THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3889, 25 September 1928, Page 70

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL.

By

Pasquin

The programme which is now being presented at the Princess Theatre by George Ward and his New Revue Company has many entertaining revue items. George Ward is the chief comedian in several sketches. Gus Dawson, with the Snapshot Six. gives some new song hits, and Charles Sherman keeps up his excellent performances. Dave Meredith’s Melody Five play several new musical items. Al. Maurice and Alma Vai dor are again seen in rne of their original sketches, while other features of the entertainment are the dancing and the chorus work. The reopening of the Empire Theatre, after most extensive additions and alterations, on Friday proved a most successful affair. The main feature in the programme was the newest interpretation of Mephistopheles. with Emil Jannings in the name part. The Empire Theatre must be considered as one of the finest in New Zealand at the present time. The Tom Katz Saxophone Band is at present appearing at the Regent Theatre. I notice that an old friend, Mr George Lyttelton, who was well known in amateur, theatrical circles when he was stationed in Dunedin, is cast for the character of Karl von Pumpernick in the production of “The Belle of New York” by the Auckland Amateur Operatic Society. Miss Eva Simson will take the part of Violet Gray. “ Outward Bound ” has been revived in Melbourne by Jceeph Cunningham and Zillah Bateman, who are now playing under the Fuller management. Two new farces by Ben Travers, author of “ Rookery Nook ” and “ The Cuckoo in the Nest,” were produced in London during the month of June They were “Plunder” and “M : schi"f.” the latter bein'” adapted from Mr Travers’s novel of the same name.

Marie Tempest has returned to the London Criterion, a theatre in which she has scored many recent successes, in a new play by Jevan Brandon-Thomas, called “Passing Brompton Road.” The author takes the part of a young lawyer, and Miss Tempest has what she herself describes as the best Marie Tempest part for years. “ Passing Brompton Road ” was written by Mr Brandon-Thomas more than two years ago as a retort to his friend. Noel Coward, who claimed that b had no sense of Ir-mour. Word has been received from Los Angeles that the final decree has been filed in the divorce of Charlie ChipFn and his wife, Lita. It is understood that Lita will now marry Roy Darcy, an actor. Lita Grey was Chanlin’s second wife, his first being Mi'dred Harris. “ I have purpose y chosen for recital two of Eileen Duggan’s poems— ‘ The Tui ’ and ‘ The Kokako ’ —that our children may study something of their very own,” said Mr Farquhar Young at the Taranaki Competitions. “ Study the Maori - vowels so that your cars may be tuned for your own speech. Read Eileen Duggan’s poems. Our children will find no sickly sentimentality of the kind we are being treated to in * own selections,’ but something that breathes the very air of New Zealand.” Miss Muriel Starr, we are told, has stayed in Australia probably longer than any other visiting actress. This claim must exclude, of course, those who have eventually made their permanent homes there. Since she arrived ir Australia to play the leading part in “ Within the Law ” Miss Starr says that she has lost count of the number of towns she has visited in Australia and New Zealand. For some time she has conducted her own company, and has been successful. Miss Star* is a lover of racehorses and greyhounds. One of her dogs is called Donovan, and has won several races. Miss Starr mentions that she and her sister have a ranch in Canada, where they breed horses.

“The Ingenues.” an orchestra' of 20 American girls which lias caused great interest- at the Tivoli Theatre. Melbourne, are said to have committed to memory 120 minutes of solo and conceited items. New programmes are in preparation all the time, and, as the girls play without music stands, each note has to be remembered. The girls show remarkable versatility as musicians. At present each one of them plays at least eight instruments in the course of their act, and it is said that in the theatre storeroom are cases of instruments not yet played Mr Reginald Berkeley’s play “ The White Chateau ” drew some very high praise from the critics. “It is a -e--markably realistic picture and a most moving indictment of war,” says the Daily Telegraph “Mr Berkeley here is a propagandist; but he is that rarest and most convincing, of propagandists, the man who gives his opponent every advantage and still proves him wrong. As a result we are ready to listen to him when he hammers home his moral, that Europe is not yet safe from a repetition of ■ horrors and that a repetition will destroy Europe. It is a play that everybody ought to see.” Sir Benjamin Fuller has completed negotiations for the purchase of “ Kosher Kitty Kelly,” an American comedy success with a Hebrew-Hibernian flavour.

It is intended to engage for the leading part Mr Jack Trainor, who was successful in the J. C. Williamson production of “ Abie’s Irish Rose.” The New Zealander, Mr Keith Wilbur, is an established favourite with London music hall audiences. His vaudeville act of animal imitations, conjuring up an impression of life on a country station, has gained him bookings which will keep him in England for some time. He hopes to revisit New Zealand in the near future. Ruth Elder, the Atlantic woman flyer, play’s the part of an aviatrix in “ Moran of the. Marines,” the Richard Dix picture now in production at the Paramount studios. She was on holiday in Europe when it was decided to start production, and she had. to make a fast trip back to Hollywood in order to play the part assigned to her.

