PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1507, 17 January 1901, Page 22

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

WrES BY 46 LORGNETTE.”

*■ '* Tlie actors are come hither, my lord, Buz, BuzU —Hamlet.

No alteration in Sydney Nmas shows. It is reported that the many open-air festiviti.es and the terrific heat have •tended to keep down, the expected rush to the theatres, but now the Commonwealth functions axe over theatrical managers ought to be smiling once more. Williamson’s panto is voted a dull affair, as a literary production, not fuinny enough. Quealy’s dancing is well liked, and Percy has scored. Maud Beatty’s fine stage appearance is much admired, but the critics all condemn her faulty enunciation. This was always a. bad fault with the Pollards.

Madame Edmunda (Dante's widow) is conjuring before good audiences at Brisbane Opera House. * ■ * * * -* *

Bland Holt’s latest production at Melbourne Royal, “With Flying Colours,” 'is a naval melodrama, in which, by the way„ Julius Knight-made his appearance in London. Mr Williamson’s ex-dramatic star has had bad luck since He went to London. He has been “resting” for some time now, andi talks of returning to Australia. ffi

Miss Ada Crossley gets £4O per performance nowadays. She is engaged for every night almost right up to the end of 1903.

Orlando Daly, once with Williamson’s Dramatic Company, and! recently play, ing seconds to Walter Bentley, has received a commission (he writes to his wif© in Sydney) as a senior lieutenant on the bodiy guard of Lord Kitchener. He once held a commission irp the Queensland Defence Force under General Owen. ■» * •» '■» *

, The Musgrove Grand Opera Company h -very busy rehearsing “Tannhauser” and “Maritana” at the Sydney Royal. * * * «■' * G* G. Tltheradge recently played “Macaire” (Robert Louis Stevenson’s . version of the old play) for the Stage Society on a Sunday night and Monday afternoon. It was a semi-private affair, as the audienpe was restricted to members of the club, but h© got eight calls, and there was a, great, demonstration. Next morning there was a letter in “The Morning Post” asking why the public were not permitted! to enjoy such magnificent acting as Mr Titheradge’s, and exhorting the Stage society to repeat the performance in public, “one of the finest and most artistic ever given in London.” . . •, -■

William Anderson (Charles Holloway’s 00-partner), who has taken a lengthy lease of Sydney Lyceum, intends, it is said, to make it his headquarters. He is organising a company for Tasmania and New Zealand. Sheridan, on the conclusion of his Lyceum season, will also tour New Zealand and Westralia

Minnie Brandon, leading lady briefly on t-our with the Walter Bentley Dramatic Co., is about to marry, it is said, a wealthy French gentleman. They tour America and Europe for the honeymoon, and then settle down in Paris, where Miss Brandon intends to study singing. •* * * S* -*

W. F. Hawtrey, who is doing well with his London comedy company at Sydney Palace, is son to the Rev. John W. Hawtrey, of Aldine House, Slough (Eng.), and went on the stage early in ’Bl. Six or seven months later his brother, Charles, also joined the profession.’ Although “A Message from Mars” bears the name only of Richard Ganthony—an American author —it has been remodelled by Author George Hawtrey.

Joseph Napoleon Rayner, who died in a Sydney benevolent asylum the other ■day_, was one of the last of that city’s early stock actors. He had played lead or seconds to every star, man or woman, who arrived in the old days. Had supported G. V. Brooke, Walter Montgom_

erv, Ohas. Kean, Chas. Dillon. Lord and Lady Don, Mr and Mrs Stark, and many others. He soon followed Charles Burford and Lachlan McGowan to the grave, and now only James Hasker is left lamenting, a pathetic figure, among memories of what has been.

