STAGE GOSSIP

Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 66

STAGE GOSSIP

Bland Holt takes a trip to England next Jf Mr H^rv Rickards returns to Australia ea p;icka U rd?s V vTude r ;-ille Co.. due here shortly was at latest in Wellington. ♦_,«„ Alice Hollander, the Australian contralto, has been meeting with enormous success al the Hoi burn Emmie. Mr Waltei Baker and Miss Frances Rom were at latest showing with William Ander< son's Dramatic Company at Newcastle. M JI -s Carrie Moore is now on the variety «ta»e bit will return to pantonum* when the Christmas f&ason visits London. The actor or actress who keeps busy trying :o 'improve his or her own works has not much time to see the defects in oth«r«. Miss Fnnnie Robina. who appeared m '• Jack Shepherd " in Australia about 22 years ago, is showing at the London mum© The work of transforming the old £*!*«*• Hotel, in Gloucester street. Christcfaureh, into a permanent home for West's -Moving Eic-tur-es lias feegmn. Mr Cuyler Hastings is at present playmj) iho part of Carson Baylis in a four-act drama entitled "The Dollar Mark at Wel« lack's Theatre, New York. Miss Bjate G-air, who is spell known to Wellinßtan playgoers, will play the leading parte during the Dominion, tour of Williami Anderson's Dramatc Company. Tjie London Hippodrome has been converted into a gcrgeoua theatre. It was ta bavd been reopened thiß month with Mb Charles Hawtrey in a. High-class sketch. Kdyth Latimer, who left Australi* com« 11 years ago with Wilson Barrett's company, is now appearing in- * new play, "Smith.'* Jfarie L^oii ib also included in the cast. _

M . o P Heggie", the South .Australian, who did good wSrk'wilh the Hawtrey Com, »any has secured an engagement with Miss Lena" Ashwell for her coining Ixmdon season. The Paris Conservatoire trains gratuitously Ahs singers, players, wad actors of France and fh?Schaol of Music (without thj .School of Drama) costs the State nearly £80,000 a Naiss Heba Barlow, the la.te John F. Shi-rid'an's kading lady, intenas to proceed to India or England in the near fiiture. offers having been made her in both countries _„ Mr and Mrs William Anderson. (Mis* Eugvsnie Duggan) aie expected to /each M»ibotSTae on October 26. They will leave the Orontes at Adelaide and come overland by tT Miss Alice Pollard recently declined an offer to go out to India in leading parts with Baridmann. being content to wait her opportunity with George Edwardes s Cuiety Company.- ' _, . MiT Harry Brscy (Miss Clara Thompson! made her reappearance on the Australian sta"« *'t Her Majesty's Theatre. Melbourne, in ""The Catch of the Season," and was warmly welcomed. ' M!r Charles J. Carter, the well-knoWn magician, who has toured Australia., is at present in New York. He intends > touring America this year, and subsequently commences a second tour of the world. Mr Lewis Waller is going to "America in 1910, and will preeent in New York and a jiumber the were important American citiee several of his newest plays, including Mr Devereux's "Sir Walter Haleigh." Dear Pasquin, — We have just played Riverton, Orepuki, and Otautau to record-break-ing houses. People coming in for miles to D 53 the last performances of the All" Blacks in K-ew Zealand. Begards. — Jko. Black. \fter a very successful season in the Empire City, the Hugh Ward Comedy Company [have started on a tour through the up('•cotfntry towns d the North Island, en route |X* Auckland. -where they o^on on November ¥$? 'Wirth''> Circu-5 opened : season in M-e-1-üb»(ttTne lasi. Saturday evenang. The headR.jiacra of the show" are Datas, tbe extiraori<h\Tuvcr "Mau of Memory," and the Franz '/Family' "f Acrobats. The show is due in Zealand early next year. ' .* The "Jack and Jill" Company are at pr«rscit in Per.th playing to large audiences. [/.Their ssa«on will conclude there this week, [find after <a short season in Adelaide en ( route, they will return to Melbourne to .