THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 66

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

By Pasquin.

Tuesday, Juno 15. The past -week has been peaceful and placid after the excitement of the Winter Carnival. All the foreign attractions have departed, leaving the city to devote its energies to the promotion of the Queen of the Carnival. This function promises to be one of the bigy things in Dunedin —if not the biggest of the kind that has been undertaken in the city. Keen interest is being taken in the movement, and the rivalry between the various parties working on behalf of the Carnival queens is delightfully healthy. As a counter attraction to theatrical ventures, the Queen of the Carnival may be serious, but its object justifies the whole-hearted enthusiasm. "Vaudeville was re-opened in Dunedin on Saturday night under the happiest auspices, the Princess Theatre being crowded to excess to see the premier performance of “The Butterflies.” Arrangements have been made for a continuous change, and included in the new attractions is Paul Stanhope's revue company, which is quite one of the biggest and most successful at present on the Brcnnan-Fullor circuit.

Mr M. .T. Bloomfield, who wns lasi in Dunedin in the interests of Miss Ellon Terry, has returned after an absence of 10 months to advance the cause of Joseph Elascheek. the well-known society entertainer, who is duo to open a season at His Majesty’s on Thursday. The season of four nights will bo followed by a visit to Invercargill and the surrounding districts. The Plimmor-Hnll Company, recently with ns. concluded its patriotic tour at Invercargill on Tuesday, and on started olit on a comprehensive tour of small towns of New Zealand on Thursday with *'A Message from Mars.” Several members of tho Plimmer-Hall Company not in the cast of ,f A Message from Mars” returned