Musgrove’s panto, “Cinderella,” at Melbourne Princess is said to be the most gorgeous affair of its kind! ever seen in 'Australia, but the comic business is “slow,” and is to ho freshened up. The two sensations of the show are the dancing of the Dartos, a Viennese couple who get a cool £l2O a week and zne superb costumes worn by Nellie Stewart. These latter deserve a par to themselves. *****

Miss Nellie Stewart, as Prince Charming. in the pantomime of “Cinderella,” wears, saysr Melbourne “Punch,” five different costumes notable alike for their originality and distinctive beauty, and in all of these her predeliction for turquoise jewellery is manifest, tlie only exception being, her first dress, which is black, decorated with glittering lions rampant in diamonds and rubies; one large design is in front, another on the leg and one in front of the crown, which is of the same stones. A long white mantle, with a lion embroidered in red, is worn. Thq shapely form, not- a curve of which Ls hidden, is prettily accentuated with a double -girdle of the same glittering stones. The third dress has a black silk scarf fastened^ on each hip with a diamond buckle, and is all white, diamond buttons glittering on the coat and on. the chiffon vest-, and also on tne Rubens hat of white felt, with a. long white plume. Turquoises appear on ail her other costumes. The second dress is in autumn brown. The jaunty coat turned 1 back with white has a- wide girdle and dagger of turquoise, and the small white hunting cap an aigrette ornament of turquoise. The dress worn in the ballroom scene, with' the beautiful black satin cloak, gorgeously embroidered with Indian pheasants, has a girdle of these stones in medallion design. A chain pin crosses the silver vest, and the dainty black satin coat has large turquoise buttons at the back. Only one hand is gloved; on the other every finger bears a ring of quaint design, most of them in a brilliant setting of diamonds. Quit© a feautre of this costume is the black satin hat, cleft in front, and embellished with rich silver embroidery and silky black plumes. The scintillating carbon coat of mail worn in the last act is over pale pink tightsthe gauntlets of the white gloves and' the Tr o vat ore heimet are decorated with fleurs de lys in turquoise. „

Mr Frank Law-ton’s latest solo at the London. Empire is a swinging waltz. It ■was discovered (according to a writer m “M.A.P.”) by Mr Tennant, on whose approbation the novelties of the programme depend!. The orchestra ran through” the waltz at a morning rehearsal, while Mr Law-ton listened —for, oddly enough, he can’t read a note of music —till he knew the air by heart. But at night, just before his turn, he had no recollection at all of the waltz. He' tried to hum it, and failed. However, the cue came; the orchestra started, and the tune of the waltz came back, bar by bar, as he faced the audience.

Miss Maggie Moore, who has been in the United States for some few months; past, returned to .Sydney ‘by the R.M.S. Mariposa the other day. Mr H. R. Roberts, who was Miss Moore’s leading man. lias, according to the American press, done some very fine work in the great Republic. #

Dan Leno who, Mr Charles Holloway states, was ’ the finest “pick-me-up” he had in England, is a much-quoted man. He was recently interviewed in London on a borough council . election, and spoke as follows: —“There’s been an election, I know,” said Daniel, “because I’ve had any amount of election addresses sent to me. One party called themselves. ‘your old and tried! representatives.’ They didn’t say Whether they’d been - tried at the sessions or the assizes.. But they toldi me everything liadi gone on all right ior years, and they’d see that it went on in the future as it had done in the past. So I made up my mind to vote for them. Then I got the "other party’s address, and they told me that things had been going wrong for generations, and they were the only people who knew how to alter them, and so I made up mjr mindJ to vote for them. Then I discovered that I hadn’t a vote, as I had only recently moved. But, you know, I have some serious opinions on the question of local government. I never saw a muddier district than this in all my life. Why is it? Because it rains. Well, when a candidate for the council can guarantee that it won’t rain when I want to go out, and discovers a method of making mud clear itself away immediately, I’ll vote for him if I have to hire a special train to get to the polling booth.” As to being a borough councillor himself, Dan Leno said: “I’m too kind-hearted for a borough councillor. I should) want to make the rates nothing in the pound, or less, and then give the ratepayers their money back if they didn’t like the performance.” The little man also considers that he is personally ill-adapted for a mayor. “X always think it wants a man with whiskers to fill a position of authority, whiskers go a long

way to give a man importance. Besides, I couldn’t do justice to the decorations. Herbert Campbell would make an ideal mayor. Herbert has a chest for a mayoral chain —I haven’t.”'

