The Stage

Otago Witness, Issue 3885, 28 August 1928, Page 70

The Stage

BOOKINGS. HIS MAJESTY’S .THEATRE, September 10 to 15.—" Rookery Nook.” September 17 to October 6.—Dunedin Competitions. October 23 to 31.—Percy Hutchison’s English Comedy Company. THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL.

By

Pasquin.

Under present arrangements the Princess Theatre will be reopened on September 10 by the George Ward Revue Company. The “ Mary Dugan ” Company closed a successful season at His Majesty’s Theatre on Friday night. “ Mary Dugan” was played for four nights, and “ Scandal ” was staged for two nights. The latter play was here some years ago. The company opened at Christchurch on Saturday night. Mr Percy Hutchison and his Englisn Comedy Company will open at His Majesty’s Theatre on October 23 with " The Laughing Optimist ” (a farce comedy). “Mr What’s His Name” and *■’ The Luck of the Navy ” will follow, and the season will close on October 31. Mr Hutchison is a nephew of Sir Charles Wyndham, and is president of the Stage Guild of Great Britain. He was the original Brewster in Brewster’s Millions ” and has had a lengthy stage career.

This year’s production of the Auckland Amateur Operatic Society is to be a revival of that old favourite, “The Belle of New York.” The production is in the hands of Mr Theodore Tresize. who produced “ The Arcadians ” for the society two years ago, and the play is now in rehearsal.

“ The Student Prince ” and “ Madame Pompadour ” Company has left New Zealand for Sydney.

Strella Wilson and James Hay, formerly of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, have been appearing in prologue to the film “ Garden of Allah ” at Sydney’s Regent Theatre. Miss Wilson sings “My Hero,” and Mr Hay’s numbers are “ Charmaine ” and “ Laugh, Clown, Laugh!” Encouraged by his record season of 112 performances of Shakespearian plays at the Majestic Theatre, Newtown, Allan Wilkie has started on a long and comprehensive tour of Sydney and its suburbs, which is expected to last for more than nine weeks. The company will go to Melbourne, opening with “Coriolanus” at the Palace Theatre early in October. Mr Wilkie’s company, which now numbers 25. is due back in New Zealand some time next year. Marie Burke, who will be remembered in the productions of ‘•'Wildflower” and “ Katja.” and who at latest was appearing at Drury Lane in “ Showboat,” has been granted a decree nisi against her husband. Hi well-known tenor. The suit was undefended.

The actor John Philip Kemble spoke so. much blank verse in hie professional life that it actually crept into his ordinary everyday conversation. One day he walked into a gentleman’s outfitting shop, looked round, and picked up a walking stick. He walked impressively towards the assistant, and declaimed. “ This likes me well. The cost? The cost? ”

George Duryer and Grace Stafford, who toured New Zealand in “Abie’s Irish Rose,” under the Fuller management, have announced their engagement in New York.

Pat. Hanna's Diggers completed last week a season of 20 weeks at the Theatre Royal, Perth. Both the Muriel Starr and the Nellie Bramley Companies are in Brisbane—one at His Majesty's, the other at the Theatre Royal. The Comedy Company headed by Elsie Prince and Jimmy Godden, which has been in session at the new Fuller Theatre in Auckland, has concluded its New Zealand tour, and the members have returned to Australia to open a tour at Brisbane.

In the early days of Sir James Barrie it fell to his lot to engage a certain actor. The terms satisfactorily agreed upon, the actor requested: “ Of course. Mr Barrie. I am to be featured, am I not? ” “Featured?” asked Sir Janies. “I do not understand.” “ Why, I assumed you knew.” said the actor. “On the programme all the names of the cast are printed in the usual way, and at the end of the list nay name is printed in larger type with the word ‘and’ just before ft.” Upon hearing this Sir James (then Mr Barrie) replied: “ Why'- not - ‘ but ’? ” Rio Rita,” the big Fuller production which stars Gladys Moncrieff has entered its sixteenth -week at the St James’s Theatre, Sydney. It is later to come over to New Zealand.

