PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1212, 24 May 1895, Page 16

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

“ Here come the actors, Buz, Buz.” —Uamlbt The theatrical editor of the New Zealand Mai i» j will be happy to receive and print route dates and any other information concerning the movements of companies. A post card giving “ route dates ’’ for the week is x’ceommended. Address all commimications for this cblumnto “ Lorgnette,” New Zealand Mail office. Lamb ton quay, Wellington.

NOTES BY LORSNETTE.

“The Guv’nor" will ba played at the Opera -House on Friday, the’Slst, for the benefit of poor Harry Marshall's widow. The-cast is a very strong one, and as almost everything is done gratis, t he showought to bo a big financial success.

“ Rucldigore" went up at tlie Opera House on Wednesday, but as the Mail goes to press a day earlier than usual th s week, in consequence 1- of the Queen’s Birthday* I must reserve all comment here for next week’s issue.

The Cunard-Vaudeville Company are due at the Exchange Hall, on Saturday night, for a short season. The cotnpany have done very well, I hear, in the South Island, their Dunedin season being of eighteen nights, and I hope they will be equally successful here. Our old friend, Mr Duncan Mucallum, is in the front of the show.

George Darrell— “throw the limelight on uie, never mind the rest "—has begun a tour of the colony at Auckland, the first production being “The Double Event," a racing drama. The company includes Misses Harrie Ireland, Fitzmaurice Gill, Isabel Stuart, Bessie Colville, and Messrs George It. Ireland, Edwin Kelly, Fred Cambourne, Barry Marschell, Collett Dobson, James A. Atholwood, James A. Patterson, 11. Bennett, J. Byrne, W. Cleniow, H. Frahm, J. Thompson, and Philip Stuart; _

The Pollards gave a very good sacred concert on Sunday night, and are now playing the various coastal towns up b<» Sfew Plymouth, thence Auckland and Australia.

The Kennedy Lucas Company have produced a melodrama, “The Black Flag," at the Dunedin Princess’s. The company come up North shortly, and opeu at the Wellington Opera House, on the Ist of next month.

Brough and Boucicault will be back again with us on October 24, playing up to November 9, being followed by Bland Holt from November 11 to December 7. These dates are too close for both companies to do well.

The Sydney Referee affords the exception to the general chorus of gush over Nellie Stewart’s Bettina “ Candidly she was weak in the little pathetic scenes scattered here and there in the opera—her exit crying in the first act was forced and unreal—and some of her biz was overdone."

The dramatic fcljat clever little amateur company ay ho pleased us bq mqch last year, will produce Fpero’g •f The Schoolmistress lt about the end of pext mouth. The cast is a very strong one.

Clever Mr Hoben’s capital song, “ Crom-a-boo," caught on immensely when sung by young Percy at Christ, church last week. The Pollards gave a “Sporting Nighb," at which representatives of the football and cricketing interests were invited, and “ Crom-a-boo" went so well that it received a triple encore. I don’t want to seduce Mr Hoben from the pastures of journalism, bub if he can write a few more ditties of the same rollicksome character as “ Crom-a-boo" he ought to find a very good market for them in London.

The Courlay-Stokes Company, who have been doing a long tour of the South Island, opened at the Theatre Royal, Christchurch, on Monday last in the comedy burlesque, “ Revels.” Mr Lindsay, the advance agent for the company, passed through Wellington on Monday, and informs me that he has booked the Theatre Royal for a short season, commencing on the 24th June. The comhas been materially increased and improved in its personnel since it was last -in Wellington, and now comprises some

I twenty well known artistes, the productions being high class comedy and burlesque. The company after playing Christchurch proceed to the West Coast of the South Island, opening at Westport on the 29th of this month, thence to Greymouth and Hokitika, and back to Wellington i'ia Nelson and Blenheim.—At the Opera House the Tivdli Speciality Company, recently of Dfinedin, are doing good biz. The netV company, which replaced them at Dunedin, and whose names I gave last week, commenced operations at the Dunedin City Hall last Saturday.

A cable says that Henry Irving has made a hit at the Lyceum in a new play entitled “ Don Quixote.” Irving’s lean figure and face should render his Qu'xofian “make up "very easy. Who plays the delightful Sancho Panza, I wonder?

Allan Hamilton seems to have done very well with liis Circus in Melbourne, and is now on tour (by special train) through Victoria, thence to Broken Hill and Adelaide. There are 111 people in this show.

The Brough and Boucicault Company have been delighting Brisbane playgoers with their comedy season Miss Geraldine Olifle, Mrs Brough’s successor as leading lady, gets some very warm eulogies from the Brisbane critics.

Miss Edith Blande (Mrs Austin Brereton), here with Bland Holt, ha 9 been engaged by Mr C. W. Garthorno as leading lady in his provincial company.

