THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 72

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

By

PASUION

Monday, May 31. Phil Smith and his revue company continue to attract crowded houses at the Princess Theatre. Phil Smith is a host in himself, and as Titus G. Pilgrim, the elderly swain in the throes of an “ Autumn Love,” shown last week, he kept the audience in a perpetual chuckle. Nat Hanley was an able assistant in providing merriment, r.nd his dancing and eccentric piano playing evoked loud applause. Peggy Peate, Charles Megan, Mildred O'Brien, William Greene, and Phyllis Nicholson also contributed to the success of the entertainment. No revue is complete without its ballet, and the ballet in this case was all that was required of it in commendable fashion. Two neat turns were included in the vaudeville section of tlie programme. The first was that of Campbell and Wise, two comedians who got their full share of laughs, and Theda and Earle Hunting, whose turn was also well received. Wee Willie Lancet also provided excellent turns. The advent of one of Williamson s vaudeville companies is always hailed with delight, and the company which appeared at His Majesty’s Theatre last week worthily upheld the reputation by its predecessors. Rupert Hazell and Elsie Day (song, dialogue, and instrumentation), Walter Nilsson (miracles awheel), llarrnston’s cockatoos, Odette pelage (the French violinist), the Flemings (artistic gymnasts), Dorothy Browne (melo-piano), Francois (balancer), Jones and Raines (patter artists), and Niobe (the mermaid) —every turn was of a high standard of aierit. The season concluded on Saturday night. A very clever quartet of lady musicians in Miss Katherine Kendall, Miss Dorothy Brook, Miss Dorothy Jones, and Miss Edith Hanson was heard for the first time on Thursday night in Burns Hall. The four ladies form what is known as the “ Kendall String Quartet,” Miss Kendall and Miss Brook being the violinists, Miss Jones the viola player, and Miss Hanson the ’cellist. It was quickly recognised by the fairly large audience present that the four ladies were all expert instrumentalists, and entitled to rank very high as joint interpreters of classical music, of which they appear to have made a close study, and also of compositions that perhaps do not strictly come under that category, but nevertheless cannot be regarded as by any means commonplace. It was what is usually styled a high-class concert that the quartet gave, yet there was sufficient comparatively light music in the programme to make the concert popular with everybody. The evening was, unfortunately, very cold, and the players evidently realised the fact. The applause of the audience always reached the recall stage, but with such a chilly atmosphere the ladies declined to respond further than to return and bow their acknowledgments until the last item had been played, when a catchy little tion by Speaight, named “ Puck,” was repeated. Another concert was given on Saturday night, and the season will cl se to-night. .. Mr Henry Bishaw and his Hawaiian Serenaders will play a short season at His Majesty’s during Show Week. Feodor Chaliapin, Russia’s greatest 9inger, who is to visit New Zealand shortly, has little patience with the conventionaj idea of what constitutes a great singer—a man with a big voice. He considers it absurd to look upon the voice as in any sense the end when it is only the means. Of course, he admits that a singer must have a good voice in order to sing, but the art consists not in the voice, but in the use that is made ot it. According to Chaliapin, a singer’s work is never done. There is always more to learn, even in the most familiar song. A singer who is completely satisfied is a singer lost. That is what he believes to be the trouble with much of the singing that is heard to-day. Singers have grown disinclined to work. When they have obtained applause, they cease to make any effort to improve themselves, and lounge back contentedly, believing that they have solved the problem of their .art.

The members of the Kendall String Quartette will depart from Auckland by the Ulimaroa on June 18. Miss Kendall speaks most highly of the kindness and appreciation which the members of her party have received. Noel Coward’s play, “Easy Virtue,” has not won complete praise from American critics. One critic writes: “Deducting 60 per cent, for the fact that it is English, adding 75 per cent, for the presence of Jane Cowl in the cast, subtracting 55 per cent, for the great preponderance of talk over action, returning 15 per cent, for merely having the butler announce, ‘Lunch is served,' th-j performance comce out at only 40 per cent, entertaining. Perhaps something should be knocked off even this figure as a penalty for the frequent repetition of the word ‘frightfully.' Nearly everything is ‘frightfully’ this or ‘frightfully’ that.” Edna Thomas, who entertained Dunedin folk last year, is telling Londoners of her travels on this side of the world. Her strangest experiences were in Rotorua, the thermal region of New Zealand, where she saw pools on which pennies will float, warm rivers running within two feet of icy cold ones, and a dozen other natural paradoxes. Among Miss Thomas's greatest admirers, by the way.

is Dame Ellen Terry, who once insisted on going behind the stage at the Coliseum to present her flowers to the singer of negro spirituals. Nellie Stewart will celebrate a jubilee next year. It was in 1877 that she made her first stage appearance in a show known as “Rainbow Revels,” which today might be called a revue. The company, organised by her father, Richard Stewart, toured Australia and New Zealand, and went to India, Britain, and America. *

Marie Ney, previously of Wellington, has been playing the leading woman’s part in Eugene O’Neill’s play, “Beyond the Horizon,” in London. This strangely sad and sombre piece was staged at the Everyman Theatre, Hampstead, and in the part of Ruth, Miss Ney proved herself to be quite one of the most talented dramatic artists who has ever come out of New Zealand. Grace Lavers, the clever little actress who made many successes in musical comedy under the J. C'. Williamson banner, is a widow. Two years ago she married King Baillieu, of Melbourne. Recently he contracted a cold which turned to pneumonia, with fatal results. Miss Lavers has appeared several times in Dunedin.