Mr Will Whitburn (William Henry Whitburn), long known to the older generation of Australian vaudeville lovers, died on August 6 at his home at Murrumbeena (Victoria), aged 65 years. In recent years the popularity which he had won by earlier perforniauces vvas increased by the success he won at revivals of oldtime minstrel shows. In sporting circles he was known for many successes in trotting races. At an early age Mr Whitburn took part as an amateur with Hussey and Lawton’s Mohawk Minstrels at the vanished St. George’s Hal), on the land in Bourke street, Melbourne, now occupied by Hoyt’s Theatre.

Mr Warde Morgan has been appointed by J. 0. Williamson, Ltd., stage manager of “The Patsy” at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne. Mr Morgan has had varied experience on the Australian stage. He originally came to Australia with the J. C. Williamson production of “The

Farmer’s Wife,” and subsequently played the “juvenile lead” with Marie Burke in “ Katja.” It was while travelling from Sydney to Brisbane with this company that he was injured in the railway accident at Aberdeen. After his recovery he appeared in comedy, musical comedy, and drama.

May Beatty’s daughter, Hinemoa (“Bunny”) Lauri, gives a middy dance in “ Hit the Deck,” in which production her talented mother has the role of Magnolia, a coloured woman, who features the catchy “Hallelujah” chorus. Annie croft, an English star, brought out by J. C. Williamson, has made a hit in this production. Miss Nellie Mortyne, of the “Rookery Nook,” “ A Cuckoo in the Nest ” Company, was 71 in June. At 18 Mbs Mortyne went on the stage in a Williamson company, and stayed with the firm tor 24 years without a break. But world tours and success were to follow. Miss Mortyne has starred among the great in London, where she appeared with Mrs Pat Campbell, Arthur Bourchicr, George Grossmitli. Sir Beerbohm Tree, Sir Charles Wyndham, Sir George Alexander, Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, Sir Johnston r qrbes-Robertson, and Ethel Warwick. Miss Minnie Rayner is another member of the company who has had a long and varied stage career, which commenced at the age of three. She first appeared as Little Hans in “ Rip Van Winkle ” at the Comedy Theatre, London. She has been in three earthquakes, a typhoon in (.hinn, trekked in a bullock cart across the African veldt, been in a landslip in India, and a tornado in Canada, and is still hoping to “ get a little more excitement out of life,” as she quaintly puts it in her sunny, philosophical manner. Ernest Lough’s voice is breaking, states the Daily Express, London. This seven-teen-year-old chorister, whose voice is known in homes all over the world, and who has been responsible for filling the Temple Church each Sunday since he became famous, will soon have to give up singing. His rise to fame was the result of the recording of Mendelssohn's “ Hear My Prayer.” The record, which was first sold last summer, was actually made in the Temple Church. More than half a million of these records were purchased in the fir t six months, and it is estimated that the sales have now reached a million. The boy has not yet received any reward tor his services. He receives—like the other 11 choristers with whom he sings—free education at the City of London School, at which institution boys from the Chapel Royal are also taught. The Benchers of the Inner Temple made the contract with the company, and it is assumed that out of their royalties some recognition may be made to the boy, or the money may go to some fund for the betterment of all the choristers’ conditions. “ We have had some remarkable letters,” said Mr Loutrh to a Daily Express representative. “ They have come from all sorts cl places—lndia, Canada, the Unite..! States, South America, and even the Far East. Only last week we received a gold meda’ from Vienna for Ernest.” Extraordinary congratulations were heaped upon Richard Strauss, master composer, on his sixty-fourth birthday in Vienna, reports the New York Herald L’ribune. Members of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra gathered outside his home at an early hour to arouse Strauss from his sleep with his own music. Strauss, greatly touched, apneared at the window, and was heered by musicians and spectators. He invited all within. Congratulations, flowers, and wreaths were brought t < him all day. The birthday fell on June H, the very day of the premiere of his latest opera, “The Egyptian Helen,’ a' the X ienna State Opera. Thirteen thousand applications were submitted for the 2300 seats available at the first performance It is reported that the composer has sold the copyright of the opera for 50.000d01. and that by agreement with the Government the manuscript of the opera must -become the property of the Austrian National Library. Is Melbourne the theatrical Manchester of Australia? In England, it is a tradition of the stage that what pleases London may not please Manchester. Sir Benjamin Fuller said the other day that audiences in Melbourne were more difficult to please than those of other Australian cities. It has often been remarked that a play which succeeded in Sydney has not attracted large audiences in Melbourne, but the reverse has often been the case. He would be a bold critic who would attempt to give reasons for dissimilarity in taste for theatrical fare. It is safe to say, however, that when firstclass players are seen in first-class plays, long seasons are the order in Melbourne.— The Australasian.

