FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

Evening Star, Issue 20996, 9 January 1932, Page 6

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES

[By Lonmrn ]

people Ute Stage autf~Sw®«a and. 4» Hire latest recorded Music.

Thirty-five minutes of encores and cheering characterised the reappearance of Paderewski at Albert Hall, London, last month. Towards the end the famous pianist played as the very incarnation of eternal youth. It was 6 o’clock before the recital ended.

Rene Jope. a J.C.W. “discovery, is 6ft Sin in height. In ‘As Husbands Go’ his vis-a-vis is diminutive Agnes Doyle, hero in ‘ Sons o’ Guns,’ now happily cast in the Australian comedy success.

George A. Highland, the J. C. Williamson Ld. producer, arrived in Melbourne from London by the Mongolia on January 4. His first production will probably be ‘Waltzes from Vienna.’ Maggie Dickinson came by the same boat.

At an extraordinary meeting of shareholders in J. C. Williamson Ltd. Messrs E. J. Tait, Frank S. Tait, and J, H. Tait were appointed managing directors of the company. Messrs A. W. Allen, F. J. Smith, and C. A. Wenman, and Sir Robert Best wore appointed as directors.

Mr Gustave Slapoffski, the noted musical director, pays a great tribute to Miss Maisie Ramsay, who is appearing with the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company which commenced a New Zealand tour in Auckland on December 23. “ I would like the public to hear Miss Ramsay sing ‘ The Mad Scene ’ from ‘ Lucia,’ ” he says. “ Then it wou d realise, as I have done, that she should have a great career in opera if she gets the opportunity.” Jim Gerald had a painful accident while making an entrance during his performance at Melbourne Tivoli. He collided with a girl sitting in the wings doing fancy work, and her crochet needle stuck in Mr Gerald’s ear, inflicting painful injuries, necessitating his removal from the theatre. An Auckland girl, Miss Hilda Godber Saunders, has been acting _ as_ understudy to one of the principals in ‘ Cavalcade,’ Noel Coward’s great spectacular play, in London. Cecil Kelleway, the popular comedian, last in New Zealand with the ‘ Vagabond King ’ comedy two years ago, is leaving for Home via South , Africa. Janice Hart, the step dancing expert with Frank O’Brien’s review at Fullers’ was one of the leads in the pantomime,- ‘ Red Riding Hood,’ at Newcastle, England. An interesting stage alliance is forecasted by a London critic, who says that an alliance between Sir Gerald Du Maurier and Edgar Wallace is in prospect. Du Maurier is reported to be returning to Wyndham’s (with which he was formerly associated _as actor-man-ager for fifteen years) in a play not necessarily a Wallace play, but predicted to be ‘ Sentenced, the story of a judge faced with a tremendous problem. Benno Moiseiwitsch, he celebrated Russian pianist, who has made Ins home in England since 1908, will open another Australian tour in March under the auspices of Messrs J. and N. lait.

Apropos the New Zealand tour of the G. and S. Company, tho premiere performance in Australia ,of ‘ Tho Mikado ’ took place at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, on November 14, 1885. John Forde was the Mikado, Howard Vernon was Ko Ko, and Nellie Stewart was Yum Y’um.

Roy Rone (“ Mo ”) was dame in the Mike Connors-Queenie Paul Pantomime Company, playing ‘Tinka in Toyland,’ or ‘ Why Robinson Crow So.’ in Sydney: and his wife (Sadie Gale) principal hoy. The Twelve Belgians (astonishing acrobats), the Le Bruns (animal impersonators), and the College Girls’ Jazz Band were also prominent.

Someone was told a delightful story about Paderewski. He was asked to play in the house of an important American. A negro was engaged to sing, and by some mistake his accompanist did not turn up. Paderewski quietly went to the piano and acted as the singer’s accompanist. When the negro spoko of the incident afterwards there were tears in his eyes. Paderewski, he said, had not only honoured him, but his race as well. That was what pleased him most.? “ Such an honour to n man of my race.” Josephine Trix is principal boy with tho J.C.W. pantomime, 1 House That Jack Built,’ in Sydney for the holiday season, with Alfred Frith as dame and a cast including Nell Taylor (here in ‘House That Jack Built’ this year), Vera Spaull, Stan Foley, George Willoughby, Walter Kingsley (with Humphrey Bishop last year), and John Fernside.