As an instance of the demands made on the time of a popular singer we may cite the following (says the “British Australasian” of November 15); —The week before last Miss Ada Crossley, the Australian contralto, had two vacant dates, and returned from the North of England for a brief rest on the Wednesday and Thursday. For these two days Miss Clara Butt had arranged concerts at Derby and Nottingham, but being tc-o ill to appear asked Miss Crossley to appear in her place, which she- did at a mo. ment’s notice, being hardly “but of one train when she was in another. On Friday morning the Australian girl returned from Nottingham to sing the same afternoon with Mine. Albans at St. James’s Hall. On the next afternoon (Saturday) she sang at the Queen’s Hall Ballad Concert which begap at 3 ana by 4- o’clock was in the train for Manchester, where she appeared with Lady Haile, Mine. Brema. and other stars that evening, the actual time of her entrance to the platform at Manchester—nearly 200 miles distant from the scene- of her first concert’ —being half-past eight, In- order to do this Miss Crossley had to change her afternoon concert- dross in a reserved compartment of the train, so as to he ready in evening toilette on arrvial at Manchester. At the close of the concert there she drove to her hotel, changed into a travelling frock, boarded the midnight train, arrived at Euston at 6 in the morning, and was busy in London rehearsing by 10 o’clock on Sunday. Five concerts in four days, and) close on 900 miles of railway, travelling.

The manager for Mme. Anna Held, whose comedy company is now touring the States, telegraphed the other day from Indianapolis offering Mr Bryan £4OOO a year to join her company. The offer is purely an advertising “fake,” for, apart from all other considerations, Mr Bryan, by his practice as a lawyer and by his lectures, is making an income of some £12,000 per Some six years ago, however, when he was almost an unknown man, and rather a. poor one, Mr Bryan came very near to signing such a contract with Anna, and! it is on the basis of these old negotiations that she approaches him now, 'believing, her man., ager says, that he “may need some consolation in his defeat after his brave fight for the Presidency.

One of Sir Henry Irving’s most notable characteristics (says “To-day”) is an extreme reticence in showing admiration for anything unconnected with the stage—and himself. So much so is this that his friends and intimates frequently go out of their way to ask his opinion on th© exploits and! achievements of any celebrity who happens to be th© lion of the hour, just to hear his laconic inappreciation. The controversy which has just arisen in- Continental scientific circles as to whether Dr Nansen did or did not perform the remarkable achievements with .which he "is credited by the world at large, reminds me of a story in connection with Irving at the time when Nansen was the most talked of man in London, just after his return.. -It was during a performance at- the Lyceum, and Nansen was the occupant of : one of the boxes—the cynosure of all eyes. Miss Ellen Terry, who had noted the presence of the famous explorer, came up to Irving between the acts, and said, in her impulsive manner, “Do come and look.: Nansen is here. In that® box.”

“Where?” he asked, apathetically. “There!” she said. “Can’t you see him? Isn’t he a wonderful manr After mature deliberation, Irving said, grudgingly. “H’m. lHe can stand the cold.”

At the new Royal, business has continued most satisfactory. The new edition of the pantomime includes some capital songs and dances, and the company all work hard to make the show go brightly.

Mr Dix’s gaiety companies at Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin continue to do good business.

At Dunedin Princess the Stanford Dramatic Company have been playing to good houses. This company will commence a Christchurch season next week, and will be in Wellington after the Nance O’Neill season.

McAdoo’s Jubilee Singers are touring the Southland district, on their way to Dunedin.

Wirth Bros.’ Circus started operations at Christchurch last Saturday, when the big tent, one of the largest ever seen in this colon}’, was simply packed to overflowing. Besides the usual circus attractions, the shew includes a bucking elephant, a riding bear, a troupe of performing bears, and a pair of boxing ponies. The opening date in Wellington will be announced shortly.

