NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1106, 12 May 1893, Page 32

NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

' Here come the actors Buz, Buz,' —Hamlet. The Gaiety Burlesque Company have done magnificent business during the week with \ ' Carmen Up to Data' and ' Joan of Arc' On Saturday night a grand mixed programme is announced, which should draw a big bouse. The company leave for Christchurch on Monday. They are bound to do well all through the Colony. Mr Cadzow's popular little show at the Bijou Theatre (Evchange Hall) has done very well of late, the smoking concerts proving highly successful. On Monday next Mr Cadzow will be tendered a benefit by his friends. It is cabled out that Edward Terry, the famous English comedian, has left England for Australia under engagement to Williamson and Musgrove. He will visit New Zealand in due course. Mr Terry is perhaps the finest comedian England posseses to-day, and he is still in his prime. Collet-Dobson and Company are at Dunedin playing everlasting' Shaughran.' Fillis' Circus took £350 in one night at Oamaru. Good biz! The Marian Willis Dramatic Company are doing the Otago district. They were at Cromwell at the latter end of last week. Receipts at the Napier "All Nations'Bazaar (Gaiety Theatre) last week reached £670. Mr S. Churchill Otton was at Masterton on Friday and Saturday with the electric piano. Palmer's Company, with Miss Maud Beresleigh as pianiste, had a good ' house' at the Argyle Hall, Hunterville, on Saturday last week. Mr A. Linley, a well-known theatrical agent, has gone in advance of Pollard's Juveniles. The Truda Bros., Dave Gardner, and Mr F. Woodhouse, a tenor soloist from Sydney, and late member of the New South Wales Orpheus, are amongst the latest attractions at the Christchurch popular concerts. Harry Wirth, until recently in the circus business, has started a riding school at Christchurch. - Mrs Dr Potts and Charles Harrison were at Christohurch (Theatre Royal) last week. Bad weather followed Pollard's Juveniles to Napier, where business has been good, however. The Steens are at present in Melbourne. Recently the Professor stated spiritualism to be an awful fraud, and that there were no spirits—except in bottles. Bland Holt is bringing a grand company with him to New Zealand. Miss Henrietta Watson, who came out to New Zealand with Mrs Bernard Beere, will be the leading lady. She is said to be a splendid actress. Other ladies are Misses Maud Williamson and Holt, and among the gentlemen are Sass—a fine actor with a great reputation—Howe, Corlesse, and others. • ••._• Theatrical' biz ' must be very bad in Melbourne when the Alexandra can be rented at £lO. The Bulletin prophesies that its ultimate doom will be ' The Harmy.' George Leitch and Company have been playing at Hobart. The Tasmanian Mail reports ' very poor season!' George Lee, Toole's manager, has been interviewed by Sala's Journal. He says Johnny ' will not pay the Australian colonies a second visit.' Thank you!. One lot of Toole was enough. We can drag out a life pretty comfortably without Toole, one of the most over-puffed and played-out mummers I have ever seen in the colonies. Lee says that Toole may, however, 'visit China or Japan.' Just so ! It will take a Chinaman to appreciate him. Pattie Browne, the favourite Australian soubrette, has made a hit in Pinero's new comedy ' The Amazons,' at Court Theatre, London. The Bulletin wants to know 'why the loveliest and most bewitching member of the Gaiety Company was left behind in Sydney?' I echo the question on behalf of New Zea* landers. Mr and Mrs Kendal are coming to Australia after next Christmas. It is a long, long time ('76) since 'Lorgnette' saw Madge Robertson (Mrs K.) in 'Pygmalion and Galatea,' and he will bo glad to see her again. In comedy she is still almost unapproachable,

but for young parts she is getting—wellrather matronly looking. I trust the Kendals will give New Zealanders a turn.

Brongh and Boucicault's Comedy Company Company leave Sydney for New Zealand in June. Lohr ahead. A great treat in store for

WybertEeeve—it seems years since he was round with ' Diplomacy' with Brian Darley, Lawrence, and Miss Harford—has returned to the stage, appearing at Adelaide in ' Truth.' Bumour hath it that he has lost money in management and land boom. The same old story. An actor finds it harder than most people to keep money after making it.

Mr W. J. Holloway has written to his agent in Sydney that his daughter, Miss Thea Holloway, is certain to make a London appearance on the stage in ' The New Wing,' on November 3. Mr Holloway's friends will be glad to learn that his health is' better than it has been for years.'

