PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1536, 7 August 1901, Page 30

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

** The actors are come hither, my lord. Buz. BuzJ” NOTES BY “LORGNETTE.” The present company at the Theatre Royal is attracting crowded houses nightly. Johnson, Riano and Bentley continue to create great merriment with their extravagant sketch, “The Monkeys and the Farmer.” * * * * * A sister of Miss eGrtie Campion has joined the Pollards. - * * * * * Miss Jeannie Opie opened at the Al“hambra, Dunedin, on Saturday night. • * • * * “Much Ado About Nothing,” by Mr Julian Sturgis and Dr Villi era Stanford, ia the first work which has been performed at the Royal Opera, London, almost exclusively by English vocalists, the only foreigners (reckoning Americans as our kith and kin) being M. Plancon. * * * * * Mr P. G. Melville, a Dunedinite, is a member of Mr Musgrove’s opera company. H e appears under the stage name of J. K. Hill. ***** The engagement is announced of Miss Lilli© Mowbray and Mr C. W. Donnelly. Miss Mowbray is at present “premiere danseuse” in Pollard’s Opera Company, and Mr Donnelly is editing a Brisbane journal. *, * * * * Miss Lily Titheradge, eldest daughter of Air Georg© Titheradge, was married Blackpool, on May 20th, to Mr Edward Herrick Knowles, of Sydney, who is just now studying for his medical degree at Edinburgh University. It is not decided whether they settle in England or Australia. , , ***** Last week some account was given of Miss Flora Ansted, and now I have to announce with regret her death. She died in Melbourne, aged sixty-six. She had been connected With the Australian stage for thirty years. Always a good actress, she had filled many important parts. The deceased lady had been connected with the Bland Holt Company up to the time iof her last illness. # « t # «

There is no truth in the statements so freely bandied about that Bland Holt’s company are going to Europe or that the company will be broken up for a couple of years. Mr Holt has been unwell, but is, happily, quite himself •gain. * • * « « Tfie Adelaide “Critic” says : —Madame Celina Bobe, the xylophonist, leaves for Europe by the Ville de la Ciotat on sth August. This lady’s name all the • sam© appears on the list of Mr Dix’s . engagements for the immediate future. * * ft * *

The Valdares have just completed a paying trip through the “way back o’ bey ant” goldfields districts of West Aus-

tralia.

When Harry Shine has finished his engagements with “The Casino Girl” he »nd his wife (Miss Violet Elliott) will join one of Mr Dix’s Gaiety Companies.

Old J. J. (‘'Jimmy) Walsh, who died in Sydney the other day, belonged to the times of Burford, Rayruor, Coppin, Greville and Co. Of late years he had done little stage work, yet he always managed to keep himself free from want, and, unlike some other relics of the “old days,” was never known to ask for anything more than a “part.” He last appeared in Sydney with Bland Holt in “The Derby Winner.” He was gixty-nine years of age.

* « • # • Mr George Conquest, the well-known actor, who died in London recently, and left a fortune of £71,000, was a keen speculator in real estate. Some years back he bought one or two properties in a then outlying portion of London. These in course of time increased so lagely in value as to make Mr Conquest a rich mam.

After eight weeks in Melbourne the Wilson Barrett Company will play Brisbane and Sydney, then New Zealand for the first time. After Australia there will be a South African tour.

Mr Norman Brown, I notice, rejoined Wilson Barrett once more. * * © • ■»

Percy Walsh, the littl© Englishman who has so much talent for the portrayal of character, has joined the Broughs.

Miss Nellie Stewart last visited New Zealand in 1895.

m * _* ,* • Mr James H. Love will act as advance agent for Le© and Rial’s “World’s Entertainers and Polite Vaudeville,” an American company, which will probably visit New Zealand before the year fa out.

The Dartos passed through Wellington* on Thursday night e n route for Dunedin, under engagement to Mr P. R. Dix. The Worrall Sisters, Mr James Watts, Lily and Herbert Roberts, and Mr Claude Alberton are also on their way, or coming. #> V #• • * ♦

Mr J. Green, one of the best matheof the Melbourne University

and an all-round journalist, is in England touring with a dramatic company. He resigned a good position in Australia to go on the stage.

Ida and Edith Yolande, the two English actresses who committed suicide through disappointed ambition, were sisters. Both were pretty, Edith excep_ tionally so. • * * « *

Baby Parkes, an infant with surprisingly quaint ways, is appearing at the Adelaide Tivoli, where Miss Jen. Latona is performing with her brother Frank, the musical tramp. McKisson and Kearns were to open at the Tivoli, also at the latest Adelaide advices. J. O. Bain is at the Melbourne Opera House. w * * * *

The Victorian Operatic Society staged “Girofle Girofla” at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on the 20th of last month, with the intention .of running it for a four weeks’ season. Some of the amateurs are fairly good, while others are calculated to draw groans from a stone.

“The Christian King,” Wilson Barrett’s new play, is founded on the lif 6 of Alfred the Great.