The Nance O’Neil season in Auckland appears to have been responsible for some quite remarkable scenes outside the Opera House. A correspondent in the Northern city writes . as follows: There is a carious sight to- be witnessed in Wel-

iesley street, Auckland, outside the Opera House every evening, between six and half-past seven. As you know, there is Nance O’Neil playing there. What 3 T ou probably do not know is that well-dressed women go there .-and stand in crowds for over an hour and battle for position with all the fierce determination of football be,trackers at a big match. It is a source of endless amusement to watch this well-dressed push crowding the roadway. The patience of woman is remarkable, and as she is usually of frugal mind, when paying for herself, she regards waiting for an hour and a half in the street as a less evil than paying an extra sixpence at the early door. Most- of the crowd are well dressed, and all are gorgeous as to hats. They do not, like other crowds when waiting, indulge in violent shoving and strong language but they get there all the same, by milder and quite as effective methods. They are sinuous, like the “serpent of old Nile,” and use an elbow or a trip as the thin edge of the wedge. Gently does it—and, before the novice quite realises how- it happened, she finds in front of her a polonaise skirt, bodice and hat that were not there an instant before. The only consolation to such novices as get left is in words that wound and sneers that sting. References are made to* the way “some people” must have been “brought up”— or. dragged up. “Do you see that woman just in front ?” This in a, perfectly audible voice to a friend. “I wonder where she got such an outlandish and unbecoming hat P It doesn’t suit her a. bit.” “Did you ever see such a- dress, Minnie? It’s easy to see that it was made at home.” To which Minnie -will reply sweetly, “Or in the Ark.” But neither satire, sniff, nor sneer avails to shift the woman who has secured a good position. Only the opening of the aoors will do that-. Then there is a swaying of skirts and a general forward movement. It is now that the repose which marks the caste of Vere> De Vere breaks down, and in the skirmish from the ticket box site pushes with force, and uses her tongue as well as her elbows in being in the first flight. Sometimes, but not very often,„ one of the eager rushers goes down, but the press of skirts around her enables her to make a recovery before she is trampled on; besides which there are always a couple of sturdy attendants to lend a helping hand, so that the worst that happens is a torn flounce or a ruffled hat. But the crowding, the sneering remarks and the torn dress are soon forgotten as she scrambles into a good seat, gives a sigh of relief, wriggles her right and left hand neighbours a little further apart, and settles down comfortably to admire the acting and the dresses of Nance O’Neil in one of her favourite characters.

The popularity in England of the amusing comedy, “What Happened to Jones,” is proved by the fact that the piece has now been played for over two years in the provinces, and still draws well. The following paragraph, clipped from London “Stage,” may interest Mr Arnold. « 9 Mr Charles Collette, who has been for nearly two years starring in “What Happened to Jones,” is drawing large houses at Cardiff, where he is an old favourite. To keep in touch with his JWelsh friends this is how he announces his production in the jFrffieipality : —“i)s T’dych am Wyboci “Beth Ddygwddoda I* Jones” gofynwch I Charlie Collettee yrr y Chwareudy Brenhiol, Caerdydd, Llum Tachwedd 2t>ain, ae yn Ystod yr Yythnos! Peid_ iwteh Anghofio!!” “# # ©

At the close of a recent performance in the Edinburgh Lyceum, Mr Wilson Barrett made a speech in response t® loud calls. There had been, he said, re. rival lately of those spasmodic attacks upon the stage by people who aserted that no good could ever come out of the drama —that the theatre wa!s altogether ja place to be condemned; that its very existence' depended upon its panderings to the basest passions of the mind. All this unworthy twaddle, stupid as it was, had a certain amount of .influence on those.who did not think for themselves. Led by the nose by well-meaning hut mistaken men, or men who were bigoted, or perhaps seekers .after advertisement, they were taught to look on the drama as a snare of the devil’s to lead them to destruction. One did not condemn the Church for a few bad and uncharitable sermons or mistaken dogmas, nor literature as a /whole because some vile books were printed and published. There were sermons and sermons, books and books, plays and plays. He did not claim or desire that, the theatre she aid he a church, that the stage should be a pulpit. the drama a sermon ; but he claimed that it could be all those things, and therefore from the point of view of those who attacked it, it could be a great power for good. ®-» & * *

There is likely to be considerable die. cussion (says a London exchange) concerning “Mr and Mrs Daventry,” the play by Mr Frank Harris which was produced at the Royalty Theatre. It is claimed by Mr Kyrle Bel lew that he had contracted with Mr Oscar Wilde to write the piece; that Mr Harris made him — Mr Bellew—an offer to purchase the work, with an that he (Mr Harris) would write a play himself on the same plot, which had, it is stated, been

This, writes Mr Bellew, was clone, and “Mr and Mrs Daventry” is the result. We, of icourse. adds the paper, refrain from ,expressing any opinion upon the case, which is certain to give rise to lively argument.