“Lady Windermere’s Fan" has been produced at Johannesburg, South Africa, by Mr George Edwarde’s Company, of which Mr Edward Sass is manager. Mr Sass and his wife (Miss Emma Gwynne). Miss Bessie Rignold and Mr Brian England were in the cast.

The Hellers, of “Bonanza Coterie" fame, have been doing well at Adelaide Bijou. Percy Abbott still in front of the bIIOW.

Mr William Eicon’s Company, at Adelaide, includes Misses Lily Dampier, Pollie Emery, and Ida Gresham, and Messrs Rolfe, Frank Emory, and the veteran J. E. Cathcarb.

A Liverpool jury befove Mr Justice Lawrence at the Assizes recently gave a curious turn to the law of libel. They awarded Lady Mansel, a music hall artiste, .£l5O damages because the manager of the hall she was performing at ch oß6 to put her name on his programme in small type. Possibly the small type in itsslf, t hough quite enough to irritate a “star" artiste, would not have been deemed a libel, even by a Liverpool jury. But the manager of the Park Palace, Liverpool, having engaged the lady for two weeks at £ls a week, and having found her a failure, so he said in the evidence, with tho patrons of this particular place of amusement he under lined her name in small type with the announcement, “In consequence of her great success, will appear first in the first house and last in the second house." These words the lady interpreted as an insulting public announcement that she was only fit to appear while the people were coming into the house and scrambling for seats or while they wore all struggling to get out to catch trams and and omnibuses to go home.

Sydney Deane has left the Royal Comic Opera Company, wiLh which he had been connected for over three years.

Truly we live in a progressive age (says the London Evening News). The music hall artist, driving up. to ihe hall in his handsome brougham, with a smart-looking coachman on the box, and a pyramid of perilously-wobbling luggage on the top, threatening to smash the coachly hat, is so familiar as to have become unnoticeable. Wallace Ross, however, who is engaged to appear at the South London this week to cut bars of lead and sheep in two with the swish of a broadsword., is going to set a new 1 fashion. He will tfiilk fo’jiis engagement by water. ’At#o’clock to-night'he'will step on to' the Thames at Vauxiiall Badge, 'and' paddle ' his own boots down to Bridge en route for the “ Saath.4

The Royal Comic Opera Company have staged ‘‘Madame A n got" at Sydney Lyceum. Miss Nellie Stewart plays Clairette, Mias Florence Young, Madame Lange, Miss Emily SoJdene (who returns to England very shortly) Amaranthe, Mr Joseph Tapley, Ange Pitot*, Mr Brownlow, Larivaudiere, Mr Rosevcar, J?omponnet, and Mr Howard Vernon, Trenitg. As Sydney Sunday Times says, this is $ very strong cast.

At Sydney Tivoli the following artistes are “coining money for lucky Harry Rickards " James Bell and Ada Delroy, Horace Wheatley, a London comedian imported by The Firm for their pantomime of Cinderella, Misses Chard, Alipa Grey, Lynn, Lament, and Carp-Olynn, and Messrs James Norrie, Tudor and Friedman, Dooley, Sayles, Pope, Wadley, and Josephs. A very strong variety show.

J. L. Sullivan, whose death was reported the other day, and who now writes to say he is “fit and well," occasionally, as an actor, a task which he set himself after his successes as a pugilist, cultivated

■ the art of oratory at the expense of his audience. He was once called before the curtain at San Francisco, and delivered i himself of the following remarks apropos of Peter Jackson Ladies and gentlemen.—They’ve lied about, me. Ladies 1 and gentlemen, 1 wan ter say a nigger’s no j good. If God wanted a nigger to be as I good as <i white man, why didn’t He make j him white ? Niggers are no good. I can {lick ’em—lick any nigger. See? Ladies and gent'emen, the papers say f can’t say ‘ niudder. ’ It’s a lie. I can say ‘rnudder.’ Sec? ‘ Mudderr.’ Nigger can’t. The Examiner says I was drunk. Ido get drunk. I pay for what 1 drink. The editor of the Examiner don’t. See ? I was born in Boston, and can lick any j nigger. If no ladies was here, I’d give my opinion of the Examiner." That generously did not deter the Examiner next day from giving its opinion of Mr ! Sullivan in these words : “ What we j want to know is, having agreed that pugiI lists should exist, -why God ordained that they should be always drunk ?"

• -I Messrs Bernasre, Cosham, and Mayeur, of the “New Boy " Company, and the Misses Rath bone, who were the principal poseuscs in The Firm’s Living Pictures, have left for England. Mr Clifton Alderson and Mr and Mrs Roberts, of the “ New Boy," remain in Australia.