Miss Irene Vanbrugh, now looked upon as the cleverest comedy actress in London, has been engaged by Mr C. Frohman as his leading lady. Mr Frohman controls several of the best theatres in London and New York- Mr Dion Roucicault, Miss Vanbrugh’s fiance, has been engaged by Mr Frank Curzon to produce “Becky Sharp” at th e Prince of Wales’s some time this month.

* * * . * , * „ The non-sale of intoxicants at some or the recently erected London music halls has benefited the local publicans very considerably. The White Hart, which is next door to the Euston, is worth thousands mor e since the hall has been opened.

One of the best bills in the Yiddish Theatre, in New York, is the “Tragedy of the Huguenots,” by Mr Jacob Gordon. The famous Yiddish actor, Max Rosenthal, has been making a great sensation in the leading role. *****

Miss Grace Raven, a leading American actress, has recently entered the Convent of th e Good Shepherd, at a place called Carthage, Ohio, U.S.A. ■o * * ft *

The well-known minstrel, Daniel Decatur* Emmett, is reported to be dying at his home in Ohio. Mr Emmett is now eighty-six years old, and for a number of years he has practically lived all alone with his dog. He will pass down to posterity as the author of I was in Dixie.”

There is a very decided trend in America to th© revival of old-time drama as opposed to the problem _ play. Thus ♦such ; old favourites as “Unci© Tom’s Cabin,” “Monte Cristo,” “The Two Orphans,” and “East Lynne” are engaging the attention of some of the very richest and mosfc influential managers who Send out these productions on a magnificent scal e with star casts.

Mr Clay M. Green, a very well-known American playwright, has written a passion play which has been named “Nazareth.”

Mdrne. Sarah Bernhardt’s plans for her own theatre in Paris are to re-open with Rostand’s "“Aiglon” on October Ist. Sardou’s "Theodora” will be revived in the course of the season, and then the first new play given will b e a drama in verse, by Catulle Mendes, entitled “Sainte Therese,” the title role to be created, of course, by the great actress. Mr George Grossmith’s engagement at the Palace {a London music hall) proved eminently successful. » • 0 9 -

The oldest inhabitant, says a London scribe, cannot remember so many West End Theatres shut or moribund at the height of a London season as at present-

j A rumour is going th© rounds of the American papers to the effect that Mr ! B. F. Keith, instead of turning the Princess’s in Oxford street into a music hall, will, when rebuilt, us© it for the purposes of a dramatic stock company. As mentioned in these columns recently, the return of the stock system has been a very big success in New York, and ; it would be a curious state of things if it wer© revived in London by an American manager.

Asked by Jules Huret, an interviewer on the staff of the Paris “Le Figaro,” if he had never had any fixed ambition or matured plan, M. Rostand replied : “Never. I repeat that at twenty years of age I had no idea of making myself a nam e iu literature. I pursued my way as inspiration led me, and that is why lam indifferent to criticism. When certain defects in my nature ar© commented ©n, I say, ‘They ar© perhaps right; for certain they ar© right. But what -can Ido ? What would an apple tree think of the gardeners who found fault with it for producing apples. I give my apples as they are, because I can’t give anything else.”

« ® © « « M. Rostand has had heaucoup de bonheurs (great luck in life), he himself admits. His good fortune consisted in being born of well-to-do parents, in having married an accomplished and pretty woman, and in having, before he was twenty-five years of had a three

act play produced at th e Comedie Fran, caise, where, however, he had to exercise considerable patience, for though his “Romanesques” was written in about a month he waited something like two years before he was summoned to read it to the artists.

The domestic announcement in the case of the lady who was Miss Doyle reminds me (says an Australian writer) that two other very talented Australians have found tb© married state, “the better part.” I refer to Alice tiees and Amy Sherwin. The latter lady has made London her permanent residence, and, according to all accounts, is more a favourite now than she was four or five year 3 ago. In private life she is Mrs Gorlitz. Alice Rees, who was the first of Mr Williamson’s native-born artistes to attain distinction in both eeri* ous and comic opera, was married here to Herr Max Vogrich, the pianist, who came to Australia with the great Wilhelmj in 1881, and who afterwardg took the position of conductor of the Sydney Liedertafel. Mr and Mrs Vogrich are living in New York. Writing to a friend in Sydney a little while hack, Alice of th e beautiful voice thus expressed herself : “No doubt you have wondered why I, who love art so much, am not singing in America or Europe. Why should I ? I have, thank God, a happy home and all I need of this world’s goods. I sing among my friends.”

* * W * * Wirth’s Circus is doing phenomenal business at Brisbane.

According to confidential whispers from England, J. C. Williamson will very probably spring a great surprise on Australia a,s regards a very famous, very popular, and very beautiful star actress, who sometimes disappoints people! * 'it

The final performance of Fuller’s Empire Vaudeville Company will be given on Friday, the 9th inst., when Mr John Fuller, jun., will b© tendered a complimentary farewell benefit. A beauty show for ladies will be held on the occasion, and the winner presented with a handsome gold watch.