STAGE GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 69

STAGE GOSSIP.

Miss Beatrice Day wilbba seen in Australia with Mr H. E. Roberts in Mr Ha,ll Caine's play "Pete." Wirth Bros.' Circus, which has been • reorganised and enlarged, is now performing in Prince Alfred Park, Sydney. Clarke and Meynell have engaged Mr Conway Wingfield to play the part of Sir George Paddock in "The Arcadians." The NVv Zealand tour of Mr. J. C. Williamson's pantomime "Aladdin " will commence at Auckland on August ft The first stage representation of "Rip van Winkle" took ulaon in Cincinnati. Ohio, it, 1828. with Charles B. Parsons as Rip. After a pleasant two years in Australia, several members of the Clarke and Meyiiell Comic Opera Company nave left for iundor. Mr Percy Clifton and 16 other members of Messrs Clarke and Meynell's new ooera company have arrived in Australia from England. , _ The Carl Rosa Company has secured tno exclusive English rights of G-oldmark's great opera. "The Queen of Sheba," and will produce it shortly. ',,,', Miss Madsre Titheradge, the daughter of Mr C S. Titheradge, the w<dl-known actor, has been married to Mr Charles Quarte:rnaine, actor. Count Sergei Tolstoi, a son of the famous author, has won a prize of 500 roubles offered for the best song submitted to a Moscow committer of composers. "The King of Cadrvnia" Company is to produce "The Dollar Princess" in Melbourne at Eaater. The olay deals with an American millionaire who has British peers as servants. The perennial popularity of "Peter Pan" in other parts of the world is indicated bvthe fact that it has just had its seventi

annual revival in London and its sixth in New York.

Mascagni may visit America tliia year to conduct his new opera, "Ysobel" (on the subject of "Lady Godiva"), which is to be toured by the theatrical firm of Libler and Company. "The plans of a new theatre in Auckland for Messrs Fuller and Sons have been accepted, and the work will at once be proceeded with. The new building is to seat 1800 people.

The Jast engagement which Miss Katherine Grey had before leaving for Australia was with Mr Kyrle Bellew in "The Thief." A play to be produced specially for her at an early date is "Henri of Navarre." Mark Hambourg has been playing in Paris with quite phenomenal success, the audience not only remaining till the end of the programme, but even demanding encore after encore when the concert was over.

On September 30, 1837, the late Joseph Jefferson made his first appearance on the stage at the National Tneatre, New York, at the age of eight, in a sword combat with Master Titus, and impersonated a pirate. As might be' expected, there was a tremendous rush to see the first night of "Aladdin" when it was produced at Her Majesty's, Sydney. The pantomime is likely to achieve the same success there as in Melbourne, r

'~t is estimated that over 2000 voices were heard in the search for c chorus for the Williamson Grand Oner a Company. After the first trials the number was reduced to 200. and finally the applicants were cut down to seven! ...

... Clarke .and Meynell intend to run duplicate companies ..for,the -plays to be .produced in Melbourne by Hatheson Lang and Miss Hutin Britton. The second company, headed by H. E. Roberts and Beatrice Day, will t.ur New Zaaland.

William Anderson's "Babes in the Wood" pantomime is having a record season in Perth. The first performance : opened to a great house, and business has improved nightly till H«r Majesty's Theatre cannot' accommodate th« greStcrb'wds.' William Anderson's ''Babes in the Wood" pantomime will'probably play a week's return season iti"'Adelaide, commencing on April 16. Broken Hill, Ballarat. and Bondigo will .follow. The company will after- ■■• -ds' visit 'Newcastle and Brisbane.! "••vere -are .niatny fine scenes in "A Thief i the Night"—WiHiani Anderson's Easter effraction for•.■, Melbourne, —the finest "of which is a f«rit.h/u! picture of the White City at Shepherd's Bush, London, where, the- great Franco-British Exhibition took place. ". By the look of things "The. Prince and the Beggar Maid" will run for at least six weeks at the King's.Theatre", Melbourne. Six weeks is the bestidraTnatic season Melbourne has known for some; time. ."The Prince and the Beggar . M/aid* - 'is a fine play, and thoroughly/ deserves../its" success. Messrs Bert - Bailey and Edmund Duggan. authors- : of /Daughter" and .".The - Ma-n -from Out Back," have nearly completed another Australian drama. They say it is likely to'eo.lins©'their former successes.'- It will probablv be •nroduoed by W-'Hiam Anderson later on in the year. .

