THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3831, 16 August 1927, Page 72

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL.

By

Pasquin.

The George Wallace Company staged a revue entitled “ Happy Moments ” at the Princess Theatre last week. It was quite an appropriate title, as the audience testified bv their spontaneous applause. Mr Wallace, of course, was the chief funmaker,'and he was given able assistance by Marshall Crosby. Marie Nyman, Letty Craydon, the Six Cuties, and the other members of the company. The Allan Wilkie Company has drawn large houses since it opened in Dunedin last Saturday fortnight, and local patrons of the theatre have amply demonstrated that they include Shapespeare in their sphere of entertainment and education from the stage. It must be very gratiging to Mr "Wilkie, Miss Hunter-W atts, Miss Lorna Forbes, Mr Clewlow, and the C J 'ier members of the company to find their histrionic work so consistently appreciated throughout a particularly long season. The pieces played last week were “A Winter’s Tale,” “ The Tempest," “Twelfth Night,” and on Saturday night “Antony and Cleopatra ” was staged, and also on Monday night. To-night “ Measure for Measure ” will be the attraction, and on Wednesday the play will be “Julius Ctesar," with “ Hamlet ” to follow.

Owing to the fact that there is a difficulty in securing a theatre for a continuous period in Invercargill, the Allan Wilkie Company will play there for two nights only. With Heifetz comes Isidor Achron. the noted pianist, who acts as accompanist to the famous violinist. Achron is a brother to Joseph Achron, the composer, whose “ First Sonata for Piano and Violin ” will, it is hoped, be played in New Zealand. “SJose Marie,” coming to New Zealand in October, has been one of the most outflbanding successes ever recorded in London or Australia, and it is safe, to say that many millions have now witnessed this attractive musical play. It possesses one of the biggest casts ever seen in Australia, its singing and dancing girls form quite a fair-sized company, and the weight” of its scenery and effects runs into many tons. At the conclusion of the New Zealand tour of the Renee Kelly Company (now delighting Auckland audiences) it will disband. Already Miss Kelly has had tempting offers to appear in Great Britain and the United States, and has also under consideration an offer to again tour South Africa. Probably Miss Kelly and Mr Hylton Allen will enjoy a well-deserved rest before coming to a final decision on the point. Their six months’ visit to the Antipodes has extended to over two years.

Mr Arthur Tait (J. and N. Tai J . of Melbourne, who managed the New Zealand tour of Paderewski, remained in the Dominion to await the coming of Heifetz, whose tour he will also manage. Sam Stern, the well-known Jewish comedian, is playing Toni in “ The Student Prince ” in Sydney.

Gayle Wyer’s Revue Company will return to New Zealand for the Fuller circuit shortly.

Maurice Moscovitch will open shortly in Sydney in “The Ringer,” a “erook” play which had a good run in Melbourne.

Andrew Mack, who was in New Zealand some years ago in Irish drama, is playing the leading part in “Abie’s Irish Rose ” in New York.

It is said that Miss Marie Burke, who was in New Zealand in “Wildflower,” “Katja,” and “ Frasquita,” will return to London shortly. A lengthy tour of England and the Continent under the Cotffiran mvitecnient is hinted at.

Yvonne Banyard, who is Lady Jane in “Rose Marie.” due in New Zealand in a few months’ time, was with one of the Bollard companies of children for some years. One of her parts at that time was Fifi in “The Belle of New York.” A variety of experience in plays with and without music has there have been some appearances in vaudeville.

