]

Robert Chisholm, who toured New Zealand in ‘ The Maid of the Mountains,’ has signed a five-years’ contract to sing in screen operettas. Sir Nigel Playfair’s latest production in London is a revival of ‘ The Importance of Being Earnest.’ It is being done in costumes of the period. Doris Fitton is sponsoring repertory work in Sydney, and is determined to establish a society in the New South Wales capital. She calls her movement the Independent Theatre, and in association with Harry Tighe, is producing ‘By Candle Light’ and ‘The Marquise.’ Gaston Mervale’s name has been mentioned as the probable producer for. future selections. ‘ The Rogueries of Scapin,’ a Moliere comedy, was produced by the Melbourne Repertory Players recently for a season or four nights. . A Chicago millionaire proceeded against a Parisian cabaret manager for billing his wife in a Variety turn at the cabaret without his consent. The court decided tht the husband was injured in his dignity, and assessed the damages at £4OO, plus £24 royalties for every performance in which his wife appeared. Messrs Alfred Cunninghamo and Ernest M'Kinlay, of the Westminster Glee Singers, intend remaining in Australia. Their places will be filled by Messrs Wilfred Thomas and Robert Scott, of Sydney, and on the conclusion of their Australian tour Mr Branscombe’s songsters will visit Java and the East. Revivals are popular in London at present. At the Duchess Theatre Sara Allgood, Maire O’Neill, Fred Donovan, and Arthur Sinclair are playing their original parts in ‘ The Plough and the Stars,' which is to be followed by ‘Juno and the Paycock.’ The Court Theatre has reopened with the twicenightly policy. The first piece in the repertory is George H. Broadhurst’s melodrama, ‘ Bought and Paid For.’ It will be followed by Brieux’s ‘ Damaged Goods,’ and ‘Mr Wu.’ There is also to bo a repertory season at the ‘Q ’ Theatre, with ‘ Tne Last of Mrs Cheyney,’ with Ethel Warwick in the cast. Annie Croft, the winsome singer and dancer of ‘Hit the I Deck,’ has been appearing in ‘ Maid of the Mountains ’ in England. Frank Neil, the revue producer, was at latest advices in South Africa, with farces; Leslie Pearce, the athletic star of ‘ Rio Rita,’ with Gladys Moncrieff, throughout the Fuller circuit in New Zealand, was in London recently; Mario Burke, the vivacious star of the Williamson musical comedy, ‘ Frasquita ’ (which was more of the comic opera typo of play than most musical comedies) has been playing vaudeville in England, and may yet be seen and hoard in talkies.

Jottings on file people of ffce Stage and Screen and on the latest recorded Music.

Edith Taliaferro, who has achieved success in ‘ Let Us Be Gay ’ and Garden of Eden,’ under the J. C. Williamson management in Sydney, has had a distinguished career on he American stage, and is as well known in Loudon. Though this is Miss Taliaferro’s first visit to Australia, some of the older generation of playgoers will remember her sister. Miss Mabel Taliaferro, who visited that country with William Collier years ago. In Canada, prior to coming to Australia, Miss Edith Taliaferro appeared in several English plays, including ‘The Second Mrs Tanqueray.’ Their success, according to Miss Taliaferro, indicated how. remarkably many of these older plays have kept their freshness and vigour, and how popular they still are. Mr Lee Shubert, the American producer, has decided to produce in Now York shortly, ‘ The Last Enemy, written by Frank Harvey, who will be remembered for his dramatic work out here opposite such stars as EmiJie Polini, Muriel Starr, and others. Mr Schubert has also takeil to his managerial heart a play by an Englishman, ‘ On the Spot,’ which ho describes as the best American gangster play he has ever seen. It is written by an Englishman who had been in Chicago only for a few hours, but evidently long enough to secure material lor a thriller that has attracted the attention and praise of a producer or tne calibre of Mr Schubert. The J. C. Williamson production of ‘Mr Cinders ’ has scored a big success at Her Majesty’s, Sydney. In London ‘Mr Cinders’ ran for nearly eighteen months, and was considered to be one of the best musical comedy productions in recent years. Mr Cinders ’ very charmingly twists tne famous Cinderella story, giving it the most modern of flavours. Instead oi a young girl left at homo in the kitchen, for instance, we have a nice young man left at homo in his Hat, while his more or less ugly brothers go to the ball! The principal roles are played by Elsie Prince and Hindle Edgar. . Direct from a scries of musical cpmedv revivals, such as ‘ Country Girl am*d ‘ Belle of New York, Mane Bremner and Sydney Burchall have now stepped into the stellar roles of the Hammerstein spectacle, New Moon, staged by Messrs J. C. Williamson m Australia. In support of Miss Bremner are such well-known people ,eo Franklyn, Leo Darnton, Bernard Manning, Herbert Browne, Marie le Varre, Svlvia Miller, Robert Hepburn, and others well known in musical comedy, drama, and revue.

Sir Pliilip Ben Greet, just returned to London from a 35,000-inile tour in America, is about to start his forty-third annual English tour, playing Shakespeare at schools and colleges in and out of doors. Charles B. Cochran has acquired the rights of a. new drama dealing with the life and work of Cecil Rhodes, the great South African Imperialist. The play, by H. R. Barber, deals with critical moments in Rhodes’s career, and covers the period from soon after his arrival in Africa till his death. The death is announced from Sydney of Sydney Stirling, the well-known actor. Ho frequently toured New Zealand in the past. Mr Stirling was an English actor, born in Hull, who made his mark in Australia, when he went there twenty-eight years ago as a member of the east of George Musgrovo’s company supporting Nellie Stewart in ‘Sweet Noll of Old Drury, and other plays. In that production, in which Harcourt Beatty made his first Sydney appearance in the role of King Charles, Mr Stirling attracted attention in a competent cast by his easy manner and artistic sense as a man of fashion of the period, Lord Lovelace. Other prominent figures in this play, at the Theatre Royal, were Albert Gran as Jeffreys, the celebrated judge; Gordon Bailey as Sir Roger Fairfax; and Webster Lawson as Rochester. When the company played a return season in July, 1903, Madeleine Lucette Ryley’s romantic comedy ‘ Mice and Men ’ was produced, with Mr Stirling as Captain George Lovell to the Peggy of Nellie Stewart and the Mark Embury of Harbourt Beatty. C. B. Westmacott. now general manager of J. C. Williamson, Ltd., was manager of the company, and after an absence of several years from the stage appeared as John Bowlby in that season in a production of ‘ A Country Mouse.’ Mr Stirling later visited America. and returned under the J. C. Williamson management to the company supporting Margaret Anglin in her Australian tour in ‘ The Thief ’ and other plays. He was also with Julius Knight in several pieces, and ho played in Fred Niblo’s companies, notably in * Broadway Jones ’ and ‘ Officer C6G. ’ His last role was Van Tuyl in the the Melbourne production of ‘ Romance,’ with Nellie Stewart. Mr Stirling played the part of the wealthy shipowner in ‘ New Moon ’ in the season of that niece in Sydney, beginning in January last, and would have appeared in the Melbourne production but for his fatal illness. He was a conscientious and sound actor, whose work showed that ho had minutely studied every detail of whatever role he filled.