Miss Dorothy Brimton is to appear with Mr Gus Bates Post in “The Climax,” an unusual play, in which there are only four characters. It will be staged in Sydney. The Pioneer Players, whose aim is the production of Australian drama, will begin their third season on Wednesday, June 9, at the Melbourne Playhouse. Already they have presented 17 new and original plays (four full-length), by nine authors, and hope in time, after the manner of the Provincetown Players and similar groups, to present a scries of plays reflecting various aspects of Australian life. Among other Australian writers who'have promised new plays are Mr Spencer Brodney, Mr Vance Palmer, Katharine Susannah Pritchard, Mr L. L. Woolaeott, and Mr Gerald Brync. The opening production will he “The Bride of Gospel Place,” in four acts, by Mr Louis Esson. It deals with the life of the Melbourne underworld. The cast will consist mainly of original members of die Pioneer Players, under the direction of Mr Leo Burke.

Onc.e more America is “coming to light” (the spotlight) in Australian productions (says Melbourne Argus). At the Athenaeum, in “The Best People,” we have both an American play and American players. “The Nervous Wreck” and "Mercenary Mary” are more or less American, and “Abie’s Irish Rose,” which will be here soon as a Hugh Ward production, is distinctly American. Among players from the United States are Guy Bates Post, now in Melbourne; Harry Green, lately in Sydney, and Remy Carpen, now in New Zealand; and an American entertainer is Lee White. Renee Kelly, of "Polly with a Past,” and Leon Gordon, of “White Cargo,” have divided their stage years about equally between England and America. Both were originally from England. Though there are signs of a new American invasion, there are still plenty of English plays—Barrie, Gilbert, and Sullivan, several musical comedies, and “The Farmer’s Wife.” 1 wonder whether some indignant Scot will write to tell me that Barrie is not English. , Among the famous people who will probably come to Australia under Mr Carroll’s direction are Stephen Leacock, the famous author-lecturer, and Miss Rebecca West, the English novelist, who at present is in America lecturing and supervising the production of her play, “The Return ot the Soldier.” Mr Carroll has secured two plays, “The Best People” and “Outward Bound,” which have had long runs in London and New York, and which he will produce in Australia and New Zealand at an early date.

The mortality rate for new productions has been so high on the Rialtos of the great cities of the United States this season that various leaders in the theatrical world preparing to reproduce some of the entertainments which proved tremendous hits in former years (says a New York paper). The public found the fare offered so poor that in a number of instances the show was forced to close before the critics could get around to give it a comprehensive review. Mrs Brown Potter has a beautiful home on the heights of Monaco, overlooking the C'onclamine and Monte Carlo, which is only about a thousand yards away (writes a Nice correspondent in the Sydney Bulletin). It is called the “Villa des Marquerites,” and has a perfectly enclosed courtyard on the mountain side where she can contemplate those phases of Eastern philosophy in which she is now so deeply interested. A near neighbour is Mrs Langtry, who has named her abode “ Villa Fleur de Lys.” The two are good friends, and are often seen together on the terrace. Lily Langtry’s hair, by the favour of her coiffeur, is still honey-coloured, and she does not look her generous years. I called on Mrs Potter, whose hair is snow-white and bobbed, and found that her eyes have yet the star-like beauty of her youth.

Amongst a host of good theatrical yarns told by Mr Noel Coward, the well-known English playwright, is one concerning a certain play in which a man had to say, in answer to a suggestion, “ I hae me dootu.” These four words were all he had to speak, but the mastery of the Scottish accent was utterly beyond the abilities of 'the Cockney super who was engaged for the part. Nearly every artist, not to mention the author and producer, tried coaching him, but all in vain; and at last the stage manager told him that he would have to find somebody else to take his place. Turning his coat collar up, and making for the stuge door, the super fired a parting shot with an air of fine contempt. “Lumme! ” he said. “You want a Harry Lauder for your two quid a week.”

Drury Lane provides sun-baking baths for the artists, two suu parlours being

attached to the theatre, with a doctor and a nurse in constant attendance. Whenever a member of the company feels in need of tonic, treatment he or she may have a 20 minutes’ dose of the electric rays.

Mr Robert Geddes (writes the London correspondent of the Auckland Star) is a young New Zealander who has made good in record time in the strongly competitive dramatic and musical world of London, and he has recently reached another rung in the ladder of success, for lie sang the leading part of Jim Kenyon in “ Rose Marie ” at Drury Lane. Mr Geddes, it should be recalled, was with the J. C. Williamson Company before he came to London some 18 months ago, and was first heard in this country on tour in the “ Street Singer.” After about six months lie succeeded in convincing the management of “ Rose Marie ” of his capacity, and for the last year has been understudy for Mr Derek Oldham, who played the leading part, and Mr Michael Cole (Emile) in “Rose Marie.” It was only the accident of Mr Oldham’s illness which gave Mr Geddes his chance.