NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1354, 10 February 1898, Page 18

NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

After a good run of nine nights to tremendous business “ The Sign of the Cross ” was' Succeeded on Monday by “ The Prisoner of Zenda," which proved to be an exceedingly fine play of a highly romantic* character.' Why, however, the play should have been burdened with a prologue, which dealt with a very distasteful subject in a needlessly brutal way, and which instead of making what was to follow clear*to the audience, only befogged and perplexed most people, is a mystery X cannot explain. The play proper goes with a good swing and introduces a number of very fine “ acting " characters. The mounting was excellent, the coronation scene being most striking, and the acting was in every way much more than adequate. The honours fall to Misses Ada Ferrar I wish she wouldn’t “ gasp ” so and Elliott Page (the latter’s Antoinette was an excellent bit of work), and Messrs Julius Knight, Gaston Mervale, Hawtrey and Carvill. Mr Knight was a manly, handsome Rudolph, and his rival “Black Michael" was extremely well done by Mr Mervale. Mr Hawti'ey’s Sapt was amusing. Mr? Knight should keep his bogus German accent more level. In his short scene, at Tarlenheim, with Bertrand, he occasionally gives a French rather than a German smack to his speech. s The play went smoothly throughout, and nearly everyone I have spoken to seems to prefer it to the “ Cross." There was a packed house on Monday night, and the big situations drew some very hearty applause. But the waits between the acts were too long.

It may interest some of my readers to know what Mr Archer,, the London critic, has to say concerning this play. He says ; _lt strikes me, by the way, that the whole gang of villains,'whether in book or play,' are not "as “bloody, bold and resolute ” as they might be. The dungeon business is a dangerous half measure. It would have been much safer for Duke Michael, the moment he heard of substitution, to have put a bullet through the King’s head, left his body to be found in the forest, and then accused Sapt and Fritz Von Tarlenheim of having assassinated the King in order to place this impostor, their tool, upon the throne. No doubt this course would have had its risks, but it would have put Rassendyll, "" Sapt and Fritz in an uncommonly awkward predicament. But that of course would have been another story.

“The Royal Divorce," the Napoleonic play will be the third and concluding production of the season.

Mr “Tommy" Hudson'and his. Surprise Party have been doing excellent business at Auckland. Mr Hudson will pay us a return visit before he returns to Australia.

Madame, Emily Spada (Mrs Philip Newbury), who, is well known in New Zealand, has been dangerously ill at Adelaide, but has now recovered. Her husband is back again in Sydney, singing with* great success at the Tivoli.

.•■ . • • Miss Florrie Forde, an Australian burlesque singer who went Home last year, is doing remarkably well, having engagements booked right up to the end of this year. ’ She says the Perman trio, well known in this colony, are doing well with one of George Edwardes’ touring companies.

Miss Ada Golley, who was here with the Montague-Turner Opera Company, has also got on very well since she went

to London. She has recently played “ principal boy " in the Leicester pantomime, and has excellent engagements for the future.

Signor Tamagno, the great tenor singer, must, it seems, be added to the list of musical artists by whom money quickly made is also quickly spent. He recently, we are told,-purchased an hotel in Rome for £BO,OOO, expecting to be able to sell the same at a profit, and he also gave £86,000 for some land that, when re-sold, realised only £BOOO, losing on these two transactions no less than £60,000.

Mr Willard, the English actor, who has been for some time touring with greatsuccess in America, has dramatised “ Martin Chuzzlewit," his adaptation being produced at Brooklyn and going well. It is so written that Tom Pinch and Pecksniff are the leading characters, the tragic scenes, including the murder of Tigg by Jonas Chuzzlewit, being left out altogether.

Jules Simonson, a favourite Australian tenor, has gone to California, where he has secured what is said to be a very good engagement.

\ • • • • ' Miss Emily Hughes, formerly with George Rignold, will be a member of the “Two Little Vagabonds" Company which visits us shortly. Mr Sweeney will be the villain, and Misses Florence Terry and Lily Titheradge will play the two little waifs. ,

Mr Frank Thornton’s company is closing its Sydney season with revivals of “ Sweet Lavender," “ The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown," and “The Private Secretary." After a short season in Melbourne Mr Thornton returns to England, at least so the Australasian says. The projected New Zealand tour must, therefore, be off.

The Wilson Barrett season continues at Melbourne Princess, “ The Manxman " giving place to “ Ben-My-Chree,” which is an adaptation of Hall Caine’s fine story, “ The Deemster."

London critics have been much tickled at the manner in which an enterprising litterateur modernised and altered “ The Grand Duchess," which was recently revived at the Savoy. Those two popular ditties, “Oh 1 I Dote on the Military," and “ Lo! Here the Sabre of My Sire," became respectively “ Soldiers 1 I’m Simply Mad About ’Em," and “ Here is My Blessed Father’s Sword." That literary man is an out-of-the-common man as regards brains.