A writeUin.f'Pearson's Weekly” gives gome account of the American roGf gardens. Says he:—“Perhaps the highest of these roof gardens ,is the one on top of the Masonic Temple Building in Chi. cago, it being 354 f fc above the level of the Street. This is just a matter of 4ft higher than the cross of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which stands 350 ft above the street. The building is twenty storeys high, tand is chiefly given ,up to offices. Few other American cities... can hoast of roof gardens quite so high. In New York, where .they range from 150 ft to 250 ft in height, ‘they are chiefly built upon the roofs of regular theatresand in the other large (cities, with few exceptions, it is very much the same. In Washington, the American seat of Government, fhe Summer yfoof garde/n is huilt on top of the' Power House, the chief power station of the local cable tram company. The roof of this building is something over 200 ft ,above_the street level. New York is blessed with no fewer tha.n seven of these high open-air theatres.’! -* m * W 9 @ Madame Fillis, who is travelling with Fillis’s Circus in South Africa, recently met with a serious accident at Blackpool, Natal. Her horse fell in the ring and threw ,her, seriously' hurting her spine. ft- «■ « a A “Hungry Hamlet,” who had been compulsorily for a rather longer period than ,suited' his pocket/’ bethought himself the other day of applying to his last manager for a letter of recommendation to ,a well-known lessee. In reply, he received the following letter, with instructions to present it when calling at the theatre :—“Dear Jones, — This will introduce to you Mr Barnstormer. late of my company. He is a thoroughly .capable 'all-round' actor. He plays Sir Peter Teazle, Hamlet, and billiards—billiards best. Yours ’ faithfully, J, Miacrecfy Tomkins.” * * * *• *

Amid the biograplis at the Melbourne Athenaeum, says the “Critic,”, none of the war pictures are so awful as that glimpse of the heart of the crowd at the last Epsom Derby. What depraved facefe, the tallow-faced, blink-eyed men in caps, and the boys are nearly as bad. A fearful contrast to. the glorioles population Melbourne has been turning out for its Christmas holidays. One can only guess at the problems before _the English statesmen to avert revolution. *'«•*-* Messrs Owen Hall and Leslie Stuart’s successful musical' comedy “Floradora” ..is being produced in New York, with Mr Willie Edouin in his original part of Professor Tweedlepunch. * * * ■& *• At London Empire a new and wonderful illusion is being shown entitled “A Phantom Drill. ’ The novelty involves the appearance on tne stage of a spectral army, that suddenly emerges, whence or by what means the spectator is at a loss to conceive, from the darkness j and after performing a number of military evolutions vanishes as mysteriously as it came. The enter"tainihent, It seems, has already excited great curiosity in America. * . # * * Mr' Sydney Grundy’s new play, “A . Debt of Honour,” about which, there is so great a controversy concerning its originality, has two actors known in Australia in the cast, Mr W. H. Vernon, the stolidly pretentious Sir Jacob; and Mr H. H. Vincent, a comic Nonconformist clergyman, who is almost as great a paricature as the little curate in “The Private Secretary.” * * . •<# ® o At London Savoy “Patience” has been revived, bringing with it, says an enthusiatsic critic, the fragrant sweetness of a half-forgotten memory. Each phrase ■of melody as it came quickened anticipation for the phrase that was to come. We hung on every note. Song after song was rapturously encored, and there was only one regretful thought that Sir * Arthur Sullivan was not present to enjoy our enjoyment of '“Patience,” the cheers for “The Heavy Dragoon,” for “The Magnet and the Churn,” for “Hey, Willow, Waly,” for number after number which seemed as fresh and merry and full of melody as when “Patience” was first produced in 1881 at the Opera Comique. Sir Arthur has never written more tuneful music. Even “The Mikado,” though fuller and riper, even “The Yeoman of the Guard,” stately and resonant, have not more sweetness. “Love that no wrong can cure,” “Silvered is the Raven Hair,” will soon be all over the town again. Though the savor and' the sting of the satire of Mr Gilbert’s lines have disappeared, because the cult- of affectation and aestheticism has been dead for many a year—to the generation which is knocking at the door it belongs to the things unknown—the intrinsic wile and humour of the lines, ■the cold, mechanical, but infinitely clever ; turn of speech and play of word, kept the audience laughing all the while. The lorn, limp damsels, drooping and bending, the velvety heroes, lankhaired and invertebrate —the posings and the posturings, the quaint attitudinising,

