THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 68

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

By Pasquih. Tuesday. April 9. The Allan Hamilton Dramatic Company, at present at His Majesty's, will at the conclusion of the Dunedin season pay a brief visit to Invercargill, where tho New Zealand, tour concludes. Tho company afterwards play Hobart and Launceston, en route to Australia. Tho members of tho Dunedin Amateur Operatic Society are rehearsing- "Pirates of Penzance" for production at His Majesty's on April 29 and five following nights. The principals are well up to trio mark, and tlto

chorus is said to be particularly fine. Following is the cast: —Major-general Stanley, Mr T. Dance; Pirate King. Mr A. Rawlinson; Frederick, Mr Colin Gray; Samuel, Mr A. Pacey; Sergeant of Police, Mr Farquhxr Young; Mabel, Miss Helen Gard'ner; Ruth, Mrs Power; Edith, Miss B. HowieStuart; Kate, Miss Kempton; Isabel, Miss Sparrow. Mr Percy James will bo stage manager, Mr Sidney Wolf conductor, and Miss Jeffs will lead'the ballet. Inquiries for the wardrobe and scenery of "Dorothy" and "The Gondoliers" are being made from the authorities of the Dunedin Amateur Operatic Society by the Napier and Auckland Societies. Mr Erio Maxon, who played Laertes in the H. B. Irving production of '•Hamlet" in Dunedin a few weeks ago, has been retained by tho J. O. Williamson management to play the name part in "Ben Hiur" when the big spectacular production goes up in Svdney. General Len Wallace's play will be seen in New Zealand this year. Mr Eardlcy Turner, who was in the Australian production of "Everywoman," which has just commenced a New Zealand tour at Auckland, has remained in Sydney for "Ben hur." Mr William Desmond, tho American actor, here the other day in "Alias Jimmy Valentine,' has replaced Mr Turner with the "Everywoman" Company. The first produotion in Australasia of tho Drury Lane drama. "The Sins of Society," took place at the Adolphi, Sydney, on Easter Saturday. This huge spectacular play is by Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton, who havo achieved an interesting plot, with notable effects, scenioally and otherwise. In the first act there is the racecourse at Longchamps, in the second act a clever and realistic scene of a weir on tho river, and in the third act tho sinking of tho steamer Btaohy Head with a regiment of soldiers on hoard. Included in tho cast are Misses Violet Paget, Nellie Mortyne, Elwyn Harvey, Marie Glavering, Oriel Hotson, Messrs Hugh Buckler, Clive Farnha.rn, H. W. Driver, Charles Lawrence, Da.rcy Kelway, and W. R. Hunter, and an auxiliary cast of 200 people for the racecourse and ship scenes. Mr Geo. Willoughby is producing the drama. The "Blue Bird" Company opened under the J. C. Williamson management at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, on Saturday, April 6, in Maeterlinck's wonderful fairy play. The company includes Madge M'lntosh, the fine actress who-gained such popularity when last in Australia; Ernest Hendrie, who plays the dog and who was for years with the Kendalls, for whom he wrote the enormously successful play "Tho Elder Miss Blossom"; Norman Page, who appears as the cat, and also produces the play; Ewan Brooke anel Caroline Bay Icy, both of whom were last in Australia as members of the Asohe-Brayton Company; A. E. Warburton, who was a member of the Julius Knight-Maude Jeffries Company in Australia; E. Rigby, Dixon Kenwin, and others. Mr W. Angus MacLeod is general manager of the company and representative for Mr Frederick Harrison, of the Haymarket Theatre, London. The two children whose rernarkablo adventures in search of the Blue Bird are I the subject of Maeterlinck's beautiful story I are represented by Australians. This is in | pursuance of a policy Mr J. O. William- | son insisted upon when arranging with Mr Frederick Harrison to stage " The Blue Bird - ' in Australia. "You cannot," ho said, "find in England children as clever as we have." Tyltyl is played by Baby Cromer, who has recently completed a "starring" tour as Little Ix>rd Fauntleroy; Mytyl by little Vera Spaull, who has played Cissie Denver in "The Silver King," and was recently Kitty Vance in "Alias Jimmy Valentine." Marlow (Limited) has a dramatic company in Christchurch. The company includes the English artists Miss lyonise Hampton, Messrs Cecil* Manncring, and J. Banford Howard, besides Miss Harrio Ireland, Miss Alice Deorwyn, Miss EltMe Prince, and Miss Pat tie Gourlay, Messrs Cass. J. P. O'Neill. P. V. Scully. Crcsbio Ward. Herbert Linden, and Stewart Garner. Tn addition to "A Girl's Temptation," the I companv will play "The Luck of Roaring Camp,"' "The Mother of His Child," and "Her Wedding Day." Mr Stanley Grant told "Prompter" that the Marlow firm, which he is representing, has secured the Australasian rights of two great Drury Lane successes, "The Hope" and "Tho Marriages of Mayfair," and in addition the rierht to produce "The Sins of Society." another great dramatic success. When "The Marriages of Mayfair" was presented nt Home a feature of the piece in the spectacular sense was the appearance of 100 ladies dressed in tho most, trorgeous fashions of the moment. It is the intention of the Marlow Company to preserve this attractive feature as far as possible when the play is produced in New Zealand with the others mentioned next year. It. is I worth recording that when Mr Bland Holt first seeured the right to play "The Sins of Society" he paid £IOOO down on account of royalties. Mr George Willoughby, who is so well and favourably known In these part*, has joined the Marlow firm, and he is