The Stage of March 28 says : “ Miss Brenda Gibson, a young half sister of Miss Fanny Brough, arrived yesterday from Australia, bent on trying her fortune before English audiences. She made her debut in Australia as Lavender when Mr Frank Thornton otiginally produced ‘Sweet Lavender’ there. Suice then, I am told, this latest member of a brilliant family, which has placed the stage under many obligations, has earned for herself as an ingenue. Mrs Brough remains in Australia, and so Miss Fanny Brough is chaperoning her sister." Quite correct, except that Mrs Brough has not remained m Australia. Miss Brenda Gibson has, I hear, been engaged by Mr Irving as a member of his Lyceum Company.

Augustin Daly, who is rioted for bis productions of Shakespeare, is said recently to have declared that he never has lost a dollar on that author. This will, no doubt, be believed by the public at large, however njuch it may be scouted by the authors and managers of such plays as “The Bent Pin," il A Porous Plaster," and “A Bad Cough."—lV. F. Dramatic Mirror.

We have received from Messrs Cassell and Company, the London publishers, a souvenir of “ Rung Arthur," presented at the Lyceum Theatre on January 12, 1895. The souvenir contains the cast of characters in Mr’J. Oomyns Cart’s very successful play, and a series of admirable illustrations by J. Bernard Partridge, the clever young actor and Eunpli artist, and Hawes Graven, the scenic artjst of the Lyceum. •* The Passing of Arthur," “The Magic Mere," “The Great Hall, Camelot, “The Queen’s Maying,and various situations in thp play and fine portraits of Mr Irving. and Miss Ellen Terry »!3 they appear ip the piece are to be found as pharming pictures iq t|je book.

George Rignuld’s latest production, “ Work and Wages," is said to be drawing big audiences at Her Majesty’s, Sydney. Rignold himself plays the hero, and others in the cast are Misses Athena Claudius, C. Philips, and Agues Knights, and Messrs Harry PJimmer, Scot lnglis, Stirling Whyte, D’Orsuy Ogden, and J. W. Sweeney.

.. The Lucas-Kennedy Dramatic Company will commence a season here on the Ist June.

The Opera House lias been booked as follows : —May 22nd to 29th, “ Ruddigore 31st, Marshall benefit in “The Guv’nor Juno Ist, opening of the Lucas-Kennedy Company’s season 25th to November 9th, Brough and Boucicault; November ; lltlr J; tb December 7th, Bland' Holt. Intermediate 'dates ; 'will 1 pi'obably ’ bo backed ‘for’ Gfebrge 'parrel!, Rignold, WilHainsqn au ; d :, 'M'usgi'Ci7d-S i Cinderella Burlesque Company, the “ Land of the Moa ” Dramatic Company, the Cunard Minstrel Company, and the St. John’s Variety Company.”

Miss Ada Crosgley, the Australian contralto singer, made a brilliant debut in London at a concert given ip the Queen’s Hall, Langham Place. She was recalled twice for each sopg.

Mrs Patrick Campbell is said to bo anxious to appear in a dramatisation of Mr Thomas Hardy’s well-known novel “ Tess of the D’Urbevilles.”

The sensational drama “ Proof ” was produced by the Mostyn-Dalzeil Company at the Opera House on Fiiday. The character of Dora Oloster was taken by Miss Nellie Raynham, who was well fitted with the part. Miss pora Mostyn again appeared as a boy impersonator, takiqg the part of a street arab' ' panned Chpokey, whom she pourtrayed with, the vivacity that always distinguishes her acting. Misg Virginia Clayton had a difficult role to play as Miriam Waldron, and acquitted herself fairly well. Mr D. L. Dalzeil gave a capable interpretation of the devoted family lawyer, John Casselles, but he made the mistake of not speaking loudly enough to be heard distinctly in all parts of the house. Mr Or-

lando Daly made a very favourable impression as Cecil Mars den, the faithful lover of Dora, and Mr Charles Blake appeared .to considerable advantage in the role of Charles Worth, the detective: Mr ' Johnson Weir acted the part of the villain of the piece, Dau.l Fronde, in a capable manner, arid Mr H. Meynlott caused much aniuserrierit in the Character of Murphy, the attendant. Songs were sung during the evening by Miss Mostyn and Missßaynham, and Mr Meymott sang the well-known football song “ Crotn-a-800 ’’ with great success, receiving a unanimous encore. The piece was well staged, the sawmill scene creating considerable excitement.

Dion Boucieault’s ever-popular “ Colleen Bawn ” was performed at the Opera House on Saturday night by the Mostyn-Dalzeil Company. The piece went well, the principal situations arousing- the enthusiasm of the audience, especially the cave scene. The character of Eily O’Connor was well sustained by Miss Mostyn, and Miss Raynliam was successful as Ann Chute. Danny Mann (Mr H. Meymott), Myles na Coppaleen (Mr Dalzeil), Hardress Cregan (Mr Johnson Weir) were well played. To-night the company closes its season, when Robertson’s comedy “ Caste ” will be performed for the benefit of Miss Mostyn. The piece has been well cast, and there should be a good house. Miss Mostyn will play Polly, and Mr Dalzeil Eccles.