MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 4 (Supplement)

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

_——«. i * BOOKINGS. ,£ HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. h t December 22 to January 10— J. C. William- :• son's Now. Comic Opera Co. January 19 to 21-Rickarda Vaudeville Co. January 26 to February 2—Geo. Stephenson a • Pantomime. ■ • .-.,•_■ ,„.„. February 3to February 14— J. C. Williamson's "Within the Law" Co. March 9 to 29—Geo. Willousnby'B Co. April 11 to May 2-J. C. Williamson. May 18 to 30-Geo. Willoughby's Co. Juno Ito 20— C. Williamson. Juno 27 to July 11— J. C. Williamson. July 18 to August 7-J. and N. Tait. Au"ust 15 to August 29— J. C. Williamson. September 3 to 21—Geo. Willoughby's Co. Scptembor 28 to October 10— J. C. William-

TOWN HALL. Decembor 23—Choral Society's Concert. January John McCormack Concert Co. A one-act play of unusual interest is to ho staged for the first lime in Australia by Mr. Lewis Waller at the Melbourne Theatre Royal. It is entitled "The Great Game," written by W. Cronin Wilson, and is described as a "tabloid delectivo drama." Tho plot concerns the investigations of a clever detective, who, disguised as a country youth, sheets home a crime to two malefactors after an encounter which ends in the discovery of the identity of the mysterious visitor. Mr. Alec Thompson, the clever actor who appeared as Fluellen in "Henry V.," and the French waiter in "A Butterfly on the "Wheel," will enact the principal charatfer. "The Great Game" was such a JJuccess in England and America that Mr. .Waller played it in front of many of his principal pieces.

Tlio anniversary of the first London performance of "Charley's Aunt" will be celebrated on December 21. Tho farce written about tho lady from Brazil was first staged in Bury St. Edmunds in February, 1892, but its success is usually dated Irom its opening at the Royalty Theatre.at tho end of the same year. It Was transferred to the Globe Theatre on January 30, 1893, and ran for 1466 nights. Mr. W. S. l'cnley, the actor who .created the' part, was made by the play, and .he was able to rebuild the Great Queen Street Theatre in 1898 and open it with "Charley's Aunt." Li 1908 he revived the farco at the Royalty Theatre, where it was again a big success. Penley died this year.

" A Day at the Itaces" continues to hold the boards at the King's Theatre, Melbourne. The play, which is the third produced by the American Musical Bur-1 lesque Company, is proving even more i popular than "The Grafters," with which this combination won its way into the I hearts of the Melbourne public. There, is an abundance of comedy, while the- music i throughout is catchy. Last week a] change was made in the cast owing to j the departure for America of Frank Vack' and Miss Elizabeth St. Clair. Mr. Paul Stanhope took Mr. Vack's place as the ■ Dutchman, and judging by the way his i scenes went he is in every respect as cap- j able an artist as his predecessor. Miss Elaine Ravcnsburg filled the vacancy I caused by the absence of Miss St. Clair. i Those- who have previously seen Missj Raveimburg in pantomime and comic opera will not be surprised to hear that i she made an instantaneous success. "Within the Law,"' which ran for 131 weeks in Melbourne, and had then not; exhausted its popularity, has reached its' ninth week at the Sydney Criterion, and is drawing large houses. I Personality, that mysterious something that makes a bond between the player and the public, is said to be to a large j extent accountable for the popularity of i Miss Jessie Lonnen, the vivacious young'i artist who is to be "principal boy" in the j Forty Thieves" pantomime at Melbourne Her Majesty's. Her piquant style | immediately makes' friends of the people; in front, and wins over all sections of '■ th audience. This is to be Miss Lon-, the ( audience. This is to be Miss Lon-! nen's first appearance on any stage in the role of "principal boy." On various occasions she has been "girl" in pantomime. Miss Alice Nixon, who was in New Zealand with Mr. George Stophenson'f 'Rose of the Riviera," is playing a small part in Our Kids," a new farcical :omedy on tour in Britain.

Chatting about her performances in " A Butterfly on the Wheel" at the Melbourne Theatre Royal, Miss Madge Titheradge referred to a' detail in temperament that plays an important part in the moulding of her performance. "Sometimes," she explained, "when I go on the stage I have a feeling that I am not going to act as well as I ought to. Sometimes I feel more 'fit' and everything is all right. But the doubtful feeling never gets past the commencement of tho divorce court scene. Strange it is, but it is a fact that as soon as Sir Robert Fyffe commences to cross-examine me I feel on my mettle, and Straightaway lose myself in the part. • Mr. Frank Woolfe, who appears as the counsel, seems to make me very antagonistic, somehow, at first, and the actress is effaced in the woman de-1 fending her honour and endeavouring to I fight against the cruel, merciless attacks that do not give her breathiug-spaco. I don't even Bee the audience. There is only one face stamped on my mental vision, and that is the face of the relentless cross-examiner and torturer in front of me."

There are 1500 picture theatres in New lork, and 400 in Brooklyn, and tho amount paid by film exchanges to manufacturers of pictures has been estimated at £4,000,000 annually. The sum p/aid by exhibitors to the exchanges has been set down at £5,000,000, while the gross receipts from the public at the picture places is reckoned at £55,000,000 per year. In one year 40,000 miles of film are manufactured and over tlireo million ' separate ■pictures taken, reckoning at the rate of "16 pictures to the foot of film.

Those who regard the number 13 as unlucky may gather heart from the experience of Mr. Thomas Quinlan. He left | Johannesburg for Australia on the 13th i of tho month, and reached Melbourne on I the loth of tho following month- Yet his! season in Australia lias proved one of the most strikingly successful in the annals of the stage in that country. Phenomenal ] business all through has characterised the opera venture, and Mr. Quinlan smiles when 13 is mentioned by superstitious theatricals.

" Tlio Second Ash Tray," by Gaston Mervnle, which Miss Nance O'Neil is now playing in American vaudeville, was practically written before Mervale left Australia for America. It is an interesting play working up to a big situation, and the critics have praised it. Mr. Georgo Stephenson's pantomime "80-Peep," now playing in the South Island, is to bo brought to Auckland for a season commencing on January 26. Mr. Rupert Julian, an cx-Aucklander, who first toured New Zealand in the Stinc-Kvans Comedy Company in 1904, is now in America with his wife. The latest j news of him is that he has made a big i hit in motion pictures, in which he is I ! engaged at Los Angeles. Mr. Julian was | for somo time- with the Julius Knight company. Mr. John McCormack, the Irish tenor, who sings hero at the Town Hall on January 12, will leave for Vancouver by the Niagara on January 16. The Btt'ckler-Dehmston Company, from the Little Theatre in Sydney, is probably coming to tho Dominion shortly. "Thoi Man on tho Box" is the company's chief piece. ,-..», Musico-Dbasjaticus.