STAGE GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3183, 17 March 1915, Page 63

STAGE GOSSIP.

The “Seven Little Australians” will visit Christchurch this week; Dunedin follows. Two noted English actresses .of other days died early in January—'Mrs John Wood, aged 88, and Miss Maude Brennan, aged GO. The Royal Strollers are booked for a New Zealand tour after their Melbourne season, and return to open in Sydney about the middle of July. Among the well-known English actors who have joined the forces are Robert Loraine, Denis Neilaon Terry, Georsre Barrett, Murray Carson, Seymour Hodges, Huntley Wright, and Lewis Casson. Miss Lybus Caffyn, a Williamson chorus girl, who was here with “Our Miss Gibbs”

in 1911, and “The Quaker Girl” in 1913, was recently married to R. H. Chester, a wellknown aviator in Australia. Bertie Wright, who was here in “Our Miss Gibbs,” has been appearing in the pantomime put on at the London Opera house. The production was a combination of “Aladdin” and “The Forty Thieves.” The season of the Nellie Stewart Company commences in Dunedin on May 5. The company concluded a successful season in Auckland on Saturday night, and is now touring the small towns of the North Island ; Taihape to-night. Richard Weathersby, the producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, speaking of Aliss Gladys, Moncrieff, who plays Ruth Lincoln’s parts, expressed the opinion that the young Brisbane singer has a brilliant future before her. Easter attractions in the four centres will be “Babes in, the Wood” pantomime. His Majesty’s, Dunedin; “The Glad Eye” Comedy Company, Theatre Royal, Christchurch, Nellie Stewart Company, Opera House, Wellington ; the Plimmer-Hall Dramatic Company, His Majesty’s, Auckland. Julius Knight is talking of retiring. Should this be so, J.K. will leave a void in romantic drama hard to fill. It is understood that the performances present and to come will be the last that this popular actor will give to Sydney for all time. The -idea of big salaries behind the footlights is rather exploded by the researches ot ihe women’s suffragette societies. A leading soubrette part in a West End production on tour earns T 3 l()s a week, and has to find dresses, hats, and other accessories. Recently, when the Russians were picking over a batch of Austrian prisoners, they discovered that the catch included the composers of “The Merry Widow” and “The Dollar Princess.” The two mnsicianly soldiers were Franz Lehar and Leo Fall, who had been serving as officers in the Austrian army. Private advice reports that. Mr William Manson, son of Mrs Isabella Manson, a wellknown ex-Dunedin vocalist, • has been appointed Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music. Notwithstanding that he is only 18 years of age, Mr Manson gained three medals at the close of the year for harmony, pieces at sight, and singing. The two farces with the longest runs in Britain, and really in the world, have been revived in London, and have proved highly successful. “Charley’s Aunt,” which holds the record with 1466 performances, ran several weeks at the Prince of Wales Theatre, and “Our Boys,” the runner up, with 1362 performances, was still not out at the Vaudeville Theatre, where it was originally produced, when the latest mails left Britain. No slings and arrows of outrageous fortune can break Madame Sarah Bernhardt’s ever-youthful spirit. A few weeks ago, when acting, she had the misfortune to injure her knee so severely that it was necessary to amputate the leg. Yet the indomitable lady announces that she will be on the stage again in May. She would seem to possess the secret of eternal youth; hut the hard fact remains that she was born in Paris 7<5 years ago. A Melbourne cable announces the death of Mr Thomas Alexander Browne, ex-magis-trate and . novelist, known as Rolf Boldrewood, aged 89 years. His best-known story, “Robbery Under Arms,” dealing with the bushranging days in Australia, in dramatised form was played with remarkable success by the late A'fred Dampier in most Australian and New Zealand towns. Among his other novels were “The Aliner’s Right,” “A Alodern Buccaneer,” and “The Squatter’s Dream.” The patriotic fervour that was turned in the direction of writing plays of the heroic order in the early stages of the war has apparently been making itself felt in an even sterner sort of stuff, judging by the plays sent to the management of J. C. Williamson (Ltd.) in Melbourne for production. During the last couple of months 11 dramas—or, rather, the manuscript of them'—have been submitted to the firm. Each of these is of the heroic order, with British officers in the leading roles. Eight of the 11 included a scene of the Allies marching into Berlin.