There is almost panic in the theatre world owing to the succession of failures at West End houses (writes a London corespondent). Runs of from four to fourteen days have become distressingly frequent. There are two concrete facts to be faced—the theatre is no longer the main evening recreation of London, and the rents and general costs of production are so high that managers cannot keep shows on long enough to test truly the possibilities of public support. Dancing, the kinema, dog racing, and the various outdoor amusements made possible by the “summer time” regulations are leaving the stage with only one leg to stand on, and lately that leg has been mainly supported by a series of very pdor plays. “ The Return of the Soldier,” John Van Draten’s fine dramatisation of Rebecca West’s novel, is the one recent striking exception. Its production at the Playhouse on May 12 was an emphatic success, and the acting of Mary Clare and Leon Quartermaine aroused enthusiasm in every part of the house.

WINCi WHISPERS. By Peteb Pan. WELLINGTON, August 23. Dear “ Pasquin,”—Grand opera finished at the Fuller House on Monday night, when ‘‘Lucia di Lammermoor ” ■ was repeated before a large audience. The announcement was made that a return visit would be paid by the company about the middle of October when the repertoire will include five operas not played during the season just ended. These are “La Favorita,” “La Giocanda,” “ Fra Diavolo,” “ Il Forza del Destino,” and “ Lohengrin.” Stiffy and Mo’s Revue Company had a warm welcome at the hands of -a crowded , audience at His Majesty’s Theatre on Tuesday night. The two favourites were among friends from the start; their team work has lost none of its .power to amuse judging by the hilarious laughteV that followed the turns of the popu’ar duo. Jack Kellcway is another comedian who will be immensely popular in New Zealand; his forte is clean humour and c'ever eccentric dancing. With the revue are Amy R-ehelle, Sadie Gale, and Daisy Merritt, Peter Brooks, Dan Weldon, Dan Dunbar, and a very excellent jazz band, the Charlton Six, who feature music that is a joy to hear. It is one of the most evenl”’ balanced band combinations heard here for some time, and is led by a versatile instrumentalist in ' Frank Wilson, who can play almost anything that produces music; Syd. Blake is a dancing violinst of uncommon talents, and the rest of the band comprises a dashing pianist, two saxophonists, and an expert banjoist. Hie Radio Six are bare-legged dancers of merit; the show is notable for the effective dressing. The company should have a most successful tour after an absence of four years. The Wellington Competitions Festival has commenced under most favourable circumstances. The sessions at the Town Hall are largely attended, and there is keen interest in the performances. James Liddy, the popular star of “'Student Prince,” was in 'Wellington to-day prior to leaving, with other members of the Royal Comics, for Australia by the Ldimaroa to-morrow. The , National Repertory Theatre Society s presentation for August .30 and 31 will be C. K. Munro’s comedy “At Mrs Beams.” to be produced at the Masonic Hall owing to the Town Hall being engaged. Mr Har'son Cook has •arranged a splendid cast; the production will be for members and their friends only. a