The press is ; enthusiastic .about' Miss Tittell Prune-in ''Dr'-' ! ffekyll and Mv Hyde." The Mall Gazette says:—"Miss Tittell Br.une ■"■srilays power and a most j; nished" techniaue.-. in the part of Lady ""arew, and fulfcy:-;:i justifies the: high opinion 'A formed of fiber;; in ' The Woman in the r '".se.' She is?4b»i; tare thing on our stage - -w, an actress with a real dramatic power ;■• -id a faculty-;of complete self-absorotion in the situation.. Her elocution is admirable, and her every/ attitude and. gesture is significant -and ' in, the picture.'" News is to hand from America of the death on January 2. after a long illness, of Mrs Agne?Bp*oth: Schoeffel, wife of'Mr John B. SchoefteL ,fhe nwnpr of the "Tremont Theatre, Boston; fcsays EraV Mrs Schoeffel, famous 30 years ago-as Miss Agnes Booth, a Shakespearian actress and creator of many roles, was born in Sydney. Australia, on October 4. 1843. • H« r maiden name was Marian Agnes Land Rookes. and she was the. daughter of a British officer then stationed in Sydney. She was -attracted to the stfwre at an early age, and at 14 made her 'debut as a ; dAneer.- : That "Aladdin" is very weak on the pingin? side of-the--show must be admitted (says Sydnev Referee-)-; trThe best of the vocal features "is "The sha'dow. of the Pyramids." which is Sting dn. the second act by Mis' Marie Eaton;: i'The Slave of the Lamn) and a. well-balanced ;j©hprus. Miss Nance Maher, who studied -.yjjth,? Signor H^zon. a few years ago. is not. called; unon after her 'little up-in-a-baJloon song. If some of the superfluous "comic" padding .were cut out room could be made couple of songs by Miss Maher. The girl has a good voice, end she knoyfs/Vw to sing. "What's the matter' with .hah'ding over to Miss Maher "Pines cm }ie?" frnger*" or "Dear mother jar,^"?—two. 'sbhgs which are now eimply talked. '.-'..' _ As- the great sinaer, Madame Hazarin. ieV nnconscioutf 'at the conclusion of "Elektra." in New York. 4500 persons in the audience, men and women, rose ur> and .remained standing, while waiting for tidings, and did not depart until it, became. krr-wn that the singer was unable to appear upon the stage again that evening. When Madame Mazarin first appeared bsfore the footlights at the end of the oue'a. she seemed to ba very much fatigued, but was all smiles. She was recalled a<*s>i<i and asain, and then ap■Deared. accdmf-ianied by the leading members of the caVtv>- M. de la Fuente, the musical conductor, jumped on to the stace and embrapfid -her, while mien and women in the audience- elapped their gloves into rjhbons.

"TThen the Clarke and Meynell Comic Opera Conroany, now making its last appearances in Australia. at the Theatre Royal,' Melbourne, has returned to London, its place will be taken by a new corma onera company, which is to" uroduce "The Arcadians." This production has nasserl its fourteenth month at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London. The members of the ccmraany arrived in Melbourne by the Orsova. The orima donna, Miss Maie Sydney, was the first Austrian, 'io win the scholarship of the Royal College of 'Mtisic, London, and has_ appeared with various comic opera companies in England. The comedian is Mr Tom "Walls, who for the last three years has anneared at the Empire, London. Other members of the company, whi"h numbers 16. are Charles Stone. Gertrude Gilliam 1 . Constance Lait, Arthur Edwards. Nellie Kavanagh, Ethel Porsvth, Denton, Hilda Edwards, and_Cissie Oaloott. Mr St. John Denton,- the wellknown London theatrical manager and agent, was in charge of the company.