to Melbourne by the Wimmera on Thursciay. These included Miss Dale, Miss Nellie Ooivin, and Mr \ arna. Miss Beatrice Day passed through last week en route to Wellington, where she w.ll spend a holiday with friends. Miss Day deserves the rest alter her arduous work in connect.on with tho patriotic tour of the Phmmer-lrLall Company. It would appear that after nearly 12 months Dunedin is to be again visited by a Williamson company. The last Williamson attraction in Dunedin was the “Puss in Boots’’ pantomime just after tho war broke out. Now, strangely enough, the new pantomime “Cinderella’ 'is to bo the link that binds Dunedin to the firm. Mr John Parrel!, who arrived at Wellington tho other day to pilot “Cinderella’’ through New Zealand, advises that the Dunedin season will open at His Majesty’s on July 24-, and extend to tho 29th. The following is the amended tour: —Wellington, from. Wednesday, June 9 to 16; Palmerston North, Thursday, June 17; Wanganui, Friday and Saturday, Juno 18 and 19; Hawera, Juno 21; New Plymouth, Tuesday, June 22; Auckland, from Wednesday, Juno 23 to Friday, July 2; Gisborne, Monday and Tuesday, Julv 5 and 6: Nanicr, Thursday and Friday, July 8 and S; ‘Christchurch, from Monday, July 12 to Wednesday, July 21; Timaru, Thursday, July 22; Oamatu, Friday, July 23; Dunedin, Saturday, July 24 to Wednesday, July 29. The cable news of the death in Melbourne of Mr Frank Musgrovc, who was here throe weeks ago as business manager for tho Nellie Stewart Company, came as a sudden shock to those who knew him. Just prior to his departure for Melbourne Frank Husgrove sa.icl to me that. He wished ho could stay in New Zealand a little longer, for he felt that the change would be of benefit, though ho did not complain of being in other than good health in Dunedin. _ Deceased was a brother of (George and Harry Musgrove, and first came to New Zealand as treasurer for Hav,trey’s “Message from Mars” Company. Tho company toured the islands for upwards of two years, and the members became favourably known to the public. On returning to Australia Frank Musgrovc had the good fortune to secure a lease of the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, at a low figure, and subsequently sub-leased it to tho “firm” at a substantia! rental. Tor some years he did not move out of Sydney, and his recent visit to_ New Zealand as business manager for Nellie Stewart was made after an absence of 11 years. Deceased was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, and, like many students of that well-known institution, took a keen interest in rowing and cricket. Of a modest and retiring dispositidn, h.s death is regretted by many friends in New Zealand. ‘The Violet Dandies, of which one of the stars is Miss Dorothy Gard’ner, of this city commence a tour of the South Island at Christchurch on Saturday next, 19th inst. Dunedin follows in due course, though there is nothing certain about the due “course these war times. Mr Leo D. Chateau, who is now one of the esteemed directors of the Dandies’ shows, will be welcomed after a long absence. True to promise. Beaumont Smith has arranged for a visit to Dunedin of his comedy company producing Ihe Cnaperone” and “Who’s tho Lady?” Memories of the “Glad Eye” and Miss Ethel Dane s Kiki still linger fondly, and should assure a warm welcome to the company when it reaches Dunedin next month. Later wo are to have a visit from that favourite Irish actor-manager, Allen Doono, whose tour of New Zealand opened at Auckland tho other day. Allen Doone sticks to the production of plays redolent of tho green isle, and his repertoire is as extensive as varied in Irish drama. Mr Frank Levy is tho touring manager. Mr Graham Moffatt, who introduced “Bunty Pulls the Strings” to New Zealand last year, has produced “A Scrape o’ the Pen” in Sydney. Ho will send the new play to tho Dominion in the course of a month dr two. A New Zealand tour has liccn booked, opening at Auckland. Mr Harry E. White, of Dunedin, who is probably Australia’s foremost authority on theatrical architecture, pronounces the new Tivoli Theatre in Brisbane, just opened, to bo the most modern structure of its kind in the British Empire, and is the only theatre outside of New York that boasts a roof garden. This new theatre is likewise the only one in the British Empire equipped throughout with a most uirque system of -hygienic arrangements whereby pure air is filtered into tho body of the house, and the vitiated air expelled by electrical appliances, constantly. Mr White has not alone established himself solidly in this particular line of architectural endeavour, but has also created a high reputation for himself in connection with municipal architectural and engineering problems both above and below grounds in Australia and New Zealand which called for highest skill and closest knowledge of costs and materials. It is extremely gratifying to_ know that, despite the opposition met with and the cold suspicion with which some people regarded the patriotic tour of the PlimmerHall Company, the tour has resulted in a profit to tho Patriotic Funds of £3500. This is a handsome sum indeed, and Messrs Plimmer and Hall and the members of the company generally who accepted reduced salaries in older that the greatest measure of benefit might accrue to. the fund are deservin'? of the warmest thanks for their self-sacrificing efforts. Tho cast of the “Cinderella” pantomime, to be produced in Dunedin next month, includes a number of brilliant artists. Barry Lupino, Minnie Love, Jack M'Ardle. Dolly Castles, Dolly Harmcr. Arthur Stigant, Celia Ghiloni, Gertie Latohford, Rupert Darrell, and Leslie Gaze, make a splendid array of now importations and old favourites/ Dolly Castles last appeared here some five years ago in Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and much interest will bo evinced in her reappearance. Leslie Gaze was irnmenseply popular in “The Chocolate Soldier.” and his engagement is a big one for pantomime. Arthur Stigant is a Drury Lane artist, as also is Jack M'Ardle. Minnie Love is recognised as one of the best Engl'sh pantomime boys, while Barry Lupino is a whole entertainment in himself. JOSEPH BLASCITECK. “A feast of humour and music.” That is how Mr George R. Sims, the eminent English journalist, described Mr Joseph Biascheck’s entertainment when he witnessed ; fc at the Queen’s Hall. London; and so aptly do these words apply that they could bo used as a sort of trade mark for tho great humorist’s performances. Never have we hoard in this country so versatile an artist —a man who can thrill u s by his dramatic power and convulse us with laughter by bis comedy in such a way as docs Joseph Bias-