The periodical visits of Carter the Great are always awaited with interest, and his coming season will no doubt ■prove as popular as those of the past. Carter is a man who never rests on his laurels, but each time he comes round his work is more startling than ever. This time he is going to do Hie disappearing trick with an elephant. General satisfaction has been expressed at the news cabled from Melbourne that “ The Ghost Train,” considered to be one of the few dramatic masterpieces presented to the public during the past decade, and which has been a sensational success wherever produced, will be seen in New Zealand next month (September). It will be presented by J. C. Williamson, Ltd. (by special arrangement with E. J. Carroll), and will be transported to the Dominion in its entirety. As the success of the pla.v depends to a large extent on the completeness of its mechanical and other stage details (it takes 12 peopfe to act the play, but no fewer than 27 taen to produce the thrilling train effects) the stage equipment is necessarily larger than usual, but New Zealanders will see this mysterious play exactly as it was pro-

duced in London. Six characters are huddled in the waiting room of the Fal Vale Railway Station, whence a small branch line runs. They are marooned, the express train having gone before the branch train arrived. The stationmaster tells of tragedy—how the stationmaster fell dead as he was pulling the signals to stop the express; how the signals remained at “ Line clear how tne train ran past and hurtled through an open bridge into the river below; and how the Ghost Train now comes and dashes by. There are many thrills and just as many laughs in this strange drama. George Robey is now in Africa with the full London company of the revue “ Bits and Pieces.” Marie Blanche is his leading lady. Interviewed on his arrival in England, Edward H. Sothern, the American Shakespearian actor, who is on a holiday tour of Europe with his wife, Julia Marlowe, deplored the general decline of the modern stage. “There cannot be any doubt, he said, “ that the standard of acting has fallen and that theatres generally have suffered since the days of the great old aetor-managers • who made their productions works of art partially for then own distinction and partially for the art of the theatre itself. Such actors a ® ~Xk ng an d Wyndham used to play 600, /00, or 800 parts before they regarded tnemselves as capable and before they dared to risk an appearance in London, but to-day an actor is lucky if he plays aO parts in his lifetime. The Strattord Memorial Theatre and the Old Vic are the hopes of the English stage. A London correspondent writes of Australian artists, who are playing in the Empire metropolis: Gladys Moncrieff, who made a hit in “The Blue Mazurka”; Clarice Hardwicke, who is playin" a ending Part in the new play at Drury ri"b e f \P eser t Song,” after 1 having played Mni-ie ” th H?' g * W he ! ” eason of “’ Rose Alane (Miss Hardwicke, by the wav was married recently to an Enghshis a ‘“ W n EO w rt - G ,eddes, who also played is Lose Marie,” and is now tourin" the provinces with this play; Madge Tulliot, Josie JMelv’ille Ovril a and John Kirby, &I o£ W V<S.‘ aS pfeS n Lady Luck,” the play which has ’nieatr' en Fi P ed t r 0, 1 , 1 - at tbe ' new Carlton Who n/ 1 Collier and Hubert Ennor ife, “ Tl «, Vagabond i,„ T, -’raue ix ej, v. ho made a name Nvn nh”- T 01 ’ in “ Thc Constant in “Give and r Tak?" n with W H iS Wilma C BeX Pla r d in Ne -Zealand"; played second d parf U ?n “the Wj nne ’ ) vh ° and Ver’a Pearce * v-L i same ~Play; herself as a a ,L C ’ • bas established the London I hoT* £avoa rite with since she made her public ever in “No, No Nanette ” rb T? m . P °V t i ant debut appear hr r * • would certainly sion of London “‘F ? iat the in'a-stars-is a ] lnost al ’ an tl,eatrica l amount of money P qnfM1 r to Vi anfl t,le tion. It “ went bi" " 5 - P r °ducthose who saw the r) ’ e "’ York - but say it was a top™ production bought the riirhts on° n F‘ doHI Fuller New VnrV + ir on kis way through Plays in his knapsack Iw’tffiVt - bav ? otller back, but this Ts too the tune he gets purchase up to date m ° St spacta cular Miss Edith Cole, the actress, died at her home in Hollybank road, Birkenhead ne^rh" d ’three le ° f burns Gained nearly tinee weeks previously while cleaning a pair of gloves with petrol W S KnVl O - e i I pr , lvate life was Mrs W. Livermof toe ’ usban< l being a well-known p ! « P P 1 theatre proprietor. She made inww ee a P peara nce at Drury Lane in 1889, when she took the part of the second housemaid in the pantomime later k B^ansta,k -” Two years latci, at an hours notice, she nlaved principal boy in pantomime at Bradford "ieto m s °,s thaO 30 years sbe touredwith K eat success as Josephine in “A Roval bought’ 4o Play r Whic 'i 1 ber husband had in 1922 Ono n e f ? QUlsl l? d llle part °’d.v in “The °\V» V 'to Ot ler success es was i Horst Woman in London” \Lss Cole e w P- an a< l treSS J of distinction, -vriss Cole lias a poet and dramatist and oF P Y6uth.” U ,leV ° Wn Pla -L J Th' Fh-es staire the™ 1 ast a Pl’earanee on the that time 14 most popular operas of that time, the famous Gilbert and Sulli- “ H M P ™ d ’# t,o » s - „After appearing in H M.S. Pinatore” and “The Pirates of Penzance” she left the stage for a ime to study music at the New York horTm S' “J ■>>«?• Clairettn in “ York audiences as viairette in Santa Maria. ’ Un to that “Sanff e M a ?ia b ” Cn Edn e May ’ b «t wMe oanta Maria was being played she Patti kn °Mlm-' her . real name, Edna May tone«-ei part ? 111 successful plays followed this production, and then she famous 6 VinF Whi - ch ea,ly made her S? YbA° lct . Gray ln “The Belle of “ Tho RAlia ie _ w< >rds of the song ■Lhe Belle of New York say. she was the subject of all the town talk.” Pertinm r WaS n ° B reater idol at the time, and for over two years she anmr 3 VT d i ln l ole ’ takin g it to the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it was equally successful as it had been in America. Ihis was about 1900, and before her career ended in 1907 Edna May was starred in eight different pieces, then came her final role, that of Nelly N> e ■ ln „ a Play of the same name. Shortly arterwards she married and retired from stage life. But in 1911 she

