NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

There was a dismal fizzle last week io the shape of an attempted benefit to Mr Wai Price and Mr H. Lewis, late with the Mohawk Minstrels. The benejiciares turned up punctually, but unfortunately the performers and the public didn't. In Christchurch an amateur " Mikado " Company have been drawing good houses last week. Miss Blanche Lewis is now Bland Holt's leading lady. The company are ia Brisbane. Mr Harry Norman, by the way, an old Dunedinite, is now their assistant stage manager. George Leifcch (says a Melbourne exchange), after a most successful trip in Northern Queensland with " Harbour Lights " and " Human Nature," is back in Sydney. The critics got a little mixed in Rockbampton over "Harbour Lights" and the boat race, and, by this, Leitch became the popular Canadian who won ths race, while Hanlau as the popular comedian appeared for the first time in Rockhampton and played Tom Dossiter in such a manner as to make him at once a high favourite with the audience. A popular minstrel performer is, according to the Melbourne Bulletin, to appear shortly in one of the principal characters in a breach of promise case. MiBB Ada Ward, who is coming to New Zealand shortly, seems to have turned her attention seriously to the sensational drama. Thia ia a change from her old live, and I should say not a change for the better. " Bright Hope "is the title of anew 'startler" just staged by Miss Ward at the Sydney Opera House. The play deals with both English and Australian life. In the prologue there is a scene on the Thames ; in the first, second, and third acts pictures of early station life in Australia ; in the fourth act an effective shipwreck and the return of the principal characters to England. The mo3t sensational scene is thus described : — The hero, Aubrey Fane (Mr Frank Gerald), has 1 been arrested and paced, bound and handcuffed, in a storehouse on an island on the River Murray, Captain Cole, of the mounted police (Mr S. Duff), keeping guard over him. Marian Hood (Miss Ada Ward) and Rose A'lau (Miss Marie BrookB), having already obtained possession of the key of the handcuffs, come to visit the prisoner ; wliilts Rose entices Cole to come and look over the storehouse Marian liberates Aubrey. The villain of the drama, however, suspecting treachery throws down the narrow plank connecting the island with the shore, and so cots off all escape. At this junction Tob3 , a servant on the station (Mr Harry Power), appears in a boat, and Aubrey escapes through the window and down a roap into the boat just as Cole bursts the door open only to find Marian Hood has taken tho placo of his prisoner. \ Miss Annie Mayor, the young Australian actress, who has been globe-trotting and has earned much reputation, especially in America, a about to return to the colcnies. She reopens in Sydney shortly. Judge Paul.of Queensland (says the Bulletin), has overruled a melancholy, cold water Licensing Bench, wtich objected to allow the sale of liquors at tho Brisbane Opera Housß and Theatre Royal, and consequently the frequenters of these places will be permitted to irrigate along with the rest of her Gracious' subjects. Mr T. V. Twinning, well known in Dunedin, has been piloting Fred Maccabe through Queensland. At length the unfortunate little breach which for seven or eight years past has prevented Mr W. Holloway visiting Adelaide is healed, or got over somehow. He and bis company, with his stepdaughter, Essie Jenyns, as star, are reviving a few Shakespearian plays or Baconian cryptograms in the South Australian capital. The cause of the bold Holloway's exile was a collision bstween his right fist and the proboscis of a dramatic critic— Davis, of the Advertiser. The latter insinuated, what at the time was believed to be a fact, that Holloway passed boys into the gallery with instructions to vociferate *• 011-er-way " on every possible occasion, with i the view of that distinguished mummer appearing before the curtain and bowing his acknowledgments sweetly. Unluckily the gallery boys used to call Holloway when he was not cast in the piece ; hence a rumpus and an unmanly insinuation in print. Holloway is a good-tempered fellow, but he could not stomach this. Therefore he harangued the offending critic in a deep bass for 10 minutes, and then knocked him under a refreshment table. There were legal proceeding, and, alack, Holloway was mulcted in the sum of £80 for damages to the critic's features and f eelings. This disgusted the actor, and to mark his disapproval of the verdict he folded his tent aud stole away in the grey light of morning without settling the amount. Adelaide has