Memories of the past are revived by the appearance of Mr G. B. W. Lewis as ringmaster at Harmston’s Circus, Melbourne, the other night (for poor old circus-man Burton’s benefit), “ Spangler " in the Bulletin points out that Lewis had been absent from the sawdust for 40 years. He was instrumental in building the old Melbourne Princess’s, as Astley’s Amphitheatre, when he brought a company from London, with Tom Barry as clown. Worth at one time <£30,000, he has been boomed. Lewis performed as an acrobat, in the Risley business, with Lilliputian Tom, at Rowe’s circus, Melbourne, 1854. Tom Lewis, after familiar as a pantomime clown, has been long dead. G.B.W.L. became the most influential theatrical manager of Calcutta and Bombay, later of the Melbourne Bijou, associated with his smart wife, the Miss Rose Edouin of the profession."

Madame Albani, the famous Canadian soprano, makes her first appearance at Melbourne on the 28th of this month. Her company includes Miss Sarah Berry, an English contralto who has sung with success at oratoria festivals in London and the provinces; Orlando Harley, the tenor who visited Australia with Signor Foli; Mr William Pauli, a promising young baritone (late of the Carl Rosa Opera Company); Signor Seppillo, orchestral conductor and pianist; and Miss Nora Clench, solo violinist. Madame Albani, it is said, shines most in oratorio nowadays.

The Inman Dramatic Company pay Wanganui a return visit next week, when they will stage the farcical comedy “ Confusion" and the Irish drama “Arrah-na Pogue." I hope Mr Inman is doing well. He works hard, and deserves success.

Mrs Brown-Potter and Mr Bellew appears to have made a genuine hit in “Charlotte Corday" at the Grand Theatre, Islington. Sir Henry Irving sent his acting manager, Mr Loveday, to witness the. production, and the leading papers, which were so severe on Mrs BrownPotter and Mr Bellew in “ Francillon ” now warmly praise their second effort. The Daily Telegraph says:—Those who remember him (Mr Bellew) only in his earlier days, when sufficiency and selfconsciousness threatened to bring him down to the level of a merely “ pretty ” actor, will find his Marat a surprisingly effective piece of work. ... A sorry beast, with a racking cough and the dread of assassination ever present, Marat stands out as a clever and artistic embodiment, distinguished by the most delicate and dainty touches of the actor’s art." The same critic writes that Mrs Potter’s “ suffering face and intensity of manner wore down every difficulty early in the play, She neither over-acted nor under-

acted. . . . . We do not know any actress who could have done more with the sad heroine than Mrs Brown-Potter did. The London Sunday Times' verdict on the acting is that “ the performances of the two leading parts are impressive in the extreme. Mr Bellew’s Marat was to me a wholly unexpected revelation —I had not expected in Mr Bellew a character actor of this power and intensity . . . the rendering was as inventive and as finished as a piece of character acting by Mr Beerbohm Tree. . . . Mrs BrownPotter’s impersonation of Charlotte Corday, as has been indicated above, was a highly effective one, extremely beautiful in presentment, and instinct with intense and vivid feeling. The peculiarities of manner and diction which Mrs Potter occasionally permits herself seemed to be absorbed into the presentment, and to become a part merely of the high-flown artificiality of manner of the Revolution period The impersonation was an effective one at the outset, and increase in intenseness and impressive qualities as the play progressed."

Mrs Potter and Mr Bellew will now take a completa English company to Dresden (January 15), Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg—an undertaking previously attempted only by Mr Charles Wyndham and Mr Beerbohm Tree, whose tours, however, were limited to one or two German cities. On their return from abroad the stars will probably stage “ Charlotte Corday ” at the Garrick Theatre, London.

The Brough season at Calcutta was so successful, so Mr Allan Hamilton writes me, that it was prolonged, so good was the business done. This week the.company arc due at Rangoon (British Burmah), Singapore (one week), Hong Kong (three weeks), and Shanghai (four weeks), being afterwards the route. It is said the company will disband about the end of May.

Pinero, whose work has not been so successful lately, has written a new comedy, “Trelawney of the Wells," which is now in rehearsal iu London.

Mr Beerbohm Tree has been powerfully moving London audiences by his acting in “A Man’s Shadow," an adaptation of Robert Buchanan’s “ Roger la Honte." It is a play hanging upon one painful scene. A man afflicted, like Lesurques in “Le Courrier de Lyon," with a criminal double, is put on his trial for his life, and sees evidence of apparent guilt multiply against him. His infant daughter appears as evidence. She has witnessed the commission of the crime and honestly believes him the criminal. His agonised appeals to her to tell the truth only wring from her the piteous declaration that she knows nothing.