reappeared again in “ The Belle of New York which was staged at the Savoy theatre, London, in aid of the Prince liancis of Teck Memorial Fund. This lasted . only a week, and an admiring public which flocked to see her said good-bye to one of its greatest favourites. A contract for the new Opera House ihcatre in Auckland for Messrs Jolm I* uller and Son, Ltd., has been let. The contract price i s £70,000, and the theatre bas to be complete and ready for opening by Easter of next year. It was originally mtended to call tenders, but Sir Benjamin Fuller, who arrived from Sydney by the .Niagara desired the work to proceed as soon as possible. Therefore ho decided to let tho contract without calling tenders. Work on the new theatre, which is to seat people, was commenced last week.

MR ERNEST DRAKE’S PUPILS. . ,^ b “ ver y l ar g® audience that attended Mr Ernest Drake’s pupils’ concert in Burns Hall on Tuesday evening was treated to some very good singing. The music selected was extremely varied, and ranged from the simple ballad to the grand opera and oratorio selection. Of necessity a good deal of what was heard was chosen so as to come within the roach of the pupils, and for this reason very few flights into the higher realms were made The programme was a very lengthy one’, anil included over 30 items, all of which the audience thoroughly enjoyed and greatly appreciated. A choir of about 80 faced Mr Drake when he took up his position to conduct the singing of the part songs “Londonderry Air” and Pinsuti’s Spring Song,” and both were rendered with precision and excellent effect. In deed, the singing of the choir was quite a feature of the concert. Later in the evening the male portion of the choir gave Abt’s “At Evening,” the solo part being taken by Mr A. Lungley, with equally good results: and the choir concluded the concert with a capital rendering of “Alleluia,” Mr Drake occupying the post of soloist. The narts for ’this had been arranged by Mr C. A. Martin. Both Mrs Ernest Drake and Miss Ida Lungley had a busy evening playing the accompaniments to the many items.