A handsome offer to appear at the Regent Theatres in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin was made to Captain Kingsford-Smith and Lieutenant Ulm. A reply received in Auckland from the airmen read Thanks for the offer, hut we must definitely refuse it. as our policy is not to commercialise our flights by theatre appearances. Best wishes. KingsfordSmith. Ulm.” Miss -Beatrice Day was at latest playing the part of Mrs Dearth in the production at Melbourne of “ Dear Brutus” the Sir James Barrie play. An American variation of a well-known theme:—A dinner party, attended by several vaudevi’le players, was given in a Chicago restaurant. A Scotsman was present. At the end of the elaborate and e pensive meal, to the astonishment of everybody, the Scot was heard to cal! for the bi 3 ’, which was in due course handed to him. And next day the newspapers printed a sensational story under the heading of “ Scotsman Murders Ventriloquist.” “ How many characters are there in your new show, dear?”—“Six at the opening and five at the end.”—“ How do you make that out?”—“Oh, the heroine loses hers in the third act! ” Mr Bert Royle, the New Zealand representative of J. C. Williamson and J. and N. Tait, is at present engaged in mapping out the Dominion itinerary of the Margaret Bannerman Company, which is coming to New Zealand next month. The provincial dates have not yet been definitely arranged, but the company will appear in the cities as follows:—The season will opni at Auckland on October 3, and continue in the northern capital to October 16. The Dunedin dates are November 14 to November 24, and the Christchurch dates November 29 <,o December 10. Miss Bannerman, who is one of the world’s best comedy stars, will be supported by a specially selected J. C. Williamson company. One of the comedies to be staged will be “Our Betters.” which ran for nearly two years in England. The Berlin correspondent of the Musical Courier, New York, writes:— “ What Berlin spends on music is, in comparison with London, enormous. To begin with, what other city could maintain three opera houses? Two of them are crowded every night, and the third—the real IJerlin opera—is being rebuilt at a cost that would stagger a resident of Hollywood. W’hen it is finished it will not. however, hold appreciably more spectators than before, for the whole purpose of spending the mill ns was to have a more rdequate stage. . . Orchestral concerts well-patronised—in fact, it is <’ ffict.lt to get a seat. There are three concert-giving orchestras, and two of them are of super quality. If Germany pays dearly for its music it certainly means to get its money’s worth. And it does.”

In Dame Clara Butt’s life story the compiler, Miss Winifred Ponder, tells for the first time the romantic story of the prima donna’s love story. Amt there can have been few more attractive courtships. Much of it was conducted on the concert platform, for Mr Kennerly Rumford and Madame Clara Butt were often billed to appear together in duets. At that time it was the fashion for singers to sing from the print, and he used to pencil notes to her on margins. Often these were in German or Italian, and night after night, as she opened her song, she would find a new one neatly pasted over the old. Then fate threw into his hands a ballad that the two were to make famous all over the world, and which served as an ideal medium for a proposal. They sang the song often together, and one night he made it clear that he was making his appeal to Clara in her private self, and not to the singer. She sang the last verse as an acceptance, and the audience little knew that the two left the platform an engaged couple. Shayle Gardner has been cast as Viscount Bellaniont in Rex Ingram’s new film “ The Three Passions.” Gardner, a native of Auckland, has long been in the front rank of legitimate players in England. He is famous for having played in George Bernard Shaw’s “ Saint Joan ” at the personal request of the author, while continuing to play his part in John Barrymore’s production of “ Hamlet ” in another London theatre. Never before, it is said, has an artist doubled his parts in the West End of London z in this way. Hearing that Ingram was casting “ The Three Passions ” and that the strong character part of Bellamont. that of a self-made millionaire shipbuilder, had not been decided, Gardner called at the London office of United Artists and offered to go to Nice to see Ingram. He left for Nice at his own expense, travelling second class because, he said. “ I regard it as a fair £3O gamble"—which is what his three days in Nice cost. Rex Ingram’s first comment was that Gardner was both too tall and too young for the part of the grizzled, gnarled shipbuilder, but the test convinced him that he had found just the artist he wanted. In his ’teens Gardner (who is a nephew of the'famous Bishop Boyd Carpenter) worked his passage before the mast in the old sailing

ship Sierra, and went twice round the world on the lower deck. He was a prominent athlete in New Zealand, and, at 37, still indulges in cricket, tennis, and rowing, and is a great walker. He went through the war as a member of the New Zealand 1 orces, joining as a private and leaving with the rank of major. His stage debut was made with Sir Herbert Iree at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, where he walked on and understudied five principal parts for the magnificent salary of 18s per week. Six months after this modest beginning he was playing lead to Irene Vanbrugh in “The Land of iiomise. His last stage engagement in London was lead to Mrs Patrick Campbell, le refused the lead in the London pro, duction of The Road to Rome ”to ac, cept the Ingram part.