looked upon his face no more till now. Peace Jias evidently beeu restored, and the curtain has fallen upon a happy ending. Grattan Riggs is going to open a new thtatro at that fever-stricken Bonanza, Broken Hill. Mrs Shaw, the American lady whose artistic ■whistling has taken London by storm, goes out •to evening " at homes," dinners, &c, after the •stylo of Corney Grain, Grossmith, and ■other entertainers. She charges 25gs for whistling three songs. The odd thing is that several hundred ladies declare they can whistle better than the beautiful American, and now that the art is fashionable it is expected that the town will be glutted with siffieuses next season. A very fine stone monument has been erected or^r the grave of the late Mr David Kennedy, •ia the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh. The monument bears the following inscription :—: — •" David Kennedy, the Scottish singer, born at Perth, April 15, 1825; died at Stratford, •Canada, October 13, 1886. 'We'll meet and •aye be fain r 1 the laud o' the leal.' " Toble's reminiscences of America, edited by Joseph Hatton, are good, but strike one as being a little bit too serious to come up to what we -expect .from the crack English low comedian. Somehow Toole is always expected to be droll And nothing else on or off the stage. Here is •one quaint extract from the " Reminiscences" : — •"At Buffalo,wherel played two nights, l produced ♦ Off the Line,' « lci,' * Paul Pry,' and the Dodger scene from ' Oliver Twist.' There is a pathetic scene in •Off the Line,' A man during the performance stood at the wings and was deeply Affected: I couldn't- help noticing his emotion, so evidently genuine, and, of course, so very complimentary. It would not have escaped the sympathetic eye of Charles Kean, bad he been the actor who had inspired it; and I confess this little tribute behind did not annoy me. But what did upset and astonish me very considerably was the fact that when I appeared as the Dodger, the man at 'the wings not only didn't laugh, but he actually cried. There was no mistake about it, he wept ; and when I came off, he mopped his face with his .hand kerchief, he said, ' Ob, Mr Toole, you must excuse me. I can't help it. You must remember me years ago ; it turned me right over to. see those trousers again ! I was the wardrobe-keeper at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, 30 years ago;

when first you played the Dodger there. My name is Weymes. When I saw those trousers I was reminded of my dear old home in Scotland, and I couldn't help crying had it been to save my life.' " Here, too, is a specimen of Toole interviewed :—: — Q. On your arrival at New York what astonished you most ? A. Blocks of buildings and blooks of ice. Q. Which do you prefer ? „ A. I have tasted a good deal of the latter, and approve of it greatly when taken with straws and sugar. Q. Talking of drinks, how do you find the feeding? A. First-rate. Some of the hotels give you enough at one meal to last you for a week, and the variety of vegetables particularly astonished me. Who christened some of the dishes? I thought that clam chowder, gumbo, and squash, were relations of my attendant darkey, and that he was imposing on my innocence, but now I have made their acquaintance I find them much better ! than "La Roi Carotto " and all that sort of thing you know. Most people have meted out more or less, ceusure to that very festive old customer Dion Boucicault on his matrimonial escapade; but the Sydney Bulletin speaks right out as follows: — Boucicault, sen., is a cold • blooded, cowardly old rascal ; he triei, for the, sake of establishing the validity of his marriage' with the girl he wedded in Australia, to deny that he ever married his " good old wife," Agnes Robertson, who fortunately has beeu able to establish her case in the London law courts. Should he ever again visit this country he ought , to be hooted from the stage. " The light," said some sententious critic, apropos of Salvini " that breaks on Shakespeare can never come from the South." Perhaps. But apparently it may come from the West. The Yankee troupe at the London Gaiety have taken up Shakespeare's neglected play, " The Taming of the Shrew," which only survived on the British boards in the whittled down form of a farce, and, mounting it with exquisite taste and costly elegance, perform it as an excellent modern comedy. Ada Rehan, a charming actress, is the Katherjne, and romps through her part like an imperial .virago. John Drew, too, as Petruchio, is a ibold and drshing tamer with just a trifle of the ringmaster about him. A well-known London critic, rubs down a pair of celebrated partners as