MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15169, 7 December 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

BOOKINGS.

IIIS MAJE3TY'S THEATRE December 23 —J. C. Williamson's Operatic Company, " Sight t>lrd«."

His . Majesty's Theatre is.' now vacant until Christmas week. _ .... <■■'..■

. There is , a proposal in the air to - build a new theatre-in Dunedin. ~,' -■~•;

; The Globe Theatre, a new. continuous' moving-picture theatre, which stands on, ad , excellent central position in . Queen-street, Auckland, -is. be opened by Hayward's Picture Enterprises to-day. The Octagon Theatre, ~-Hay ward's new moving-picture house, in the Octagon} Dunedin,; is to be opened next Saturday, and; the' firm: has over the Petohe Picture Theatre. '-> !

: If none but good plays were produced, what would become of the leading articles on the,drama in the weekly. reviews? asks the Morgen '. Zeitung. .. Critics should know that:bad plays pake;good, articles, exactly, as " with.bad wine goodvinegar is made;" - 'On Tone occasion the veteran : actor, Ned Holloway « {since deceased)/ got out' of a tight place rather neatly. -member of the company; with"whOm;Ned had to play a • long -scene' had been* looking on the wine when .'it_ was red, and was very uncertain as to~his lines. In fact, he 'bungled his .scene-", so badly that Ned could do nothing with-him. r However,'the old man was not to be done. ..... He gravely, walked to : the , centre opening, and looking\ reproachfully at the offending actor he addressed him in his best melodramatic manner as follows: — " I will now send my daughter to you, and I pray to heaven that she will get on bet-. j ter with you than I have done.« Farewell!" ! And old Ned made a dignified exit.

The late Dan Barry told a good storyabout himself. Once" he was playing the "Kelly Gang" tip Mansfield -way in the very heart of the Kelly country. He had a great difficulty in finding a bellman, and at last he put on a " wiro" beard and paraded the streets himself ringing the bell and shouting, "To-night, to-night," etc. There was a good house, but as soon as the resourceful Dan made his entrance as Ned Kelly a disgusted voice from the back seats exclaimed, li That's not Ned Kelly; that's the old cow that was ringing the bell!

" I'm in full accord with religious picture services," said the Rev. S. Barcoe-Cock, of Paddington, Sydney, in a recent interview. "I believe that the time has come when the Church has to go to the masses. The biograph is a way of attracting people. I believe if you have a large congregation you have a better chance of winning a greater, number of souls. My own conviction is that the theatre and the pictureplay have somewhat imperfectly satisfied a higher want in human nature."

Madame Bernhardt' present repertoire at the Coliseum, London/ includes a number of her favourite death' scenes, which, of course, is as it should be. An ingenious statistician, some time ago, computed the number of death scenes she had enacted. Her deaths by self-administered poison, it was calculated, totalled well over 10,00£; she had jumped into the scenic artist's Seine 7000 times; had sent 5000 bullets into her head with a revolver; and stabbed herself as frequently as all her other "death's" put together. At a reception one night a lady asked her if it were really true that she kept a coffin at her house. "Certainly," was the reply, "and so would you if you wore the morgue's most frequent customer!"

In the Australian production of " Milestones" Mr. Julius Knight will- appear as John Rhead at three periods of life—at the ages of 25, 50, and 77. The play might be taken by those inclined to a serious view of the drama as a study in heredity. Three generations are represented. The evolution in clothes-and furniture is also interestingly illustrated. "It must not be thought/' remarked Mr. Knight, discussing the production,, "that 'Milestones' is a big play, in the sense of great scenes and crowd's. It is just the opposite. The success it has won has its charm, novelty, and cleverness. It also allows of excellent acting scope. There is not a character in the piece but commands your interest, and you find yourself deeply engrossed in the story that runs through a man's whole life. I saw,the play a number of times, and it never failed to take hold of me."

The present visit of Mr. Julius Knight to Australia is his fifth. Only another artist equals him in this record—Miss Grace Palotta. Both are great favourites with Australian audiences. ' Both have done a remarkable variety of work. Mr. Julius Knight has run the gamut of the whole dramatic scale, from costume play to heroic drama, arid again in comedy. He probably registers more successes than any star who, has ever visited this country, and has had a healthier influence upon the J. C. Williamson treasury than other actors in their long list of engagements. Miss Palotta has also covered the whole field of musical comedy, and has figured with marked success in • farce comedy, and comedy. In other parts of the world the Viennese actress has won success in vaudeville, and as principal boy in pantomime. Shortly she will be seen in her most popular role, that of Lady Holyrood in "Florodora."

As a result of an interview between the kinematograph managers and Mr. Flowers, a compromise has been reached regarding the censorship of pictures. The Government will accept tho censorship of London and New York, reserving the right to condemn a film, even though passed by those cities. The present regulations will apply to Ideally-produced films and those not submitted to the London and New York censors. Pictures exhibited in Sydney will bo permitted in the country. 'Hie regulations will apply to pictures shown in tho country before being produced in the city. The period of notice of programme has "been reduced to six hours instead of 24. The Minister has introduced a new regulation by which he may authorise any film passed by a censorship recognised by him, and information need not be given to the police that such a film is to bo screened.

During the past few weeks death has been busy amongst those rarely skilled in the art of music. The most prominent of those who recently have passed from song to silence are Frances Allitsen, the writer 01 numerous songs of great popularity Guido Papim, the distinguished violinist a native of Florence, at one time professor of violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, and lately practising in London; J. T Field, organist, and a noted composer of church services and anthems; Wilhelm Kuhe, pianist and composer, one time professor of the Royal Academy of Music, and especially notable for his Jons connection with the Brighton musical festivals; and Henry Blower, the professor of music at the Royal College of Music, where Madame Clara Butt was the most distinguished of his pupils.

This is a hard-luck story told by the Verne partner of the Vaude and Verne duo at the Tivoli. "We were a stony-broke mmstre company showing at a township in Ssouth Australia. There was no money in the treasury. Whoever got in first and secured a sovereign was a Croesus or a Carnegie, with everybody else trying to borrow it from him. The worst of it was that one of the men in the troupe was a dancer, and he had pawned his shoes in. the last town, and his boots had no soles to them We reckoned his dance would have to be cut out of the programme. But he was an inventive and resourceful chap ' He found out that in the hotel alongside the hall we played in there was a boarder who used to go to bed early. This boarder wore shoes. So the dancing turn was put late on the programme. When it came near, our dancer sneaked into the hotel and borrowed the boarder's shoes, and when his dance was over put the shoes back where he had found them— outside the boarder's door. We played three nights in that town, and the dance was successful every night.

Musico-Dbamaticus.