AMUSEMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 867, 12 October 1888, Page 14

AMUSEMENTS.

[lnformation from members of the theatrical profession respecting their -professional doings in this and the neighboring oolonies is invited. Communications to be addressed to the Editor of this column.}

The Theatre. Miss von Finlcelstein arrived in town on Saturday night from Wanganui, where she had a most successful season. She left on Monday for Nelson, Miss Adelaide Detehon, a young Amerioan beauty, over whom London society appears to have gone crazy for the past two years, is now in Melbourne, and is going to make an extended tonr. The entertainment she gives is of a most unique description. Gifted with a voice of almost ventriloqmal power, .Miss Detehon imitates,the songs of birds, bringing them in in her recitations in the most natural and surprising manner.

Clark’s All Star Company, who have been playing to good houses down South, open at the Theatre Royal on Friday (to-night.) The Lyttelton Times says:—“The programme was of unusual merit; one oE the main attractions is the Donaldson Brothers, the * elastic men,’ whose reputation,had prepared the spectators to witness wonders. It., is very doubtful, however, that the spectators were prepared to expect the marvels they »aw. But that the brothels gave proof of the possession of ordinary strength one would be inclined to believe that they possessed no vertebrie. The word * contortion conveys the idea of deformity, and therefore is quite unappropriate in a description of the feats of the Donaldson Brothers.” A Christchurch paper sayß “On Saiurday afternoon, at the invitation of the Clark All-star Company, now performing at the theatre, a number of the priucipal residents’ in the citj , including his Worship the Mayor and several of the members of the medical profession, were present at a private exhibition of the singular powers of the Donaldson Brothers. Those who have seen the wonderfully clever performances of these two artistes cannot but agree that as an exhibition of what is known'as contortion acts they stand unrivalled, Both the young men are Americans, being natives of tho Stale of Michigan, They went on a tour, and at St Louis and Philadelphia they gave exhibitions of their feats before the medical men iOf these oities, which created great interest. They were afterward engaged by the wellknown Barnura for his Madison-aquare Museum, where they performed all last summer. They wore engaged in ban Francisco by Mr F. M. Clark, who saw their performance. On Saturday afternoon they went through their performance clad merely in trunks, so as to show to the full their peculiar anatomical construction. They went through the various feats which they give at the usual performances with a grace and agility which highly impressed those E resent. One of the brothers showed that e can at will dislocate his hip joints, and on being examined by Dif Do Renzy, the House Surgeon of the Hospital, that gentleman pronounced the dislocation to be complete.