follows: — " Gilbert and Sullivan are very lazy. The ' Mikado ' revival at the Savoy draws better than the other regalvanisations no doubt ; but Gilbert himself, not long since, when on the interviewer's rack, expressed his opinion that the ' Mikado ' had been run too long to make a revival remunerative. And he might have added, too recently. Nevertheless, the ' Mikado ' will always be a prime favourite. I remember on the premiere of -the luckless ' Ruddigore ' a man in the gallery yelled at curtain" fall, ' Give us back the " Mikado," and take off this rot.' Mr Gilbert's nimble .wit must' bestir itself. He must think less About new actresses and more about new plays. But, above all, his new effort must be a success. Even his reputation will not' stand another failure, or even partial success just yet." It will be seen from " Scalfax's " letter, that the Amy Shorwn r* season has come to an abrupt fcermi .ation in Melbourne. From another source comes the intelligence that Herr Gorlitz has sought the protection of the Bankruptcy Court. Melancholy this, seeing the great financial success made by Miss Sherwin on her concert tour, and the high hopes with which her husband, Mr Gorlitz, plunged into the stormy sea of operatic management. But there is a difference between the two lines of business. In this case everything was fearfully hurried, and rehearsals were few and unsatisfactory. The principal vocalists, too, engaged in America, were not up to the requisite standard. Herr Scherek, brilliant and accomplished musician as he is, is not a good conductor, and he failed dismally in getting his forces drilled and keeping them under command. Result, a flash of blue fire, a bad odour, and the sudden extinction of the enterprise. Two of his vocalists, Saxon (baritone) and Wilkie (tenor), were sueing Mr Gorlitz for salary at the time he filed, and Mr Saxon, prior to his dismissal, had " propped " in the middle of a performance, and declined to go on the stage unless a certain number of pounds with odd shillings and pence were forthcoming at once. If the report is true that .Messrs Garner and Musgrove, pining for a mouthful of London fog, are going to quit the triumverate, and that Mr Charles Warner is going to join Mr J. C. Williamson in catering for the Australian public, one of .the biggest managerial concerns ever started' is about to be broken up. There have been rcmours'for a long time that all was not as harmonious as might be, and the intelligence is therefore probably correct. When those three separate units, Williamspn, Garner, and Musgrove, drifted into cohesion eight or nine years ago, few people could have anticipated so successful a career for 'the firm, or that they would become so big a power in the theatrical world. Williamson had made one fortune with " Struck Oil," and going Home had lost it carefully and thoroughly at the Princess' Theatre, London. He thereupon repaired to the colonies to make a second pile out of the same piece, and was doing it most satisfactorily* when a brilliant idea struck him fairly and squarely in the forehead. It suddenly occurred to him that " Struck Oil " would pall upon the multitude in the course of time, and that there were other pieces running, some of them •] successful ones. He yearned to have something j to do with a fresh piece,having at that time been striking oil until he had got it like whipped cream. Gazing around Williamson found a kindred spirit in Alfred Garner. Mr Garner had been raking, m coin in Australia with his London Comedy Company, a spec he had entered upon with Mr W. S. Lyster then just deceased. Having just horsewhipped his leading man, Frederick de Belville, and sighing for yet more destruction, Garner readily joined hands with Williamson, and they imported •'Pinafore," and were the first to introduce that famous piece to colonials. Miss Maggie Moore was the Josephine, Charles Harding the Captain, and Riccardi Sir Joseph ; but in oat of the way towns, when he thought no one was looking. Williamson would himself play (and sing ! ) the latter P9J&.. About this time it was ,that Musgrove' was taking Melbourne by storm with a splendid array of coloured tights which he and a deceased partner had engaged to appear in " : Tambour Major."" He, too, joined the new firm, and the trio have flourished exceedingly unto this day. They have had their bad years, no doubt. That must have been one which saw a dismal array of comparative failures engaged by Mr GarnerFleming Norton, Leitch, Miss Jeffreys, Lewis, &c. But the successes have outnumbered the failures, and at this present moment the triumvirate are enjoying their crowning triumph with the Gaiety Company.