DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8020, 6 August 1887, Page 4 (Supplement)

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL.

Hugo's Buffalo Minstrels oommenoed a efaort season at the Opera Houeo on Monday evening. There was a large audience, the spacious building beinp, to use the timohonoured phrase, " crammed to suffocation." All the aisles, or gangways, were blocked with chairs and improvised Beats, and there was not even standing room for many who wore eager to pay their money and gain admittance. This is a matter to which I wish to draw the attention of the police or the authorities who are supposed to look after places of amusement. Suppose a fire had occurred? Imagination reels at tho thought of the terrible holocaust that would have resulted. The exits at the Opera House are far from perfect aa it ie; hut oven if they were all that could be desired the practice of filling up the gangways and blocking all the ordinary channels of egress would be nooo the less dangerous and objectionable. The management will, of course, if they are permitted, squeeze as many persons into the theatre as they can ; but it is surely the business of the authorities to see that the regulations are not infringed, and that tho safety of the public Is not endangered. But to return to tho minstrels. In Bngo troupe have won a high reputation which will doubtless be enhanced by their present entertainment. It is fanny without being vulgar, and. although some of the jokes arc old. there are not wanting new ones. The songs arc lively and amusing, end the company know how to sing them. AH round, the show ie just what hits the popular taste} and the prices charged for admission arc what suit the popular pocket. Other managers might take a hint from tho Hugos in this respect, with profit to themselves and satisfaction to the public. If the latter can purchase an evening's amusement for a shilling they will do so whereas, were the pric.3 higher, they would probably keep their money in their pocket. The Wellington Post has the following:— ••Another theatrical amateur of this ci:y is about to leave the colony to join the stage in Australia. Mr. Harry -Marshall, sou of Mr. Marshall, secretary of the Wellington Public Ball Company, has just received an engagement by cable from Mr. George Loitch (late Liacmahcn acd Leitch) to join his company in Brisbane, to take part in 'Harbour Lights' in which Mr. Leitch's company open on the :9th August next. Mr. Harry Marshall is a very clever and promising young actor, and will be sadly missed by the amateur theatricals of this city, where hi* performance have attracted more than ordinary attention. Mr. Marshall leaves early next month to join Mr. Leitch in Brisbane, and his many friends will wish him every success/' Mr. Bland Holt visit* Isow Zealand at the end of his Sydney season. Mr. George Leitch is organising a company to play "Harbour Lights" through "New Zealand. The "much travelled" is sgain on the win-. Bytheß.M.B. Rnapehu, which left Lyttelton for London last week, Mr. K. S. Smythe was a passenger. My Wellington correspondent Bends me th? following items :— _ _ , Two exceedingly interesting exhibitions have opened here this week. A panorama of the principal cities of Europe, painted by celebrated artists, has arrived in tne colony, and is now showing in Wellington, and will afterwards be exhibited through New Z-.'a-lacd; it also includes several very stirring scer.e-a from tho lateit wars, and is Wtll patronised. The interesting exhibition of General Mite and the Circassian Yooth opened on Friday, and they have attracted a large number of visitors. Mr. Washington Solly has arrived from the South, to "nuke arrangements for tho opening of the Mamraoth. Minstrels in the Opera House en the s:h. Hβ has had the town well billed with fiTSt-class placard?, and they bring with them a nrst-class name, which they Lava gamed in the Southern cities. The Yule Tide Mummers will produce Mr. "W. S. Gilbert's farcical comedy, "Tom Cobb," at tha Theatre Royal, next Thursday night. They have had several rehearsals, and have made themselves very proficient in 'heir pirte. The Lynch Family cf Bellrlngers commenced their season at Wanganui at the f>rinceM Theatre, en Thursday evening, to a crowded house. At Marton, where they performed the previous night, the Town Council levied a guinea license for the privilege o: the company performing in that town. The money was paid under protest, and the dinner, Mr. Harry Lynch, intends to take jegal "proceedings against the Council. Altheegu the by-law wi»a passed in Marton in ISSI, this .3 the first time the money has Js«en collected.

