THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3494, 22 February 1921, Page 44

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

By

PASOUIN

Monday, February 21. There was a scene of unusual fervour at tho Princes Theatre on Saturday night when an audience of huge size and vociferous cordiality took farewell of the Walter George Sunshine Players, that evening concluding a most successful season of eight weeks. To-night Fullers’ New Revue Company will make a debut in a revue in six scenes entitled “Right There.” Mr Walter Johnson is the producer. Miss Daisy Yates, the principal lady, and also the solo dancer, has been a sterling feature of many Williamson musical entertainments, and Mr Kennedy Allen, the chief comedy merchant, has few rivals in his own chosen line of humour. On the vaudeville side Harrington Reynolds, jun. (a son of the well-known and recently deceased actor), will make a tirst appearance, and Brull and Heinsley, Hall and Menzies, Evans and Deen, and Major Maolaino will also appear. “The Surprise Packet” combination, which was to have opened its season in His Maesty’s Theatre last Wednesday evening, abandoned its Dunedin season. A New York cablegram stales that Signor Caruso’s health shows a slight improvement. A Paris cablegram denies the report from Rome of Puccini’s illness, and states that he is enjoying the best of health. The late George Darrell was partly responsible for the coming to Australia of the late J. C. Williamson and Maggie Moore, whom he saw playing “Struck Oil” at the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco. He gave them letters of introduction to Coppin and others and paved the way for the great Williamson-Moove theatrical boom in Australia. Mr Darrell also had a great deal to do with the introduction of Miss Essie Jenyns, who died only a few months ago. For many years Mr Darrell was a spiritualist, and frequently attended seances. When Sir Arthur Oonan Doyle was In Sydney lie attended all his lectures. During an active career, which included trips to America, London, and South Africa, he wrote 23 original plays, and dramatised 10 books, many of which he staged. His last play, “The Land of Gold,” was produced at the Criterion in Sydney in 1907, and the veteran made his last appearance at the Grand Opera House in Sydney in May. 1916, in aid of the Anzac Day Fund. On this occasion he recited “Around the Dardanelles,” his own composition, and “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” with surprising visrour. The announcement that .1. and N. Tait are bringing to Australia the phenomenal young violinist, Jascha Heifitz, recalls the sensation made by the gitted young player at his first appearance in London in May of last year. At the conclusion of the programme, amidst a storm of applause, Dame Nellie Melba ascended the platform and placed upon Jascha Heifitz’s head a laurel wreath as a tribute from one great artist to another. Heifitz is a Russian, and was “discovered” in America, where he played for two years before he could be induced to visit London. Ernest Lashbrooke, who was the dancing partner of Lydia Came, the pair taking a prominent part in Johnson’s revue at the Princess Theatre, was at latest in Sydney. Two American artists, Gardner and Reveue, have left San Francisco for Sydney to appear on Fullers’ Australian vaudeville circuit. While Mr Frederick Hobbs is singing tenor parts in Gilbert and Sullivan opera in Australia, his wife, known on the stage as Miss Doris Cameron, has been appearing in the same operas in South Africa. Miss Cameron’s mother, Miss Violet. Cameron, was famous in light opera of the “La Maseotte” class many years ago. It is reported with authority that (here are 800 kinema theatres running in Australia at the present time. Mi.-s Gertrude Johnson, the young operatic soprano, who has twice appeared in Dunedin —once in grand opera and once at the head of a concert company—has left Australia for London, in order to continue her musical career. Mr Colin Crane, whose baritone singing has been a feature of more than one recent pantomime, is an Australian, and gained much of his experience in Sydney. He lias appeared (here on various occasions with the Philharmonic Society. More recently lie toured Australia with the Harry Lauder Company. On one occasion in the ITarrv Dearth season of concerts, when the English baritone was unable to appear through illness. Mr Crane took Ills place with success. Miss Maggie Moore, in the course of a recent conversation, told several stories of her mother, who had not been inside a theatre until Miss Moore wenl on the stage in California as n singer and dancer. Taken bv her son-in law. Gaol sin < Vimstnclc, to seo Mis D. P. Rowers, the leading .American iismie aetre-s of her daw as Mary Queen of Seo!-. the old lady Was ..shod wl.ni she 1 hough! of her. The reply was. “She can’t hold a candle to our Maggie.*’ “How is that, mother?” “Well, she speaks bonnlifully. and she ''rears fine clothes, hut she has neither a song nor n dance in her.” On returning to America after her first visit to Australia. Miss Moore played (Irlf. the boy hero of Farjeon's Australasian novel of that mime, who is shot in one scene, ami falls with a display of stage blood.

On seeing ibis her mother rushed round to Ine stage, firmly convinced that the wound was real. One ol the turns under the Fuller banner at tile Bijou, Melbourne, is given by \ al. \ uusuen, impersonator aim veiitii.uquisi. \ ousdeii is a fine Irish impersonator, who appeared m Dunedin many years ago. "I he Maid ot the Mountains,” which holds the world’s record for comic opera with a run ot 1350 mglits at Daly s lheatte, London. has achieved another—and a cuiiereiit—record in Melbourne. 1 he manager of the firm holding the music rights of the piece reported that up to the end of the first week of the J. C. vYilliamson at the i heatre Royal he lias disposed ot over 11,000 copies of the printed score, -f, G 'G the way, was localised for the Melbourne production by printing the Austialiaii cast and other details of the J. G. Williamson production in the front pages, whilst the cover bears a realistic portrait, m colours, of Gladys Moncrietf, who has made such a success of the role of Teresa. On March 14 Miss Maggie Dickinson is to marry her dancing-partner, Sidney Culver, the blonde young man who used to be Yates, and is actually Culverhouse. Cards are out and passages are booked for the honeymoon trip. The graceful pair will go to England and be away five months ere Maggie resumes her engagement with the J. O. W. firm. “blie Prince and the Pauper,” Mark Fwain’s story of the boy who exchanged places for a time with the prince who became Edward VI, has been dramatised by Amelia Rives. This author has written a number of widely read novels, as well as plays. “The Prince and the Pauper” has been staged in New York, but the appearance of a young actress as the boy is regarded as unconvincing. A version of the same story was made in Australia years ago, and was given at the Alexandra Theatre (now Her Majesty’s) in tho time of Mr Alfred Dumpier.