(begin rehearsals of "Aladdin. »' Mi W. S. Percy, of the J. C. Williamson "New Comic Opera Company, says that he 3) as reached the summit of his ambition, and , + hat there is nothing in life left to strive for — he has bad his photograph published on a cigarette oaj-d. This is indeed fame! In tha retnement of Miss Jessie Brown the Tteyal Comic Opera Company loses a most graceful and acot mplished dancear. With her sister, Misa Aggie . Brown., another dainty dr..i9eu?e, she had been with tbe organiseti&i for some years, and had several little successes to her credit. John Fuller, jun., who has been acting as general business maca-ger during the absence of Mr Ben Fuller in England, left for Australia on Thursday, via Auckland, to enga°< artists for the vaudeville company •which is to tour the New Zealand circuit, pommencing a,t Christm-as. Mies Rosina Buckmann has "been engaged by the Sydney Philharmonic Sordety for the performance of Berlioz's "Faust." Towards •the' end of September the dnar&a'tic soprano flaaig with success in the comedy part of •IBettina during a week of "Lta Mascotte," in Goulburn. Walter Whyte, the tenor, •was the Pippo. The more pantomime. Tmracal comedy, and comic opera companies there are, the greater the number of girls ther? are who" want to go on the stage. William Anderson's recent advertisement for applications for positions dn has "Babas in tbe Woods" pantomime chorus resulted in abcu 2500 letters bein^ received, with photos encloßed. Robert Courtneidge. manager o£ tbe Shafts l>ury Tlieatre, London, has fitted \va a. gymnasium at the back of the stage for the benefit of the members of bis rompany A special instructor has b?en engaged to tutor them in the art of eelf-defence and gymnsstic?, and each member of the company does at least an hour's exercife each d^y. A new musical comedy, " Tb° Catch of the Season." now running at Her Maie°ty'i Melbourne, has caught the pub'i? itaste. In this Miss Fanny Dango is said to have made tb" hit of ber oarcer. Mr= {Henry Bracy, Miss Nellie Wilson, Mi=s Connie Milne, Mr Andrew Hiegin^or. and iMr Victor Gouriel, nre all doing excellent work. Mr Frank Greene, who plays Harry Bronfdxa in "The Belle < of New York," appeared in the same role in a tour of South Africa He states that the musical comedy did treaneridous business everywhere. In the same "oompaaiy. as Mamie Clancy, waa Miss Lottie jSorgent, who plays Fifi with the J. C. Williamson New Comic Opera. Company. J The project for a grand opera tour of 'Australia, under the auspices of Madame ■Melba, appears to be within reasonable measure of accomplishment. A London paper ireoeived contains the following paragraph: ■'■"For her contemplated operatic tour of Ausitralia, Maisme Melba. ha.c, it is said, so faotnade arrangements with Mdlle. Destinn tnd

MM. Benaud, Plancon, Gilibert, Zenatello, J 'and Sammaroo." . W. F. Hawtrey, who^e study of the bibulous Glubrio in "'The Sign of the Cross" was a, clever piece of work — his tramp in " The ( Message from Mars" was a similar sketcli iv modem dress — was at ome time a tutor in Adelaide, before he took to the stage in England or elsewhere. Now we have another example of the pedagogue turning «&ctor m the person of Gerald Kay Souper, - who waa j a master in a college in Australia 20 years • ago. I Mites Nellie Stewart is at present enjoying a very successful season in Brisbane, and on its conclusion she will onc-e more wend her way Melbouxnewards, being due to open f at the Princess Theatre on Derby night (Oc- ] tober 30). The first week will be devoted co three-night revivals of "Sweet Kitty Bel- J laws" and "Sweet Nell of Old Drury." and j those productions will be followed in their turn Fby a revival of the strong idramano play.' "'Zaza." ! " Rent," remarked Mr Beaumont Smith to a Melbourne interviewai-, "is the crushing handicap 'in London. They do not work on the fixed rent system; the landlord deA-an.ls a percentage — a3 high as 40 pc/ cent. — for which he .furnishes only the theatre, tho manager paying everything else out of hi-j own pocket. Forty per cent. 1 Think of it! Say an average house is ,£100; out of the£6oo taken in ■& week £210 would bs absorbed in rent aloner!" "In writing- a play," aays . Augustus Thomas, " I am always guided by my old newspaper instinct. Most of our dramatists have been newspaper men. We have- no other college for dramatists. There is no curriculum, there are no diplomas. A newspaper office is the only school for the dramatist. It teaches a rcan. firs,t, to know char"■actfer; next, to write dialogue; and finally. to have a nose for the dramatic in news. News is dramatic, and a good reporter always bandies it in a dramatic style. There «re two black-and-whvte artists in the J C. Williamson Xew Com' * Opera Company — Mr W. S. Percy and Mr Victor Prince, both of whom have had theii- illustrations of jokes published in comic paper* Of the other vue_nl>ers of th- company. Mr Frtv\k Greene eVgai?es in icum»h-'!c woik. Mr Herbert Clayto-.i writes for tr.e st'gp — he has ■ had a ono-act play and a mu=ioal comedy produced in London, — Miss Dorothy Court scores niu=ic. Miss Sarsjenl studies .pociolo<ry, and Miss Susie Vaughan collects old china. Mme. Zelie- 3-s Lus=an, who ha<s '>?e-n apDfiring so successfully with the MoodyManners Opera Co. at the Lyrir Theatre Londor. *« without doubt one of the best exponent 5 of Carmen now before the public She was born in Xpw Ycrk. and began staj;J work in Boston. In ISB9 flip nude her appearance in London under the management of Col. Maplfejon since when she has b?come f am' us wherever operatic music is popular. The De Luspan family, by the way, is a> very old one, and dates back to the lime of Louis XIV. The revival of "The Belle of New York" at Hsr Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, 'is proving most aco?r>table to playgoers, if one may judge by the la.r<re and delighted audiences which gather there each evening and lavish warm aoolauee on the various members of J. C Williamson's new comic opera, company who are appearing in the popular A.raerican musical comedy for the first, time out here. " The Country Girl" is to be the next revival, and the oomoany are now rehearsing it steadily under the supervision of Mr Henry Bracy. who was responsible for the original production. "There are things that T know I could do" ils the title of a =one Mr W. S Percy made a hit with in "The Kins of Cadonia." Af+er hearing him sins it Mr .Timmv Campball, the dame >f "Jack aoid Jill," sent him a topical verse inscribed. "To be used only in Duncd'n." The rscinf of the ftoriza was whether the Duke of Ala c ia could rcake a I T)unpdin audi?nce !au»b. It is a great jyrief I to Mr Canipli"!!, as a Scotch comedian that | 1-e iiilprl <o touch tbe risible spot of fellow Caledonians in that town, and he threatens to cultivate a rich brooue and imivc^onate an Irishman next time lie goes tWre. Mn;e. de Lii"ai >ia= told of on amu=ing exp°r;eii<-e sbp oiir-? bad 'it fl certain tbeafre in t)if Xo-th of Fr^la"d. f"'ie v.-a" playing Juliet, and tlio fi-mous balcony was ron'•tructcxl of a rule 'if cc C \r> Lo-ps hidden by a l/iete of scr^fry In th° midd'e of ]w most I impassioned love-^on^ with Roireo Msdam? wrs horrifierJ to hear a ?ud<]<^n cra-h ar*^ a <=^cond 1-ater ?be found her foot imori-oned in o'se of the «nap boxe=. Eventup'ly she \ca« obliged to auit the stasre with the box sh" fixed fix-ni'v to her foit , but her singing ha^l been so fine th?t the audience overlook, d tbe incident and gave her a tremendous reception -vvlien next she appeared. Clarke. Meynell. 'and Gurm's attractions nt piesent include the Oscaor Ascbe-L-ily Brayton at the Criterion Theatre. Sydney ; tho English Comic Op&ra Company, apnearing 1 in "Miss 3ook of Holland" at the Thea+re Rovalj Melbourne; th« new Jlngliph dramatic company, representing " The Hypocrites " and "Lucky t>urha.m" In Western Australia; the Maggie Moore- Roberts Company; tbe new Comic Opera, Co. being fornied in London to produce •' The Arcadians " in Australia, and the farcical comedy company lo produce " The Nicht of the Party " and " Mr ; Pr»ddy and the Countess, ' whioh Mr Georgo W'loughby is to bring to Australia.