and the graceful, high-waisted figures prone on the ground listening to the versicles of their divinity—they are memories of a bygone time pleasant to recall by those who remember. * •» # 9 William Pauli is described by some American papers as the particular success of the English grand opera season at the New York Metropolitan Opera House. ‘ His fine voice, always fresh and to be depended on, his adaptability and his. general usefulness are alike highly extolled. «• -* • * • Sir Arthur Sullivan hacl the Irish gift of wit, and when Mrs Weldon, in one of her books, said 1 that the Duke of Edinburgh had been “caught by his chaff,” she was not so far of the mark. Nor did he a bit mind turning the chaff against himself. When five years ago his “Light of the World’" was revived at the Cardiff Musival Festival, a, deputation which waited upon him at his hotel to assure him that the Welsh choir were delighted with the work, were astonished at his reply, “Oh! you like dull music.” And the composer laughingly added that he had 1 not heard or seen it for twenty years, but on trying to read it coming down in the train, he had fallen asleep over it. He after the rehearsal, however, confessed that, as performed by the Welsh choir, the oratorio, though old fashioned, revealed fresh beauties.

One of Sir Arthur’s stories was about Lord Tennyson, who came to dine at Victoria. street. Kate, the maid, was duly warned, and she said nothing till the great man liad left, when she burst in with: “Well, Mr Arthur; he do wear clothes.” Sullivan remarked : “All poets do. You forget he is Poet Laureate.” “Lor,” replied the house maid, “what a queer uniform!” * # si *

Sullivan had a good story about Sir F. Gore-Ouseley, Oxford professor, who could talk of nothing but music. “Sim” Egerton (Lord Wilton) invited him to dine at the Life- Guards’ mess, and Ouseley sought to entertain them with the humorous points in the degree “exercise” of an unsuccessful candidate. The officers, of course, did not understand a word. Ouseley continued: “And you'll scarcely believe me, colonel, when I tell you that the whole movement was in the hypomyxolydia.il modfe. 7 ’ “God bless my soul!” replied the colonel; “you don’t say so!” “It is - a fact,” gravely said Ouseley.

For many years Sir • Arthur Sullivan was rarely seen in an opera house or a concert room, unless called there to conduct. Of ultra-modern music, therefore, he knew comparatively little, and this, perhaps, may have helped to keep his inspiration fresh,'for a composer’s memory is proverbially treacherous. On this head, Sullivan himself told an amusing story. His best melodies, he frequently came while he was trying to get to sleep. One so persistently haunt--»d him that he got up and wrote it down. Nex day he played it over to a friend, who admitted he thought it one of the most beautiful melodies ever com. posed, and always had thought so. It was the “Power of Love*” from “Satanella.” And Sullivan had certainly not heard it for something like, oO years. * & X Si *

“Pinafore,” which was composed, as Sir Arthur has himself related, in the midst of intense physical suffering, raged like a fever through the United States, until a leading set in New nToi'k decided to impose a fine every time its words were quoted in conversation. One remembers the “What! Never!” nuis_ ance in England. Frederic Clay was one Sunday in church with, some friends in New York, when the preacher closed his .sermon with the impressive words, “For He Himself hath said: it.” Clay could! not resist the temptation. Pulling out half a dollar, he whispered to his friend. “And it’s greatly to his credit.”

Sir Arthur strongly expressed distaste for the employment- of foreign musicians where British, were available is wellknown, and he carried his ideas into practice. He happened to hear that a German was to be appointed bandmaster of a crack regiment, whereupon, without invitation, he went direct to a very exalted personage and protested so vehemently that Royal -influence was brought to bear, and an Englishman got the berth instead. Shortly afterwards Sir Arthur happened to look over one of the programmes of the bandmaster, and to his great dismay found it almost exclusively formed of foreign music.