STAGE GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3101, 20 August 1913, Page 60

STAGE GOSSIP.

Mr Farquhar Young, the well-known New Zealand singer, recently left Britain for South Africa on a three months’ tour. The Julius Knight New Zealand tour will bo notable from the fact that the three plays of the repertoire are all new to New Zealand —viz., " Milestones,” ” Bella Donna,” and ” Man and Superman.” Mdle. Adeline Genee was to have commenced her Adelaide season on August 2, but it was found necessary to abandon the performance, owing to the fact that the whole of the orchestral music had. been left behind in Melbourne.

Mr Harry Musgrove conveys the welcome news that the Julius Knight Company, which is to commence a season at the Wellington Opera House on Thursday, will produce George Bernard Shaw’s remarkable play, ■' Man and Superman.” Mr Michael Faraday, of tho Lyric Theatre, London, will, in conjunction with Sir Charles Wyndham and Miss Mary Moore, produce at the New Theatre on October 1 a new Viennese musical play, to lie called in English “ Tho Laughing Husband.” Asia Neilson is one of the highest paid actresses in the picture business. She is the daughter of a Copenhagen Irankcr. Sho started in the pictures three years ago, and leaped into popularity with lightning-like rapidity. Her salary is said to be TSOOO a Miss Maud Williamson and Alfred Woods have been in London since January appearing on the halls in a sketch entitled, " The Saint and the Sinner.” The playlet, of course, was written by Miss Williamson, and its success is stated to have resulted in continuous bookings for tho pair up to August, 1916. From London comes tho news that Mr J. A. E. Malone, the London member of the Williamson firm, and also for a long time associated with Mr George Edwardes. has secured from Mr Frohmann the rights of “ Peter Pan,” and will send out an English company to play the charming fantasy in South Africa. Australia, and New Zealand next season. Speaking on Friday night. June 13. after the last performance of ” The Head Master ” at the Playhouse, Mr Cyril Maude said that that night was a milestone in his career; "it was the anniversary of his going on the stage 30 years ago, and for 29 years he had not played out of the British Isles. Now he was going to America, where ho first began as an actor.

” Slilestones,” which bus been playing at the Royalty Theatre, London, uninterruptedly, ever since March 5 of last year, is to finish its run of nearly 18 months on the night of August 21. By that date the total of consecutive performances will have

exceeded 600. On September 15 Messrs Vedrenne and Eadie will present as its successor a play by a new author, Mr H. M'„ Harwood, entitled “ Interlopers.” Wal. Rockley, who with his daughter provided one of the best turns in the Beebe vaudeville show at Christchurch, is an old New Zealander. He left Auckland as far back as 1886, with that incomparable “black face” artist, Billy Emerson, well remembered by all old stagers, and has been in the States with several of the best minstrel shows and vaudeville companies most of the intervening 27 years. Miss Daisy Markham, the actress, who was awarded £50,000 damages by consent against the Marquis of Northampton for breach of promise of marriage, received six offers of engagements from theatrical agents at a salary of £IOO a week, and one offer of £250 a week for six weeks. The offers were all declined, as they related to music-hall engagements. Miss Markham is determined not to leave the legitimate stage. H. Faulkner Smith, the Australian concert manager, intends to include New Zealand in the itinerary of future concert tours under his control. He has of late been handling Madame Mary Conly’s Australian four, which is to bo resumed shortly, and afterwards will bring that artist through the Dominion. Mr Smith has Mr Peter Dawson, the fine baritone, under his care, and is in treaty with Madame Blanche Marches! for an Australasian tour.

Harry Lauder, the great Scotch comedian, who opens in Australia next year, has made his first appearance at the London Palace Theatre with unprecedented success. The Palace, which is the home of polite' vaudeville, is largely patronised by the aristocracy, and does not provide the audience to which Lauder is accustomed. Yet from the first the famous Scotsman gripped his hearers, and it was not long before he had the front stalls, the dress circle, and the occupants of the boxes singing the chorus of “ Deoch an’ Doris ” with joyous enthusiasm. Nothing like that had ever been heard within the distinguished walls of the Palacebefore, and the London papers showed their appreciation of Lauder’s exploit by long and appreciative notices on the following day. The pictures of Egypt in the forthcoming production of “ Bella Donna,” by the Julius Knight Co., are said to be beautiful. The first, set in the Villa Androud, looks out on to a luscious and dreamy landscape of the Nile, the view bathed in a languorous opaline half-light added to by distant music, faint, far-off cries, and a general suggestion of the mystery, and w'eirdness of the enchanting East. The great scene is on the dahabeeyah Loulia, anchored to the river bank. Over the landscape beautiful flushes of rose-pink, electric-blue, and faint purple steal as day passes into evening, and night finally reigns supreme, shrouded in its shimmering violet haze; authentic Egypt, as it is seen to the Western eye. With the exception of the first act, which occurs in the consulting room of Dr Isaacson, the “dust of Egypt,” is supreme throughout, even at the last, Bella Donna disappearing through the garden door in the direction of a majestic expanse of the lordly Nile. Mr Harry Lauder, in a letter from London to a friend on the staff of the Sydney Morning Herald, writes by the last mail;—“ 1 open my American-Australa-sian tour at New York on January 5, and on my way across the States to San Francisco am booked to appear at the big centres. During my journey across the Pacific I may stop at Honolulu, and shake hands with a bunch of Scots there, and sing them a sang or twa. I am due to open in Sydney under Messrs J. and N. Tait on Saturday, April 11. That is, I believe, your autumn, and should just suit me nice, as I dinna want it ower hot to begin wi’. The London managers are quite against my long stay away, but I have promised myself a trip to Australia, and am stickin’ to it. I shall sing my oldest songs and my newest songs as I proceed wi' my engagement. I have had quite a number of Aus. tralians who have heard me in town when here on visits tolling me that Australia is anxiously awaiting my arrival, and that Scots by thp dozen are getting ready to grip my hand and say, ‘Welcome, laddie.—welcome.’ Scots are scattered all ower the face o’ the globe, but aye sincere to the memory of—

“‘Dear auld Scotland— Scotland ower the sea; My heart’s in Ixmnie Scotland That’s where I’d like to dee.’ ”