For three weeks in November) Londoners had an opportunity of seeing Gilbert and Sullivan at Golders Green Hippodrome, where the D’Oyly Carte Company gave a season, opening with ‘ The Gondoliers.’ The company is at present engaged on a long provincial tour. Sir Henry Lytton played most of liia old comedy parts, and other members of the company were: Mr John Dean Mr Darrell Fancourt, Miss Muriel Diclison, and Miss Dorothy Gill. The D’Ovly Carte Company was tho group of players with whom Mr Gregory Stroud, _ the baritone singer, who is apearing in New Zealand in J. 0, Williamson’s troupe, was_ associated prior to his trip to the dominion .

A London paper, recently commenting upon the success of ‘ The Barretts of Wimpole Street,’ mentioned that by this one play alone Rudolf. Besier, who wrote it, was “ made for life.” In its first year (it has now passed its 500th performance) its takings in England and America amounted to over £200,000. The English royalties alone received by the author totalled. £20,000. Several companies are playing it in New York and throughout the United States, and it has also been produced with great success in Canada. Several English artists will appear in the Australian production, which will, according to present arrangements, he in Melbourne on February 13, and these will include Margaret Rawlings, Gabriel Toyne, Bellenden Clarke, and Barry K. Barnes, from the original London production. Australian artists also in the cast will include Mary Macgregor and John Nood.

J. C. Williamson Ltd. have secured the Australian rights of ‘ Bitter Sweet,’ the operetta of Noel Coward, which ran for nearly two years in London, and in that period the receipts totalled more than £450,000! A special company will be formed for this production, and coming from London to take a leading role is Margery Hicklin, the attractive young English actress who has already appeared under the J. C. Williamson Ltd. .management in ‘ Katja,’ ‘ Leave it to Jane,’ and ‘ Tell Me More,’ towards the end of 1925. Since she returned to London Miss Hicklin has appeared in musical comedy with great success, and is one of the most popular artists at West End theatres.

British plays ar® sweeping the world just now, says the correspondent of the ‘Sunday Chronicle,’ in mentioning the great success enjoyed by Charles Laughton in New York last November in ‘Payment Deferred.’ He goes on to say that since then another British actor has scored an equally big triumph in another British play. Ho is Leslie Banks, who is playing the leading role in Ronald Jeans’s play, ‘ Lean Harvest,’ on Broadway. Curiously enough, neither ‘ Payment Deferred ’ nor ‘ Lean Harvest ’ were outstanding successes in England. “At the present moment,” observes the correspondent, “five of the biggest successes in New York are British plays.” Eyrie Bellow, the actress-widow of Mr Arthur Bourchier, is now the wife of Mr John Beckett, Socialist ex-M.P. for Peckham._ She recently led a rate revolt by inviting tenants to a protest meeting in a tenement flat in Peckham.’ She is a borough councillor herself, and the meeting was called to protest against the system of rate payments in a new block erected by the London County Council.

Ivan Menzies, the English comedian who is making his first New Zealand appearance with the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, was originally intended for the medical profession. He was not eighteen years old when the war broke out, and he ran away and enlisted as a private. He was badly wounded on the Somme in 1918, and, being unfit for further service, organised the army concert party, the Whizz Bangs. On receiving his discharge he conducted an amateur show of ‘ H.M.S. Pinafore,’ in which he played the role of Sir Joseph Porter. The performance one night was seen by Mr D’Oyley Carte, who persuaded him to take up the stage as a profession, and started him off as understudy to the principal comedian of the Gilbert and Sullivan Company, Henry Lytton. In addition he also played subsidiary comedy parts such as the Major in ‘ Patience,’ the Judge in ‘ Trial by Jury,’ and Toni in ‘ The Gondoliers.’ His next step was to be appointed principal comedian to the D’Oyley Carte Company at the Princess Theatre, London, where he played all the principal comedy parts, including the Duke of Plaza-Toro in ‘ The Gondoliers,’ Jack Point in ‘ The Yeomen of the Guard,’ Major-general Stanley in ‘ The Pirates of Penzance,’ and Ko Ko in ‘ The Mikado,’ and others.