Tha Ota;;o Daily Time 3, referring to the electrical automaton, "Ali," rays :—" The wonderful performance of " Ali" fully justified the praise which had been bestowed nit before its public exhibition. The cu-fli-;uceii £avo ic a reception which indicated their surprise a, and appreciation o( the remarkable feats which this mechanical figure performed. A chatty little address ■was intsrweven with tho entertainment, and tho surprise of the audience culminated in the revelation cf the complicated machinery, ■which was exposed by tha removal of the clothing of the automaton." Mr. Themis Bracken was tendered a complimertary benefit at the Princess Theatre, jDuscdin, last week. Misii Lcnise Davsnporfc returns to America by the September San Francisco mailboat. "lliss Leonora Braham, the new prima donna from the Savoy, who arrived ia Melbourne the other week under engagement to Messrs. Williamson, Gamer, and Musgrove, 13 married to Mr. Duncan Ycung. A few months after the wedding took place, she ■was obliged to stay awuy from the Savoy Theatre, and Mr. W. S, Gilbert, tho facetious author, is said to have accounted for her absence to one inquirer by explaining that she was " with Young I" An aoter writes to the San Francisco Call in the following strain : —" I would advise, above all thing*, no legitimate utar to vonture an Australian campaign, though I think there might be a good six months' business before Bernhardt, Mrs. Langtry, or lrviug, if they did not. put themselves in the power Of the three-hoiulod moneters, who devour' all the fat and lcavo the luckless star the lean. To other professionals 1 repeat, do not touch it unless you have nev/ playn, able to lose as well as win, and a return ticket to America in your pocket." This advice ia good, but the following story which he tolls ia better : —" It once happened at the Princeßß, in Sandhurst, after a faithful performance of 'Hamlet' to & tipsy etockbroker, four town councillors, and a sprinkling of the most rational inmates trom the local asylum, poor Walter Montgomery B'/Cpped gayly before the curtain to return thanka for tho kindly hearing he had refjoived, and expressed pleasure at the evident ■ estimation in which Shakspere was held in that town. We have seen and admired— who has not?— Montgomery, but until his little speech to that select Sandhurst audience I never knew the resources of our language,, never grasped the meaning of irony. He bad been, ho averred, wherever the English tongue was spoken, had heard its terse idioms under the shadow of St. Paul's »nd in the mists of .Niagara, hearkened to Its rfisonauce from tho Mississippi to tho Murray ; as Macbeth, Coriol&nus, Othello, and fctonieo he had strutted his little hour before the fastidious dilettanti of Belj;ravia, the fur-clad hunters of Canada ; but (here ho almost broke down) for keen appreciation, sombined with a nice sense of the true and false in art, he would baok the Sandhurst citizens against the world. It was useless to try to deceive them, idle to tempt them with the meretricious or the commonplace. Later on in tho night I saw the groat actor. He was eittiug in a savage mood on his o&rpet-bag, waiting for the early morning train, having failed to obtain a epeoial one to remove him and his belongings from this city of high art." Madame Christine Nilison is euperatltiouß. Sho has always believed in fortune-tellers, because early in life an astrologer foretold that in after time she would experience trouble through the agency of fire and lunatics. The prediction hae certainly been realised, for in the great tire at Chicago she lost £4000, and in Boston ehe lost over £40,0C0 from the same caueo. In New York some yeare aj?;o a crazy man followed her for weeks, believing that the words addressed by Marguerite to Faust were intended for himself. in Chicago » poor student decided to marry her, and wrote several impassioned letters to the popular singer, . -which, however, remained unanswered. Tho third insane person she had to deal jtvith was her hmb&nd, M. Kouzaud, who died in an asylum.

Apropos of this, it may be ncwe to many to learn that Mrs. Scott-Siddona husband ia an inmate of a Melbourne lunatic asylum. Queen Victoria has accepted the dedication of a work by F. Heuffer, the noted musical critic of the Times. It 18 called " A Half a Century of Music in England. ' A dramatic version of Marcus Clarko'a "Natural Life" ie to be produced in London. Mnscalar " piamsm, of which we have so much, is bringing muscular criticism in its train. We read in a Philadelphia paper concerning some hard hitter:—" Her figure, hands, and arms are masculine and powerful. The development of her deltoid muscles is extraordinary. From the audience it looked as large as a boxer's biceps. .Naturally, with such a physical organisation, she could master the extraordinary difficulties of a Liszt concerto. At her hands, or rather from her shoulder, hitting almost cyclopean difficulties seamed easy." This suggests a good opening for gymnastio trainers, who might inakn a living by bringing pianists in capital fettle up to tho scratch of a Liszt concerto. When tho other morning, at the Lyceum, Mire Ellen Terry stepped off the stage flushed with the genuine success of her creation of Ellaline in "The Amber Heart," she was presented by Mr. Henry Irving with the play as a gift, he having previously secured it from the author, Mr. Calmour, who had already refused an excellent offer from America, in order that the acting rights might remain with the charming actress who had inspired his muse. In purchasing tho play Mr. Irving sent Mr. Calmour a very graceful and complimentary letter, and ho certainly does not appear to be of opinion that the success of true emotional acting of this kind ie a thing wholly apart from, tho author's fancy that is in this instance apparent both in language and situation. . Authors who can plan plays, and write them so sympathetically as Mr. Calmour has done, deserve encouragement as much as the actresses who seize so happily on the given idea. It is quite certain that the one cannot get on without the other. An interesting collection might be made of the various things, animate ami inanimate, to which " lifa' , has been compared on the stage by the figurative dramatist. The strangest figure was one employed in "The Golden Band," when life was compared by a sentimental soldier servant to a veal-and-ham pie. "Ah I" said he, with mock emotion, " life is, after all, very like a veal and ham pie—first you come across a hit of fat, and then a bit of lean, and it's very indi gngtible when you have done with it." Who, after this, shall say that the modern dramatist is destitute of imagination, when the grave problems cf life are settled by the contemplation of a cook-shop ! Mr. Melville, who is building the new theatre ia Oxford-street, London, close by the Oxford Music Hall, has offered it to Mr. Wilson Barnett, who has the proposal under his immediate consideration. The friends and admirers of Mr. John Hoilingshead have determined to present him with a testimonial, ''in recognition of the valuable services rendered by that gentleman to players and playgoers alike during a period of twenty years." Amongst tho interesting facts incidental to the career of this induatirous gentleman since ho abandoned journalism for theatrical management, it is recorded that he has been instrumental in abolishing the Ash Wedneaday restriction, banished fees, insttiuted free programmes, brought the electric light to London, never took a benefit, and invented the theatrical matinee ! Miss Minnie Palmer is having a mansion built for her in London. Mdsico Dkamaticcs. *»• All communications Intended for this cr'.amn shoclj be addressed " Mueico Dramaticus," Herald O:;:c:-, Auckland, a"d should be forwarded m early as pood trie,