now superintending the whole of the dra«matic productions. Mr Willougkby's great I work will be in preparing '"Tin; Hope," "The Marriages of Mayfair," and "The Sins of Society." Mr and Mrs Marlow will ' leave Australia on April 27 for the Old Country to secure fresh attractions for the firm. It is over 10 years since Miss Hilda, Si*>ng left Australia to try her fortunes on the | London stage. Whan Mr J. O. Williamson was lust in America he saw her appearing as leading lady in New York. He at onco endeavoured to secure her for on Australian tour. Eventually terms wore arranged, and, judging by the enthusiastic reports of Miss Spong's brilliant interpretation of the title role in "Everywoman," Mr Williamson's judgment has once more again asserted itself. Miss Spong modo her first appearance on the London stage in "The Duchess of Coolgardie" at Drury Lane, but her chief success was achieved in "Trelawnoy of the Wells." Later she went through a, wide and varied repertoire of comedies, extending over a period of two years and a-half. During the past Sevan years she has been appearing in America, for some time being associated under the leading managements with such stars as William Gillette, Henry Miller, William , Crane, and others prominent on the American stage. For tho past five years she has been starring in many leading comedies and dramas. Lattorly she has been leading lady of Daniel Frohman's stock company. It is an interesting fact that in New York some years ago Miss Spong was associated with another Australian, appearing with Mr Oscar Asche in hie production of "Iris." Further particulars of Madame Clara Butt's recent tour of Europe shows that she sang with great success in Berlin, Prague, Dresden, and in all the other cities in which she appeared. In Berlin, where she sang under the direction of Dr Ktinwald at the Philharmonic Hall, she received an ovation, the audience advancing to the stage demanding encores The great contralto gave five encores, and was subsequently bidden to the Imperial box, where she was personally complimented by Princess Louise of Prussia and Princess Marie, only daughter of the Kaiser. In Vienna her triumph was no loss remarkable. She was beard at the famous Mu6ikereina-Saale, and gave a wonderful programme of English, French, German, and Italian songs from the nens of such composers a.« Elerar, Goring Thomas, Debussy, Beethoven : Schubert, and Brahms. The Viennese newspapers spoke of her in the highest, terms, the effective adjective "Kolossfd" being frequently applied to describe the brilliance of her singing. A now management (so far as the above cities are concerned) directed the concerts, the name c-f J. and N. Tait appearing in that important position. There seems to be some feeling on tho part of proprietors of picture shows in Christchurch in regard to the action of tho City Council in refusing permission to show pictures on Good I* riday. During i the entertainment in tho Colosseum on Tuesday evening tho following announcement was thrown on tho screen: —"No pictures on Good Friday. Through the action of tho City Council you are deprived of an innocent evening's entertainment. With one exception, Wanganui, Christchurch is the only town in New Zealand where permission to show pictures on Good Friday evening has been withheld." Tho announcement was received with groans. A London office is to bo established in ' connection with tho recently arranged Brennan-Fullcr vaudeville combination, and it, is probable that either Mr Walter Fuller I or Mr John Fuller, junr. will be in charge I of it and will engage artists for the Brcn-nan-Fuller Australasian circuit, i Mr Oscnr Asche, on arrival in Australia, had something to say about the Actors' Union and the heavy duties now charged ujMin imported scenery. "I am an Australian myself, but I fail to se e how either of these experiments is going to achieve its object. Why, you have even eclipsed the United States in your efforts at prohibition Over there you can take stage scenery in under bond, but here you charge , a duty of 25 per cent, on it I have J brought out 700 tons of stuff for 'Kismet,' so you can understand how it affloets me. The scenery could not have been painted by local artists in less than 18 months, and : then it probably would not have been satis- | factory, because I want it done to my j liking, and I could not have been here to I superintend the work." Mr Asche was I amused at the proposals made by tho union I to regulate the ■ wages of "artists." 'lf a | young man in my company does not get a rise in salary after he has been with me for 12 months, then he gets tho 'sack,' " he remarked. "And tho same practice i prevails in all big London companies. If i a man has got anything in him he is ' m " I proving in his profession, and ho is worth I more to me; if ho has nothing in him, ' then he is at tho wrong business, and the 1 sooner he makes a change the better for ! all concerned." If Mr Asche had had to I rely upon local artists, so he explained, he I would not havo been able to open for

