STAGELAND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 115, 20 June 1914, Page 3

STAGELAND

THEATRE ROYAL BOOKINGS. July 4 to 11—George Willoughby's Company. July 13 and 14—Cliristchurch Sports Club. July 15 and 16—College Library Concert. Said that the projected tour of New Zealand by George Willoughby's American Musical Comedy Company has been abandoned for the reason that as an attraction it did not exert enough force to pull the guilders from the pockets of the Sydney public into the cash box of the booking office. '' Kismet,'' having been revived by Oscar Asche on las return to London, is having another great run at the Globe Theatre, and no word of its withdi'awal is heard yet. The "Smart Set" entertainers, now under the Branscombe management, commence a New Zealand season at Invereargill this month. Mr Cyril Mackay, lately appearing here as melodramatic hero, and still revealing glimpses of ability while doing so, will next be seen as a lead in the comedy "Mr Wu," to be produced here by the Louis Meyer-Beaumont Smith Dramatic Company. This will finish, a two-year season of melodrama for Cyril Mackay. Another prominent member of the team who has appeared in New Zealand in melodrama under the ClarkeMcynell management is Miss May Congdon, who has lately been playing in London. In addition to "Mr Wu," the company will produce "The Glad Eye," "The Chaperone," "The Real Thing," and "Who's the Lady?"

Mr W. £. Hunter, a young New Zealand actor, has left Australia to try his luck in America, inspired possibly by the success of Mr A. Patrick in New York. Mr Hunter did some excellent work with the Plimmer-Denniston Company, and since then has been with the Hugh Buckler Company at the Little Theatre, Sydney.

The l ' press agent'' is often hard put to it to invent a sensation that will be an excuse for a paragraph advertising a mummer who pays for the agent's services, or whose management employs the agent. Hilda Spong hit upon a good varient of the " stolen jewels" business when she was in Sydney with ' < Every woman.'' The masked burglar scare was then in the height of its popularity, and Hilda was put up to the magnificent idea of firing a revolver from her window and calling "police!" very loudly through the silence of the midnight hours. On investigating the police found nobody (not the spookish character of the play), and Hilda said she had scared the intruders away. That was y very. good business, and hardly a paper in Australasia dodged the consequent "next to reading matter" story. -Another story much less skilful is seut in bv the press agent, to the effect that Miss" Ethel Warwick, while on her way from Sydney to Melbourne, threw an empty chocolate box from the train window; arid in doing so a diamond ring valued a't £SO *' slipped from her finger and disappeared into the darkness.'' This distressing incident is mentioned just to show how difficult it is for the press agent to escape from the "stolen jewels" convention. The only morals the story suggests are, that the press

agent should invent something fresh, or that Ethel Warwick should wear rings that fit her. Even supposing the ring was given her as a keepsake by a gentleman who habitually wore it as a thumb ring she could have thought of the simple device of hanging it round her neck with a length of blue bebe ribbon.

Fred Niblo and Josephine Cohan are booked by the J.C.W. firm to do another tour of New Zealand, and are expected to open lin Wellington in August. The . repertoire for the tour will consist of "Never Say Die," "Officer 666," and "The Fortune Hunter," all farcical comedies.

Edward Lauri is at present producing the revue, "Hullo! Everybody!" in England, and also takes a part. May Beatty is also a prominent member of the company.

The artistic Parisian Poseuse, who. will shortly appear at the Opera House.

Frau Betti Vanini, a Viennese actress, who nearly all her life played comedy parts, celebrated her 100 th birthday in the Austrian capital on April 25. It is barely 15 years since she retired from the stage. " She was ,thc recipient of sheaves of letters from all classes of "Viennese society congratulating her on joining the ranks of the world's centenarians.

Genee signalled on. April 25 her approaching retirement from the stage by a characteristically. '_ generous ~ act. When her farewell season at the London Coliseum was announced, Seven f»jnous dancers, including Pavlovi., organised a movement to present her with a keepsake,-but «he replied-expressing a strong wish that the money subscribed should go to augment the fund being raised for Topsy Sinden, . a one-tiine popular danseuse. There was a/great demonstration at the Coliseum when the letter of the editor of the-"Era" announcing Geuee 's decision was thrown on the screen.

"U.S." commits heresy in the "Bulletin" as follows:—It is possible to do a star almost as. much damage by pverad vertisemeiit as lsy the other thing. Take the case of Harry. Lauder. His ingratiating grin, his kilts, and his dreadful legs gleam from every hoarding in the cause of different whiskies, teas, etc.; and the journals on which

the Press agents chiefly prey are filled to nausea with him. Many theatregoers are thus sickened of Henry before they see him; others "are sick afterwards, riot because he is no good, but because of all the needless fuss that has been created. There is nothing more irritating than to pay out good money to see a dinosaur, and to be then shown a very useful but unsensational cow. Maud Allan and the Cherniavskys opened their dance and music business in the Sydney King's Theatre last Saturday. '. ' Announced per cable a few days ago that '' Stella,'' an opera by an Australian, Marshall Hall, was to be produced in London. Dr Marshall Hall, who is an ex-Melbourne 'Varsity professor, by the way, is weK enough known as a musician in Melbourne, but Melbourne fame doesn't always carry as far as London, and so the Palladium, not Covent Garden, is to the scene of the trial. Sydney papers record the fact that the Sydney "Little Theatre" Company 's production of Sheridan's ancient comedy, "The School for Sandal," has broken all records, both in point of popularity and as an artistic performance. The Little Theatre's producer is Beg. Wykehain, who will be remembered as a member of the Ward-Palotta companies. Encouraged, probably, by ■. the success of "Joseph and His Brethren," and by the ever.-, green stories of the -fortunes produced by~" : The Sign of the Cross,!' London has a New Testament play entitled '«The Holy t!ity. "It is staged at the Comedy Theatre, but it is nevertheless played with all beseeming reverence. It is described as a Scriptural drama in five acts,, by T. W. Broadhurst. It is richly and picturesquely mounted, and three London Roman Catholic choirs lend their assistance in the special music composed to lend verisimilitude to the pageants and tableaux. It is alleged by the-', London correspondent of the. Sydney "Sun'' that Madame Melba has an ambitious project to produce thirty operas by a company numbering over 300 persons. It is proposed to start from Paris, to tour visit Panama, and to cross America. In Paris she has been in consultation with the directors of the Boston Opera House, Mr 'Higgins, of London Covent Garden, and the, directors of the Theatre de Champs Elysees. Together they have decided to form a company without parallel in the world, to Open in Boston itext~ January, to sing in Paris during April, May, and June, t» next make direct to Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney, thence to Honolulu, and back to San Francisco, for the closing weeks of the Panama Exposition,,. ■ , . . : : . ~-.- ;• ;.:>■ .',

John Galsworthy 's," Justice not likely to be a popular success anywhere during this generation—it preaidhes a too poignant sermon, with too- much realism for people who prefer.to forget life in the glitter of musical comedy. Still, Germany is-supposed to b.ekindJy disposed towards serious.drama, land. therefore it is strange .that -during a performance at the Thalia Weafre m Hamburg the scene in the third < act, showing the agony of "the young man under solitary = confinement, was. too. much for many of the audience, who left the theatre whistling and hboting.;