Miss Fanny Wentworth, a clever English monologue entertainer, who came out under engagement to Rickards, and who has been a great success in Australia, is about to run a show on her own through New Zealand shortly.

The Stage of December 16 reports the death of Mr William Blakeley, who for several years was a prominent comedian at the Criterion Theatre. The Stage says :—One recalls his successes in “ Pink Dominoes,” “ Brighton," “ Truth,” and “Betsy,” his funny Judge in “Hot Water,” his lawyer in the revival of “ Two Roses," his general in “ The Headless Man," his ludicrous Potter in “ Still Water Run Deep,” and many other impersonations, of which Cranberry Buck in “ Welcome Little Stranger," Mark Meddle in “ London Assurance,” and Crabtree in ‘ The School for Scandal ” ought to be mentioned. Two or three years ago, when he was out of the bill at the Criterion, he was specially engaged by Mr George Edwardes for Smoggins in “An Artist’s Model," and after this he was retained by Mr Arthur Bourchier for a part exactly adapted to his style in “ The Chili Widow,” at the Royalty. He accompanied Mr and Mrs Bourchier to America, but on his return to England re-appeared at the Criterion in “ Four Little Girls.” Mr Blakely had a host of friends, and his death will be deeply deplored.

On Boxing Day Messrs Barnum and Bailey, the American circus people, reopened London Olympia with one of the biggest equestrian spectacles ever on view in the City of the Big Smoke.

John Hare is back again in London, from his long American tour, and was to open the Globe Theatre on January Bth with a new piece, “ A Bachelor’s Romance."

Arthur Roberts, who makes so much money on the stage, is putting his savings into beer. I don’t mean to say he is spending his money in buying beer for his own consumption. He recently appeared before the Teignmouth Magistrate as an applicant for the transfer to himself of the license of the Teign brewery and Teign Arms publichouse.

The next English mail ought to bring us details of Sir Henry Irving’s production of his son’s new play, “Peter the Great," the first performance of which was to be given at the Lyceum on Saturday, January Ist. The play, which is the work of Mr Lawrence B. Irving, is in five acts. Irving himself plays the great Czar Peter, Miss Ellen Terry being the Empress Catherine. A leading part is that of Alexis, which is played by Mr

Robert Taber, an American actor of high reputation. He was for a long time leading man in Miss Julia Marlowe’s company. He then married his manageress, with whom he afterwards “ starred" in all the principal male characters, such as Romeo, Orlando, Charles Surface, &c, Mr Taber is a son of a United States Senator from Colorado, and is the owner of the Taber Opera House in Denver.

Shakespearian matinees are the rule at London St. James, where Mr Alexander was to put up “ Much Ado About Nothing/' early in January. The manager himself plays Benedick, Mr H. B. Irving Don John, Mr Fred Terry Don Pedro, and Mr W. H. Vernon (here with Genevieve Ward) Leonato. An old colonial favourite, Mr H. H. Vincent, was to be the Dogberry. Miss Julia Neilson was billed for Beatrice.

Mr F. De Jong, lessee of the Opera House, Capetown, has been interviewed by the Stage on the subject of prospects theatrical in South Africa. He informed the Stage that new theatres have recently been erected at Kimberley and Petermaritzburg, and a new one, on most gorgeous lines, is being erected at Johannesburg. As to the cost of living in South Africa, Mr De Jong said he wished to correct some absurd ideas which were prevalent as to the cost of living there f or actors and actresses. In any town outside the Transvaal, the average cost would not, he said, be over £2 per week. In the Transvaal, that is Johannesburg and Pretoria, excellent accommodation can be obtained for £3 10s. a week, and as low as £2 ss. Mr De Jong pays £ISOO a year rent for the Capetown Opera House. He pays good salaries, always giving his companies 20 per cent, extra on the salary list wh6n they play in the Transvaal.

Ex-Londoners will be interested to hear that more new theatres have been opened in the London suburbs. The Stage of December 23rd gives details of two new theatres, one (The Broadway) within a few minutes of New Cross and Deptford stations, *pn the South-eastern line, the other the New Alexandra at Stoke, Newington. Each is most luxuriously fitted with electric light and every possible convenience of a first-class "West End house, asbestos and iron fire-proof curtains to shut off the stage in case of fire, and each holds between 8000 and 3500 people.

To commemorate the farewell season of Bland Holt in Wellington, commencing on b he 17th instant, an excellent souvenir programme (which we have seen) will be published. It is in six colours, ohiefly gold, and on tbe back are coloured sketches of the chief scenes of his principal plays, together with portraits of Mr and Mrs Holt.

The Bland Holt Dramatic Company left Auckland on Tuesday night by the Mararoa for Napier. They follow the “ Sign of the Cross ” Company at the Opera House here, when, amongst other attractions, the dramas “ The Cotton King ” and “ (Straight from the Heart "will be presented for the first time in Wellington.