Kenneth Mugg, of the Angelique Opera Company, in "The Belle of Kew York," lis a part that dogs Mr Arthur Ids&ant's theatrical career. He was first cast for it in |X 1901," and continued in the. repertoire of ! the company for three years. Then oame a period of \8 months' or more when he was 1 with 'another management, but *s soon as he rejoined the J. C. Williamson firm he found himself Kenneth Mttgg- again. ""I ' wouldn't like," he says, "to sey how tnaiiy ! times I've played that character. I seem Ito have been rehearsing it all my life. Mr J. C. Williamson aays I'm, 'the only Mujrg' "in Australia, and I sometimes wonder just what he means ; so," he laughs, " I keep on rehearsing." ; 3tf!iss Letty Liind, the eldest sister of uhe clever family of which iliss Fanny D.ango ! is tone of the bright and shining lights, is gifted with, the art of concocting appropriate t names for her younger sisters. It was she 1 who gave Miss Fanny "Dungo her stage j name, or, rather, she adopted it in the home circle, where Fanny was always pirouetting' I about; and later on when the vivacious little j dancer went on the stage she did so ttnder j the nick name thus bestowed upon her. j Another sister (a, comedienne I'ike Miss Dango) rejoices in the name of Miss Lydiia j Fiopp, which was derived from the samo source. At present Miss Fan Dungo (as I she is always known in England) is a very • happy girl, because she has just received > word that her sister (Miss Flopp) is coming out to Australia in response to numerous j requests from. Miss Dango to do so. I Madame Maeterlinck, known to the Ijonj don public as ' " Georgette Leblano," is an j actress whose impersonations of the leading i female- characters in her famous husband's j plays have- earned, for her a brilliant repuJ tation. She is intensely artistic, and is an. 1 ideal wife, being 1 a. great admirer of M. Maeterlinck's genius. An amusing stc-ry 5S . told of a tour s-he made some time ago in France. At a certain small town the local theatrical company " supported " her in ona of her husband's plays ; but their aid by no means satisfied her, so she complained to tha manag-er. " A writer like my< husband should be treated with more respect," she s»aid. " Madame," replied the manager, "M. Maeterhnck is not the only one to suffer Sophocle°, llcliyre, aiid Racine are daily murdered in the same way." " Possibly." replied the actress quickly, " but they are not murdered alive, at any rate." Mr Gerard Coventry tells of an attempt at humorous rcaLisrn that nearly ended fatally for Dan Dialey, the original "Ichabod Bron- ' son, when " The Belle of New York" wa<j first staged at the Casmo. -When the lunatic I chaped Bronson, the latter climbed up a 1 verandah post and joined a wire on which i was a "traveller" that swuniy him across ! jhe street to the balcony of. a house on the '• prompt side of the stage. This frantic , esca-pe always provoked audiences to wild i mirth. One night, however, (he wire broke. ; and Daley fell 20ft. That was tbe last I time it was tried, and "a cloud cams o'er his (Daley's) brow" for a week while his under- ! study played the part. Mr Coventry has ' no intention of getting Mr Nabl* to do a ) similar slide for life. When chased, he j will climb to the top slvelf of tbe "candy" ! store and fervently say that he"d rather be i " a live coward up here than a brave man down there." ' The last weeks of the Hoyal Comic Opera Company's reason in Melbourne at Her M-a-j jesty's Theatre promise a specially interesting programme. To make room for the Chris-trans \>antomime\ of course the com- ! pany will bave to say farewell somewhere about the middle of December, but in tha comparatively short time which will elapso , before then it is proposed not only to present a piece entirely new to Melbourne — "Tho I/ady ' Dandies" — but also to revive "The Merry Widow" for a short pe&Fon. The cast for tbe latter piece, which will follow- "The Oatch of the Season." us an interesting on-e. This time Mi=-i Florence Younpr will be the Marsovian heiress a.nd Miss Fa.nny Dango will al?o apv/'-ar a.? Fj-Fi, that pp.rt having besjn specially recast for he-r. Of course Mr Andrew H'gErin^on will take Danilo a.nd Mr Victor Oouiiet will b-» Popofr The production will also g^.-e Mr Cl?uda Bantock the opportunity to re.ippcir , after, his four months' absence in his 'old part of the Marquis r!e Cascada. ' Mr Victor Prince, the clever vo'ine cortjed'an who played Bran m "Tho Kins of Ca-lonia." and is c?^t for "Doc" Sn'ffklng in "Tho Bo!lf> of Xevv York." had a few y;-a:o a?o the distinction of staging a purely Aiitrohan ennr opera at Go'ilburn. TLo 1 author of this wss the lap Bnuiton Stephens, the ixist. probably best reirom-b-red by "Convict Once." and the corp'icser 1 ci the music tha late G B Al'en. "FayI ette" was the title of the work, and the story rested upon the 'imaginary incident of two j lucky diggers engaging a tbeatiical company to amuse the miners at Ba.lla.r-at. " It ran ' for six nights aiid two matinees to excellent 1 houses iix Goulburn," narrates Hr Prince. ! "It was played by the local Liedertafel, and i my fatbar, Mr Howard Vernont was in the 1 ca»t We had brand new' scenery and costumes, so that it was really quits an effective production. I remember I got £30 in remuneration for- my work of staging it. Howard Vernon has the 'script pnd score with him in London now, and it is on the cards that he ruay induce >a manager to try it on English audiences.