check is surely unique. It is true that there are many line actors who are able to play both comedy and tragedy well, but it is impossible to imagine that any other living performer has the extraordinary range of powers that ho has. It is not simply that he is able to enact both serious and comic parts, but ho is pre-eminent in both, and ho can act, sing, and recite as no other entertainer we have over heard. Mr Blaschock seems to have the ability, too, of finding and selecting clever artists to- support him, and in Miss Alyoo Austin, the charming young lady who shares the honours of the programme with him, we are presented with one of. the smartest and most taking lady entertainers on the platform to-day. Mr Blaschock opens a four nights’ season of “society snapshots” at His Majesty’s Theatre on Thursday, June 17. Mr Biascheck will also give a farewell season of two nights—June 22 and 23 —at the Municipal Theatre, Invercargill. STAGE GOSSIP, New Zealand will probably see the spy play “The Man Who Stayed at Home” in September. Good news for country play-goers: Julius Knight proposes to include New Zealand in hia tour of the small towns. Mr and Mrs Fred Niblo left Sydney for America on June 5. They were given a very hearty send-off in Melbourne and Sydney. Mr Brandon Creamer, well known in this city, has taken over the late vaudeville theatre in Adelaide, and is producing melodrama. Mr Fred Niblo has isaid farewell to Australasia after an engagement extending over three years, and has sailed with his wife (Miss Josephine Cohan) for America. After touring New Zealand with “ The Babes in the Wood” pantomime, Miss Daisy Jerome has returned to vaudeville, and is again appearing on the Fuller circuit. From New York a complete company of Hebrews is coming to Australia, under the J. C. Williamson management, to appear in " Potash and Perlmutter.” Before the close of the -New Zealand tour of “ The Babes in ihe Wood,” H. Hanlon, of Hanlon, Dean, and Hanlon, the acrobatic trio, married Miss Ivy Moore, the dancer with the production, who is a sister of Mias Carrie Moore. The war has brought many changes, and not the least of them, a critic points out, “is the complete transformation of the Criterion Theatre, London. For many years devoted to Sir Charles Wyndham’s production, it is now a Continental theatre, where French and other plays are produced by Belgian artists.” Miss Irene Dillon, the young Australian, who has been one of the most successful pantomine artists in Britain during the past few years, ,will probably be out in Australia before long on the Rickards circuit. Miss Dili on ha'S been booked for a tour of South Africa, Australia, and India. Miss Dillon left Australia six years ago. "La Kommandatur,” by Jean Francois Fonson, is the name of a realistic \Var play presented by a Belgian company in London. An English critic writes: “A picture of Brussels under the German heel, in the dark days just before the fall of Antwerp, by an author who has taken his details on the spot, is a feast of authenticity and actuality.” At a recent performance of “ The Man Who Stayed at Home,” at the Royalty Thciatre, London, there were present by invitation a large number of wounded soldiers from the front. “Their presence,” said. The Times, “ added to the electrical atmosphere of the occasion, and roused the audience to a. thrilling expectancy in keeping with the object and spirit of the play.” A Maori opera company will shortly begin a tour of the Waikato, and open in Auckland on August 2. It comprises 30 people, and will produce a Maori opera entitled ■' Hinemoa,” -written by Mr Percy Flynn, a Rotorua musician. It is stated that half the net proceeds of the tour will be devoted to the Maori Mission Church at Rotorua, and the balance to the fund to provide foxwounded soldiers.

On June 20 there were 320 artists in Melbourne under the management of J. C. Williamson (Ltd.). The Gilbert and Sullivan Company had arrived from the West, on route to Sydney. The Royal Comic Opera Company was in the last stages of rehearsing “ The Marriage Market." The “ High Jinks ” Company was getting ready to leave for Adelaide, and the Fred Niblo Company was at the Theatre Royal in “ Broadway Jones.”

In J. C. Williamson’s pantomime “Cinderella ” the stage is suddenly blackened, and suspended is a huge picture frame bearing the mystic figures “ 1815.” As these slowly dissolve the familiar figure of Napoleon in characteristic attitude and standing on the sea-girthed shore of St. Helena creeps into focus. In turn this, too, gives place to “ 1919,” and then the equally familiar form of the Kaiser looking out yearningly over the tireless seas is disclosed.

The late John Bunny, the world-famous picture comedian, who died recently, was among the first of the recognised players to .see the possibilities of motion picture work, and his success on the screen was almost instantaneous. Bunny’s world-wide fame has never been equalled oy a screen or stage star, his appeal to all nationalities being one of the most remarkable features of his surprising career. He is survived by a widow and a son, George Bunny, who is connected with the Vitagraph Company. Among those killed in Flanders was George Llewellyn Davies, who held a commission in the Rifle Brigade. Davies was the original of David in Barrie’s “ Little White Bird,” and it was out of the stories told by Sir James Barrie in 1901 to this boy and his brothers and sisters that “ Peter Pan ” sprung. Davies was then seven years old. He was adopted by Barrie a few years later. Davies wrote one line in Barrie’s play “Little Mary,” and drew a royalty of a halfpenny per night for his share in the work.

Although there was a great deal of difference of opinion among English critics when “Who’s the Lady?”—which ‘‘The Glad Eye” Company is to play here—was first staged in London, the Bishop of Kensington settled the whole question as to its perfect propriety as far as the layman was concerned by sending along a special representative to report on the morals of the piece. The bishop’s henchman returned, still chuckling, to report that the show was tire funniest thing ever, and that he was going along the following night with _ his wife. If this Is the time to laugh (and King George has advised us to patronise the theatre and laugh and be merry just as if there were no war), “Who’s the Lady?” to be played here shortly by the Beaumont Smitli-Hoskins funmakers, would appear to be the medium for laughing. In the north play-goers have been going into hysterics over it, and the women find Ethel Dane’s frock display worth a visit per dress. Kiki, of “ The Glad Eye,” wore no frocks, or, we should hasten to say, no frocks that any respectable dressmaker would deimi to send a bill for; but she was charming all

the same, and she is a hundred times more so now that she has become the brightlygarbed Gobette.