AMUSEMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 870, 2 November 1888, Page 13

AMUSEMENTS.

[lnformation from members of the theatrical profession respecting their professional doings in this and the neighboring colonies is invited. Communications to be addressed to the Editor of this column.] The Theatre. A novelty to this Colony in the shape of a minstrel troupe composed entirely of negroes will occupy the boards of the Theatre Koyal on Monday, November 5. The company, under the direction of Messrs Hicks and Gaylord, has had an extraordinary suecess in Australia. A recent Sydney paper (the Evening News) says :—“The Opera House was paoked with people on Saturday evening to witness the entertainment to be provided by the coloured persons, and judging from results they were not disappointed. There is much that is novel in the show, and relief Is experienced from the old style of minstrel performances.” The company is said to be unusually strong in good voices, numbering amongst them one of the finest tenors and basses travelling.

The Wellingtoh Amateur Dramatic Club gave their second private performance of the season on Tuesday at the Theatre Royal to a crowded audience, his Excellency . the Governor and party being present. The pieces selected were H. J. Byron’s comedy "The Old Story,” and Madison Morton’s farcical oomedy “ Woodcock’s Little Game.”

*®THE NEW OPERA. HOUSE. , The new Opera House —rising, Phoenixlike, from its ashes—is now rapidly approaching completion, and will shortly be reinstated, no doubt, in the position it formerly held, at the top of the list as far as New Zealand theatres go, and equal to the best in the Australias. The rapidity with which the work of rebuilding the theatre has proceeded is remarkable, and reflects the greatest credit on the architect, Mr W. C. Chatfield (under whose supervision the work has been carried on), and the contractor, Mr Hanson. It is only a very short time since the advisableness of rebuilding was being discussed, and, since a decision was arrived at, the work has gone on with a celerity not only astonishing in itself but still more so when it is considered in comparison with the progress made with another public building in the city. There i 3 not the slightest doubt apparently of the Opera House being ready by the date which as been fixed for its opening—the 3rd of December. What work had to be done on the exterior is about finished, and inside an army of carpenters, plasterers, and others hold busy possession. The “flies” and other mysterious regions in the vicinity of the stage are well on toward completion, and on the stage itself the flooring is being laid down. The proscenium walls are to be of brick and plaster, so'that if fire happened to break out, it would be almost impossible for it to spread either from the stage to the auditorium or vice versa. Indeed, the precautions against file are noticeable everywhere about the theatre, just as though to well exemplify the superiority of prevention to cure. The staircases leading to the dress and family circle will only have such woodwork about them as is absolutely necessary, and the same rule is

religiously followed in other parts of the building. The means of egress and ingress are also much greater than before, for the passages to the stalls and pit are wider, and have no woodwork. There will be two staircases leading to the family circle, instead of one, as before—massive but handsome affairs of iron and concrete, one running up from the dress circle entrance, and one on the other side. There are also the staircases on to the stage from all parts of the theatre which were in the old building. The family circle itself will have one innovation, which is an improvement, that is, that the pillars which used to run to the ceiling are done away with. The ceiling is also a little higher, and judging by the provision made for ventilation we should imagine that the circle will be comfortably cool without being at all draughty. In the dress circle the iron railing has been put in, and the carpenters have now nearly finished. The chairs (which, it will be remembered, were made from Mr Chatfield’s design) are all upholstered, and will be put in presently. There will be 35 chairs more in this circle than before, and the whole seating accommodation of the theatre will exceed that of the old Opera House by about a hundred. Work in the social hall is also very nearly finished. , A pleasant innovation here and in the two circles is the use of Keene’s cement for the dados. This cement gives a polish like that of marble, and being a pure white it adds considerably to the beauty of the place. The sighting, which was such a commendable feature of the last Opera House, will be just as good in this, the problem of giving people in every part of the house a clear view of the whole stage having been solved most effectually. The more refined work in connection with the theatre is going on well, the dome having been painted and left ready for the grating iu the centre, while the drop scene ''and other artistic work is being done by Mr Edmunds and a staff of assistant*. With a view to keeping level with the times, every provision has been made for using the electric light. On the whole the Opera House promises to be, as the old a credit to the city and thosdebncomtjd. in it. The third time, it is said, proves for all ; and it is most fervently to be hoped that this

Opera House will stand for many years free from the attacks of the element which has twice destroyed a similar venture, and which is such a good servant but such an unbearable master.

THEATRICAL NOTES. The dulness of things theatrical has been relieved lately by tbe All Stars and Papa Thornton’s Coat and Trousers (or Cap and Jacket was it?) Company ; and now we are promised a ‘ big black boom ’—a Christy Minstrel show, right up to the knocker, with everything tip.top and don't yer forget it. The aver youthful Mr Hicks is the proprietor of this show, as he was of the other real black show, the Georgias. A fine minstrel company it was, too, with Billy Wilson and Taylor Brown on one corner, and Mills and Crusoe on the other ; with Hioks himself in the centre, and Rosea Easton, Matlock, Bowman, Copeland and others to make up the show, not forgetting the big black four, r Mr Hicks has oar fervent wishes for his entire success.

Sundry Shows.—The Faust family are in Brisbane. Major Dane, the American lectureV, is in the vicinity of Sydney. Simonsen’s Spanish Students were not a success in Australia, and have gone home again to sing serenades in Spain. The Italian and English Opera Company have arrived in Melbourne, and were to open this month in * The Rose of Castile.’ Clark’s All-Star Company are doing well in the North. Madame Marie Roze is due in Australia next year. Mr George C. Miln, an American actor, has been playing Shakespeare under Rignoid and Allison’s management, at Her Majesty’s, Sydney, lately. Mr Miln (whose wife, Miss Louise Jordan, plays female lead) is very highly spoken of in Sydney, »nd talks of coming this way shortly. His career has been a remarkable one, for up till a few years ago he was a Unitarian Minister, receiving 10,000 dole a year. He made his debut as an actor in Chicago, in 1882; playing Hamlet, and since then he has stuck to the boards. He is pronounced a capable and scholarly actor, his best effort apparently Richelieu associated for ever in cur minds with the memory of William Hoskins. Mr Miln and a good company will be as welcome in thiß country as the flowers of May, and any little thing wo can do to help him is going to be done.

Dunedin amateurs are hard at work on ‘ Othello,’ which they will produce on a scale of magnificence never before attempted. Mr A. Barrett is to be Othello and Mr Thomas Bracken, —the jaynial P. Murphy of poetic renown—is to be lago.

Miss Mary Hume is doing well in the north of this Island.

* The Mystery of a Hansom Cab ’ was a broad failure in Melbourne, and has given place to something less shocking; The death of Mr John L. Hall has produced a good crop of paragraphs in the Australian papers, reminiscences of the old theatrical days of the colonies when ‘ Johnny Hall ’ was in his prime, and a great prime, too. Next to Mr Hoskins, Mr Hall was about the most conspicuous figure on the early colonial stage, from the time when he was a member of a circus and used to do his 50 somersaults right through his successful career as a comedian and down to, his last appearance as ‘ the red headed-nigger ’ in Wellington. Miss Carrie Swain is playing ‘The Tomboy ’ in Melbourne. That Tomboy wi-1 live, we honestly believe, right through eternity, to the end of all things; and we shall ever remember it with pangs of regret in conjunction with Grattan Rigg’s * Irish Detective.’

From southern papers I learn that Miss Kate Lovell (Madame Drew) will be in Christchurch about the end of this month. Miss Lovell will be in Wellington in January next, and will protably give a few concerts here. Autolycus.