Verdi's ' Falstaff' has no overture, but after three bars of a vigorous tutti the curtain rises on the Osteria della Giarrettiera—which is Italian for the Garter Inn. Signor Boi'to's libretto, in which he draws upon ' Henry IV.' and ' Merry Wives,' is said to be marvellously Shakespearian, and the monologue upon honour is rendered musically with 'an astounding felicity.' The Italian critics dwell upon the absolutely new character or the music.*) Walter Bentley and Company—including Miss Kate Bishop (Mrs Lohr), Miss Vivienne, Messrs Lachlan, McGowan, andKoberts—have just finished a short and successful season at Launceston (Tasmania), and were to open at Hobart on the sth of May. Two burlesque artistes once well known in New Zealand, Miss Amy Johns and Mr James Wilkinson, are playing in ' Aladdin' at the Gaiety Theatre, Sydney. Priscilla Terne, Ettie Williams, and other members of the Surprise Party, are also included in the company. There died recently Mr Durandeau. We do not suppose anybody will even recognise his name. And yet his music achieved fame greater than that of Sir Arthur Sullivan, Dr Stanford, Brahms, or even Wagner, for he was the composer of that popular lyric, ' Never introduce your donah to a pal,' and of that still more widely-known melody, 'lf you want to know the time, ask a p'leeceman.' Mr J. L. Lohr is to manage Madame Antoinette Sterling's tour in Australia. Forty concerts will be given. Madame Sterling's forte is ballad singing, and she is reputed to be Madame Patey's only rival. Says the Licensed Victuallers' Mirror:— The sisters Leamar seem to have dropped out of the halls altogether. Alice, the youngest, is, we hear, doing well in Australia, and is not likely to return to London yet awhile. Mr Allan Hamilton, agent in advance for Fillis' Circus, arrived in town last week, and has been busy making arrangements for the 'giant show' of which he *is the ' avant courier.' The circus, which opens on the Te Aro reclamation on the 16th inst., will be one of the biggest shows of the kind we have ever seen in Wellington, judging by what I read in the southern papers. The lions, tigers, elephants, and other wild ' beastesses' will be a great attraction, especially as they are all shown in the arena of the circus, and not, as is generally the case, in a ' side show.' In Dunedin a Globe reporter went into the lions' den when the lions were being put through their performance by the trainer. Mr Fillis gave him a gold medal for his pluck. I wonder whether any Wellington pressman will care to rival this feat.

At Napier Pollard's have done well. Marion Mitchell's voice is all right again, and 'The Gondoliers' was a great success.

An old Wellington favourite who left musical circles to study for the stage is thus referred to in Melbourne Table Talk:—' Miss Katharine Hardy who has created so favourable an impression by her personation of Lucille in " The Adventuress," will certainly rise to the front rank of the profession, for she is developing her natural gifts by close study. She has been coached in elocution,' and as a singer she has been trained by, the best instructors in Melbourne. The openings for an operatic singer being very limited, Miss Hardy decided to gain stage experience by touring through New Zealand with Mr Walter Bentley. She was at once given leading parts, and her Ophelia roused the New Zealanders to enthusiasm. Her pretty face, unaffected manners, and sweet singing cerried ell before her. Mr Bentley proved an excellent instructor, and Miss Hardy now walks the stage with the ease of an old professional.' Some items from the Bulletin:— ' Walter Bentley, from Aberdeen awa' or thereaboots, is nothing if not a patriot, and, wherever he goes, always gets the patronage of the local Caledonian Society. ' Where Shall I find the secretary of the Caledonian . Society?' enquired he the other day entering fl. New South Wales town. Chorus: 'ln Bathurst gaol.' It broke Bentley right up. Amongst those who threaten to do a lecturing tower in Australia is Jerome K. Jerome. There is a story current that Irving cut Kendal dead lately in the Garrick Club. The cause is a woman's tongue. ' Site' has been ' saying things' of Irving and Ellen Terry, of whom she is profoundly jealous. Extracted from an advance puff paragraph in the Melbourne Standard:—'The famous Chas. N. Steenwas recently summoned to the White House to give an entertainment. President Garfield, who had never witnessed this class of performance, displayed greatest in the experiments of the great wonderworker. It will be learned with pleasure that the famous professor will shortly appear at St. George's Hall.' If Steen recently appeared before President Garfield he must be a wonderworker. •Little' Penley? the present London

theatrical sensation, has to thank our own Johnny Wallace (of Melbourne Alhambra) for his first ' show.' It's just about 18 years since Wallace put Penley in the Boyal chorus, and kept him there, for many months, anyhow.