PLAYS AND PLAYERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6089, 22 December 1906, Page 4

PLAYS AND PLAYERS

(By “Sylvius.”)

Tiio theatrical talk of the town turns on tho visit of the Royal Comic Opera Company. Veritably it is royal for the Company to travel over a now route—direct from Melbourne to Wellington—in Hiiddart Parker’s newest steamer Rivcrina, which has been chartered especially ■ for tho occasion. Barring shows of the animal such as Barmans and the late George Sanger’s it is doubtful whether any of the Home managements go as far as to charter a big liner of the Rlyerina stamp to take a single opera company a four day’s ocean trip, without any “stands” by the way. The Williamson syndicate is entitled to all the advertisement they get out of such enterprise. Even those astute individuals, however, do not do it for tho advertisement alone, ■not much! They get the big .farewell nights in at Melbourne that would bo wasted in coming via Sydney. To catch tho weekly boat leaving that 'port on Saturday they would not bo here until the Wednesday (the opening night) which is Boxing Day —a day on which it would ho treason in this fearfully democratic country to ask the sturdy waifs of tho wharf to handle cargo, even if it bo such sacred wares as tho diaphanous costumes of the ballet. The, “Royal Comics” have a budget of bright things to display during tho merry season, and for the most part matter that pauses between comic opera and musical comedy with burlesque! here and there to demonstrate that they are not always serious. “The Orchid,” will illuminate tho Opera House on Boxing Night. It will be followed by “Tho Oingalee.” In a long-ago interview' Mr J. C. Williamson said that in’ 1875 ho first visited Australia, where he and. his then wife (Miss Maggie Moore) played for fifteen months. After that they played in Calcutta (during tho present King’s visit to that city), and then journeyed to Hendon, whore he made In’s first appearance at tho Adclphi on Easter Monday, 1870. After eight months in London they toured tho Kingdom and Ireland, afterwards returning to America. Then for two years they played in America, after which (in 1879) they went touring the world again. In 1880 J. C, W. purchased the rights of “H.M.S. Pinafore,”, and produced it in Australia. ‘This was so successful that I bought the rights of each Gilbert and Sullivan opera as it came out, and I have continued to do so until this day (February, 1896). I formed a Royal Comic Opera Company to play them in 1881, and this company, with changes in its. east, has been in existence ever since. 3o the company that opens at the Opera House on Boxing Night, is a generation old,-and is going stronger than ever.

“The Little Stranger,” which has now become a' familiar, is not a brilliant comedy by any means, though there is material'enough in the idea to make one. It Is a forty minutes farce drawn out into a dissatisfying effort in which the characters all seem’, to he working hard np to a stupendous joke which never happens. The trouble is in the construction—the audience knows what the joke is going to bo, and. when it comes off, cannot help NOT screaming with laughter. The Company is a vividly capable one hut the personality of Master Willie Parke is hardly fetching enough in its precocity. An exuberant worker up to the unsatisfying ghost of a climax is James Lindsay, who was here with Nellie Stewart a little time hack.,

"The Squaw Man” has 'struck the sensibilities of Dunodin playgoers with the same emphasis as it did in Melbourne and Sydney, and Wellington can look forward to this breezy Western stage story with the sure hope of seeing a good play of an unconventional type well played.

An actor —One who acts being someone else off the stage and cannot help being himself on. Of course there are exceptions.

"Crashed Alive” is the title of the harrowing act that Marino, a leather muscled Frenchman, is going to introduce to New York as the newest sensation in danger. They had a rehearsal of the act, which calls for a fortyhorsepower machine with enough passengers in it to make its weight about throe tons, to pass over M. Marino’s prostrate body, and when the Frenchman was ready to bo "crushed,' ” and the supers were all on hand waiting to sit in the machine that was to “crush” him, William Hammerstoin was considerably perturbed to find that the auto ho had ordered to do tho "crushing” hadn’t arrived. For a few minutes he was in a soul racking quandary. “Any old automobile will do to crush with,” finally, said Mr Hammersiein, and ho rushed out of the theatre over to Long Acre Square, grabbed the first heavy motor car ho saw, and before the astonished chauffeur had time to catch Ms breath had steered him into tho stage entrance and made him glide over M. Marino’s broad back, apparently to tin? great delight and relief of that great artist.