J THEATRICAL NOTES. > Tho performance of ‘ Pinafore ’at Master'j ton was one of those overwhelmingly successful affairs that happen once in a generation. The rehearsals, says a local paper, had bean prosecuted with difficulty ; up to the hour of the mail closing, however, there was no news of the aotors being prosecuted. The cast was thusly Josephine, Mrs G. Hooper; Hebe, Mias Tnrner ; Ralph Raokstraw, Mr Coleman ; Sir Joseph Porter, Mr J. H. Howe; Captain Corcoran, M rS. H. Wickcrson; ' Buttercup, Mr Cecil Riverton. According j to one of the local papers Buttercup was « dressed in a huge fconnet, and wore a huge bustle.’ Must be pretty warm weather up there these days. «Mr Rowe is a clever self-possessed act.or ’ (this from the Daily). All amateurs are. ‘Mr Gaakill was unfortunate in having to play to an audience which appeared afraid to laugh.’ We have observed that the audience sometimes thinks it might scare the young feller out of his boots, and is afraid to titter. After writing these good thick truisms, the critio went along the street, and in the words of the poet stood . On the Waipoua Bridge at midnight The Daily’s one reporter, And thought how extremely, he would like Some whisky without any wafcor. Miss Essie Jenyns is in Melbourne. The last piece put on when the mail lef; _ was 4 Pygmalion and Galatea,’ with the divine Essie as Galatea, Mr Holloway as Pygmalion, and Mr Elton as Chrysos. The mining chrysos was on at the same time. Notice it? The comedy company playing at St George’s Hall, Melbourne, is rather a strangely assorted one. The principal man is Johnnie Gourlay, and there are also J. R. Greville, G. P. Carey, Tilly Lake, Rose Vernon Paget, and the Cogill brothers. Mention of Greville reminds me of an affecting incident in the career of that truly great man. It happened ia Wellington when • The Lights o’ London ’ was being played. Greville was (his custom of an evening) gagging atrociously, and Cates, who was. playing Harold Armitage, didn’t relish it. * You should see me play ’Amlet, sir, said Greville (Jarvis the Showman). «Oh, do you play Shakespeare. Mr Jarvis V queried Cates. ‘I do Bir,’ was the reply of the unsuspecting Greville. « Dear me,’ said Cates, blandly, ‘I always thought you only played clown !’ and a deep mournfal silence spread over the face of the multitude. The Cap and Jacket Company finished their season here last week, and passed away to Pitone, a small township on the banks of the Rorokoro. As a minstrel company they are a very fair crowd, and ought to do welL in country towns. The genuine Christy Minstrel show, however, appears to have faded away into oblivion. In these degenerate days the typical minstrel company consists of two corner men, a middle man with a cracked tenor, a bass with a boil in his throat, and several young persons of the female persuasion, whose dresses are too short _ for them. The genuine fun of the show isn’t enough to draw an audience, but you must have a display to 4 fetch ’ the carnal-minded; and the girl who pipes an idiotio song in a. thin voice takes the place of the Beaumont Reads, the Brahams, and the Campbells, and gets an encore because her face is cleverly painted and she’s got big limbs. But the genuine Christy companies, where are they ? The Mammoths, for instance, surely the beat of its kind that ever travelled in this country, including, as it did, Ben Brown and Newland, Cheevers and Kennedy, Horace Bent, Campbell, Vincent, and others. Brown and Newland are in England showing with Charley W allace, and Horace Bent is in Australia, pursuing a career of doubtful success. And Billy Wils n of the big mouth, with his sworn friend, Hosea Easton, whose banjo solos were a treat ? They have gone, because in these civilised times the leg-show is the trump card. However, we shall have Alf Lawton here presently, and then we shall go to the Theatre Royal and laugh till we are carried out. Lawton is one of the best corner-men ever seen in the oolonies : he ranks with Wallace, Charley Sutton, Ben Brown, Emerson, Bent, and Charley Cogill. Mr Charles Warner was to open, in the new drama ‘Lands Across the Sea,’ in Melbourne late last month. Miss Maribel Greenwood was to play Marina in Mr Rignold’s Sydney production of 4 Mr Barnes of JNew York.’ In ‘Marie Stuart, Queen of Scotland,’ played in Melbourne the other day, Mrs G. B. W. Lewis was to play Elizabeth, and Signora Majeroni Marie (or Mary) Stuart. This is one of those murderous plays the Majeronis delight in. 4 Marie Antoinette ’ is another choice favourite of theirs. In that play everybody gets killed but the prompter, whioh is au instance of the ineificacy of justice, because in truth and in fact the author ought to have beeu killed off first of all. However, Mrs Lewis will be in her element. We remember—alas, too well ! how she played ‘Jane Shore’ here some years ago. That’s another red-handed affair. Tho Perman family, with Miss Laura Roberts, Johnny Collins, and Wal Rockley, have joined F. M. Clark’s All-Star Combination in Melbourne. Professor Anderson, ‘ the Wizard of the North,’ has returned to New Zealand, and was to open at Auckland last Saturday night. Likewise in Auckland is Miss Georgie Smithson, who has got a burlesque company, and the handsome Dunbar is still business manager. The new 4 Tower of London ’ opera by Gilbert and Sullivan is announced to be placed in rehearsal at the Savoy, London ; but it is reported now that tho musio is by no means finished. Fred Maooabe has left Australia for India.

Professor Baldwin is running a'‘Butterfly Company’ in South Australia. Amongst the

members of the company is Miss Kate Russell, whom I take to be our old friend Mrs E. A. Hart. Josef Hoffman, tho juvenile pianist, is under treatment for a nervous weakness, and is only allowed to play an hour each day. There is a female in our street who wants treating for a nervous weakness. Autolycus.