several weeks, because of the extra time required for rehearsal. George Bernard Shaw paid an unusual -sort of tribute to the variety stage in a recent interview in London, lie said: "Of course, there is really no such thing as the music hall now. There are vaudeville theatres in America and variety theatres in England. They are all admirable for tho fact that only highly-trained people perform in them. That is why I have had to choose the most highly-trained and efficient actors I could procure for my play at the Palace. Had it been an ordinary theatre 1 could have been satisfied w ith ordinary actors But here—why, think of the difference! Suppose my play, for instance, was to follow a performing horse. The animal would be the most highly-trained procurable, and if my actors were inefficient the audience would "at once perceive the difference. I have often seen jugglers and performing animals make actors from the ordinary stage look terribly inefficient by comparison. I thought of this, and was careful to choose for my play a', tho Palace only actors who have achieved great successes with my other mays." For the fust time "Sumurun" has trivon to the American public the opportunity to Roe the work of the most brilliant of" tho German managers, and as the Germans dead tho world in tho drama to-day it is natural that Reinhardt has created a sensation in New York. The actors in his troupe individually are able to convey by face and gesture what American and English actors could not possibly convey; tho stage management makes every act and motion and position of every member of tho company help the total effect, whereas a good pact of the American acting consists in one player undoing the effect of another; and the use of scenery is such as might apnea! to Whistler, or Manet, or Degas, with its extraordinarily subtle harmony and its elimination of everything needless in order to strengthen the" effect of what is essential. The Dalv-Irving-Belasco conception of scenery as an elaborate reproduction of everv possible detail is still dominant in America and in Engbut it may bo predicted that Reinhardt's use of imaginative simplicity as a background for imaginative effects "is not likely to fall on entirely barren soil. In popular songs is the quality of words and music cutting better or worse? Do you remember the days of "Champagne Charlie. 'Canrain Jinks of tho Horso M * r ' nos > ' ln(] " r P in a balloon, boys"? Ta-ra-'a-bootn-do-ay " was circling' the globe at the time of the World's Fair, and we knew of the captain of a square-rigger who heard the chorus in Hongkong and thought he was listening to a Chinese song. In the early nineties came- "Annie Rooney " ' After the bull." "A bicycle built for two'," and Sweet Marie." After "Th 0 blue and the grey' and "Just one erirl" began the era of ragtime with "Hello, ma baby!" the good old summer time" helped to bring in the new century. "Tammany," Hiawatha, and "Tell me, nretty maiden" --the sextet of "Florodora" fame—came along about the same time. Later there have beer, "Nancv Brown," "So long. l{l ry ,t Dearie." "I love a lassie," and other Harry Lauder songs. "Yip-i-addy " 'Beautiful eves," and "Rings on her fingers. Taking it through 20 years. ther e has probably been no steady" decline in musical quality, but the same cannot bo Baid Tor the words Permission to arrange for ai' " hypnotic drive " through the city was refused by the Wellington City Council on Tuesday night. Tho city engineer reporting en the application, which came from a company of entertainers, said that the proposal was that a person hypnotised should en:!eavour to locate somo article which had been hidden in the city. Ho continued, " There have previously been some complaims made of this particular form of entertainment, or, I should say, advertisement, and the decision of tho council should bo given." It wu.s suggested that the entertainment was dangerous, and per!ni-i.-:ion was therefore refused. The amalgamation of tho vaudeville enterprises conducted by Messrs John Fuller and Sons and those hitherto under the management of tlie Brennans in Australia has been effected, and is one of tho most important moves made in vaudeville circles for somo years. Messrs Fuller and Sons will manage tho new combination, but their moving picture enterprises will not form part of the new business. Each party to the amalgamation runs four vaudeville theatres; the Brennans control the National Amphitheatre, Sydney, the now National Amphitheatre, Melbourne, the Royal Theatre, Brisbane, and a large vaudeville theatre in Adelaide; whilst Messrs Fuller and Sona have the Opera House, Christchairch, the Opera Houses Auckland, tho Theatre Royal, Wellington, and tlie King's Theatre, Dunedin. Unde»

the new staU of affairs it will be possible to offer artiste longer contracts than was possible when Messrs Fuller and Sons were catering only for New Zealand, and it is also intended to arrange for the various companies to visit the more important country towns in the Dominion.