There is a craze, and a growing one,

for good sketches or playlets in vaiidc* ville in New York. ‘Without in thw least casting any asparagus,” as an old darkey said (says an American! paper) on the hundreds of talented andentertaining monologists, song and dance teams, musical acts, acrobats, jugglers, and trained animals, it must fco admitted that this growing eagerness for clean and well written sketches tends to the general advancement of vaudeville, in that it is bringing into* the department of-tho stage numbers ' of high-olass artists and players whs would_ find no place in "the continuous” were it’ not for the one-act piny.” Ever since the clever and ecooutrifi. W. T. Stead enhanced the success of La Milo by writing a long article about' ' her and agreeing heartily with her 1 American press agent in London that sho has shown "a loveliness that speak® straight to the heart and shows us mu. turo fairer far than Art,” certain Am- 1 erican agents have been figuring (eaysl the “Morning Telegraph,” N.Y.) on bringing her to Now York. Among them' is that agreeable and benignant pioneer, M. S. Rontbam, who is plotting to feature the fair Australian in tho Keith-Proctor houses. If all ports speak truly the modem Galatea would delight audiences of any circuit m this country with her undraped beauty, and tho chances seem strong that when she leaves her dear Piccadilly Circus it will be to taka steamer for this country, America.

The old timer cannot understand tho indifference, the inattention, and, sometimes, the stolidity of tho modern audience. As ho looks baok over tho yester-years he remembers gillded youths fighting battles oyer Sonntag's beauty, even crusty old Richard Grant White raving over tho velvet voice of Pauline Markham, and a whole community hurting itself upon Jenny Lind in wild frenzies of adoration. He remembers audiences shouting with passionate delight when Jack Bowler’ sang the “Fair Lands of Poland," and Henri Drayton sang the “Pif Paf” of ‘The Huguenots,”’ with the same fervour ho had displayed when he sang the .“Marseillaise” for a Parisian barricade. Ho has seen women weeping by scores when “Slier” Campbell sang “The Heart Bowed Down.” Does any one remember when 5000 people roso to 'thoir feet in the old Wigwam where Abraham Lincoln was nominated and shouted bravos until they wore hoarse after Amodio and Bellini had sung that ringing "Liberty” duet from “I .Puritan!”? Never was tenor more adored bv the young ladies than Castle when ho sang “M’appari” from “Martha,” unless it were Brignoli, whoso silvery voice in “La Donna Mobile,” the Trovatoro “Miserere,” “II Mio Tcsoro,” “Spirito Gontil,” and "Com’e Gentil” might have "soothed souls in purgatory!” There is no .enthusiasm to-day comparable with that which Brignoli’e bcl canto was wont to arouse which displayed itself in ! bravos from tho throats of men and in handkerchiefs of -women fluttering all over tho house like white There is more culture now, more learning, lucre problems for the stage, more motive music, but the old-time freshness, spontaneity and enthusiasm are no more.—< New York ‘Telegraph.” “The Lion and the Meuse” (by Charles Klein) began its fifty-third week at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, Oh tho sth ult. John L. Sullivan is going to have another fling at the stage (says a N. Y. journal). Tho old-time warrior has persuaded a manager of one of tho “hurley” shows in the Eastern Wheel that he can keep sober for ten weeks in succession,’and haa been booked for that length of time, opening down South early next month—provided ho fall off the water waggon beta een now and then. All admirers of the old-time champion will bo glad to hear that he has been sticking pretty close to the straight and narrow path for some months, and as a result his salary has been boosted, until ho will got SOOdol. a week and a percentage of the receipts of the show over a certain, figure. X wonder how many SOOdol. pay nights he will actually bo able to> stand?

Mr H. B. Irving’s American roper, toiro is "Markhcima play written by tho late Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a psychological study of crime and the influence of conscience and tho final victory of that presence over the criminal. It is said to bo as powerful a play with Irving the younger aa “Waterloof’ was with his inspired father.

Sarah Bernhardt was sixtyrtwo on October 22nd last. She made her debut at the Comcdie Francais in 1862 in Racine’s “Iphigeine.” "What is my ambition?” queries Mmo. Melba in “M.A.P.” "Well, I want to die on tho stage. That would bo a glorious death. I know every mark on tho stage at Convent Garden, every board, every nail, and when one has frequenly appeared at a theatre like that you get fond of it—indeed, you fall iu love with it.”