MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12818, 18 March 1905, Page 4 (Supplement)

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

BOOKINGS.

HIS -MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

March 4 to MacManon's Dramatic Com-

pany. _ ~ March 27 to April Mr. Geo. Mosgrove (Van Biene Company.) April 3 to 14.— Harry Richards'. Company. April 15 to May 6.-Mr. J. C. Williamson. Mav 25 to June 17.-Mr. George Mnsgrove (" l'rettv Pesgy" Company.) . June 19 to 24.—Alfred Hills new Comic Opera Company.

OPERA HOUSE, Fuller's Vaudeville Company.

FEDERAL HALL. Rowley's Waxworks.

The MaeMahon Dramatic Company and Mr. George Dai roll have been doing excellent business at His Majesty's, disproving, during their Auckland season at any rate, that the taste of a. very large section of the community for melodrama is declining, li all depends how it is done, and the company in question have shown that they know what to produce, and how to do it. "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab." with real live horse and cab, was the piece of the week, but it gives place this evening to "From Scotland Yard.'' written by Mr. Dane'.l himself, and founded upon incidents which have actually happened.

Fuller's strong combination at the Opera House, with Grossi. the telcpathisi, as the star in the bill, has attracted full houses nightly. Grosses terms must have been pretty high, but not so high as to frighten the Fuller proprietary into substituting him tor some cheaper " turn." As a prestidigitateur Grossi, although he does very little in this way, is head and shoulders above tho cleverest artists in iiis line that have ever visited Auckland, while there is something uncanny about- his thought-reading business.

Rowley's excellent waxworks and variety company are housed in the Federal Hall and are giving two shows a day. and crowded on each occasion. ' Abomah, the African giantess, is attached to Rowley's company, ohe is a most affable lady and an accomplished. Her height is appalling, and her reach of arm something to avoid in the event of unpleasantness, ft was measured with that of a man six feet four one evening last week, and was 11 inches longer. Abomah not only moves about among a wondering crowd, but sings a coon song with the air and culture of an artist. There are many other features of Rowleys show, and the portraits of celebrities in wax is not the least of them. A baby show will be held on Monday night for children under twelve months, the first prize being a perambulator. This afternoon a .special programme has been prepared for the little ones.

Interest in Mr. Alfred Hill's new opera, to be produced at His Majesty's. Auckland, on June 19, is increasing. The music has the true ring of that somewhat rare quality nowaday.-—originality—and it i.x likelv that this newest work of Mr. Hill will be found to do him even greater credit than hi? famous "Tapu."

Mr. W. Arundel Orchard, another Now Zealand .native composer, formerly of Palmerston North, has composed a comic opera which is to be produced shortlv In Svdncy, where Mr. Orchard now resides. " The 'lyrics have been -written by W. J. Curtis, while the book is the result'of the combined efforts of W. J. Curtis and F. Hunt (" Boondi").

The popularity of the Olympia Skating Rinij, in Lome-sheet, shows no sign of waning, and the management have succeeded in running the rink in the best interests of all classes of skaters-.

„ Mr. Spencer Jones, in advance of Mr. Vvatkiu Mills' English Quartette Partv, passed through Auckland on the Ventura early in the week. The quartette opens at His Majesty's in October next, and leaves | New Zealand for the United States on OcI tober 27, opening in San Francisco on Noj vember 15. The company includes Miss i Edith Kirkwood, a most "popular London soprano, who possesses a most beautiful voice: Miss Gertrude Lonsdale, a most gifted contralto, whose voice is a rare one in point of sweetness and delicious quality; Mr. Harold Wilde, one of the rising tenors of England, who has a sweet, pure tenor voice, with an even register; and Mr. Watkm Mills and Mr. Kduard Parlovitz, both well-known here. The programme will include one of the popular song cvcles, " Persian Garden," "Daisy Chain," and "Flora's Holiday."

The opening piece of the Australasian tour of the Brough-Flemming Comedy Company, which commences at Perth on Easter ,7a turd ay. will be "Beauty and the Barge." The barge, which performs an important " property - ' in the play " Beauty and the B,itge," which will be'seen in New Zealand before the end of the year, was specially built in London and shipped to Australia by the Ophir. The play is to bo mounted exactly as at the Hayma'rket. Mr. George Musgrove's New English Dramatic Company will commence a tour of New Zealand at Dunedin to-day with the drama- "Pretty Peggy." Miss Nellie Stewart playing the name part. It is probable the Royal Comic Opera Company will produce " The Duchess of Dantzic" towards the end of the present year— likely in Melbourne about Cup time.

The ample Tiliie Dunbar i.« now trying melodrama, having joined the Sanford Dramatic Company at present showing at the Melbourne Bijou. Tiliie Dunbar was remarkable for her jodelling when with the Fuller firm in Auckland.

The veteran Charles Warner, who has entered into an engagement with Mr. George Musgrove to start a twelve months' season in Australia and New Zealand in November, contemplated a short tour of South Africa en route, but lie abandoned the idea on account of the unsatisfactory position of theatrical matters at the Cape. He is to open at Melbourne in "Much. Ado About Nothing." It is 13 years since Mr. Warner made his former visit to Australia.

The Knight-Jeffries Dramatic Company are reported to be doing good business in, Melbourne.

Mr. J. C. Williamson's Dramatic Company, which is headed by Miss Tittel Brune, is at present touring West Australia. They are duo back in Melbourne to commence a season on the 22nd prox with "Theodora." New Zealand will bo afterwards visited.

The largest amount ever expended over a single theatrical production was £75,000, for Mr. Imrie Kiralfy's play, India," at the Empress Theatre, at the India Exhibition, several years ago.

In time to come (says M.A.P.) the name of George Edwardes will, in all probability, be associated more with light opera than ■with lighter-headed "musical comedy." And he will deserve his new and improved reputation, for at the time he experimented with "The Duchess of Danteic" at the. Lyric (that was in October of last rear) he had worked the public up into a sort of musical-comedy madness, and the production of a sane and consistent musical piece without " additional numbers" by numbers of additional writers and composers was a step which might have led to the loss of several thousands of pounds. That it ended in no such disaster, bi«t, on the contrary, proved a seep in the right direction, both of finance and art, is now too familiar a fact on the cheerful side of the year's theatrical record to need pointing out. It is what the success of "The Duchess of Dantzic" has done for the welfare of the lighter stage that the playgoer is chiefly interested in to-day.

A project is on foot in New York to reproduce " Rip Van Winkle" on the exact spot in Twilight Park in the Catskill Mountains, where the legend places the story. The Gaiety Theatre, London, is a very remunerative* concern. It had only been reopened to the public for eight months last year, and in that time earned £80,000. In the balance-sheet, stage properties were valued at £16,000, the stage expenses were £37,000, and advertising nearly £3000. Mr. George Edwardes, the managing director, receives a remuneration of £1800 a year, and the shareholders get 20 per cent. The net profit niadc was £13,811, or an average of over £1700 per month. MtSICO-DfIAUATICVS,