MUSIC AND DRAMA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CIII, Issue 15742, 28 August 1915, Page 3

MUSIC AND DRAMA.

THEATRE BOOKINGS. August 31 and Sept. I—Carroll,1 —Carroll, "Scrape o' the Pen." Sept. 6 and 7 —Branscombe. Mr Richard Stewart, with his wife and famuy, is on his way to South Africa to take up Hie residential maii-agei-susp for' J . C. Williamson, in piace or Air Harold Ashton, wJio returns to Australia at the end of the year. Another tour of New Zealand has been booked for Hugh M'lntosh, commencing at Auckland towards the end oi" the. year. A good combination ought to be formed in the New English Musical Comedy Company, which has started ill Melbourne and will go soon to Brisbane. The firm has created it by selecting from the Gilbert and Sullivan Company, and the musical comedy company in which Miss Branton and Mi- Workman starred. •'Potash and Perimutter" will be sent through New Zealand towards the end of the present year. The tour will probably commence in Auckland on 29bh November, with a season lasting until 4th December. Wellington wilt be played from 3 6tn to 23rd December, Christrhureh 27tli December to 3rd January. Dunedin oth to Sth January. .Passed out in a London nursing 1 home, a victim of cancer, J. T Tanner, • librettist of nearly all tile Gaiety musical comedies —"The Circus Girl," "My Girl," "The Country Girl'," "The Quaker Girl/ 1 ,and various other "Girls." "The Messenger Boy,'"' "The New Aladdin.,' ''Our Miss Gibbs," 'The Dancmg M:stress," and many besides. A Cockney by birth, Tanner started as a clerk in the office* of an Ang_)o-Australian shipping company. Taking to the stage, he !nad some very rough experiences, but finally got a comfortable berth in the touring company of the Lingards, wlio_ brought "Our Boys" to Australia. He made a splendid score in that best of Byron's pieces. Horace Lingard was associated with Van Biene in some l ...rusieal speculations, and this partnership gave Tanner his first chance as a writer for the stage. "Van Bieno wanted a play written round himself and his 'ce7o. He approached Pinero and other wellknown dramatists, but without success. Tanner tried 'nis hand and turn eel out "The Broken Melody," It was just the thing required, and Van Biene kept it prng for twenty years. In the early 00 s George "Edwards engaged him as "producer" for the Gaiety, and he. settled down there ns librettist of the establishment.—"Bulletin."

Mr George Stephenson and Mr Frank Hawthorne have joined forces lor a. tour of the Dominion., commencing at the Grand Opera House, Wellington, towards tho.end of September, in the evergreen musical farce, "Fun ■on the Bristol." It will he remembered that the late John F. Sheridau created the Widow •O'Brien in these parts some twenty years figo. liis success was so great that tho nam© 01 Widow O'Brien became, a house-hold word. Gracie Whitef-ord was his leading lady. Mr Frank Hawthorne will make his appearance as the widow. He has been_ p'.'aying the part for many years, and judging, by the reports, he is a" very capable successor to tho original. The rest of the cast will be made up as follows: Count Mennagio, Fred Hughes; Captain Cranbewy," Ernest Delaval; Richard Sparkes, Mr. A. Sharpies; Jerry Thompson, Mr Will 'Gi'bert; BeslVt. Miss Bertha- Beausch; Hawksbaw, Mr J. Duffy. Nora and Dora, the widow's daughters, will be oT.a:yed by Mis.se> Annie Berrill and Ivy Wallace respectively . Mr Harrv Lander arsplied last month to invest £IO,OOO in the War Loan. Gaby Deslvs has left tho "'halls'' for the photo-pjays, and lias created quite a furore in Loudon 1-y her appearance in ',Her Triumph." The. picture is sa'.d to be an extraordinary success, £l5O or £2OO a week being paid for the film alone, which is booked a long way ahead. She is supported by her dancing partner, Harry Pilcher, and may shortly be witnessed on a screen in Now Zealand. According to a recent announcement made by the Vita graph Company of America, that company has completed 3000 subjects since it began its business. Many of these have been GOOOi't long. In reviewing the work done by the company, Commodore B'ackton referred to the wide range, of subjects, from '"The History of the Ham Sandwich" to "The Life, of Moses" and "Les Miserable*.'' During the coming years for tho same length of time the Vitngraph will turn out more than triple the amount of films, with better and bigger effects, and the plans for these are practically kid down now.

The Keystone Company has decided not to produce any more single-reel comedies. The reason for this decision lies in the fact that they intend to devote their entire energies to the turning out of two-reel iaugh producers ■weekly. Several r>F these will he comedy romances in which such famous stars as Mabel Normand and Allen Moore will appear. They have now as many as ten companies at work, and the studios have been enlarged to a tremendous size. The four moving picture companies in France have been enlisted by the French Government in the taking" of a series of fine new films illustrating the operations of the Allied iroops in Northern France, to combat the tr-ovmg picture propaganda which the Kaiser's cvev-active press agents have been dissenrnating throughout, the United States. Several of the world's leading violinists have been ru&ciy affected 'jy the war. Ysave, the now elderly I'eigian, was at latest a refugee la England. Thibaud, the brilliaut Frenchman, is serving somewhere along the lino from the Swiss frontier to the Yser, v/lri!e Petsehnikoff ,the Russian, who was naturalised as a Bavarian, is a private in the Bavarian Landstur/n. Kreislei, t'be celebrated Austrian violinist, wl ose recitals were thronged in Loudon, shouldered a gun at t'ne beginning of hostilities, but ia now on sick leave nursing a wound.

Jimmy Britt, ex-champion lightweight boxer of the world, who is now telling humourous stories at the Tivoii, Sydney, believes in keeping up-to-date in his act, as evidenced by the following:—A Russian Jew soldier was taken prisoner by the Germans. As you know the prisoners' correspondence is always examined -by Iho guards, esq the boy wrote as follows:—"Dear Mother, —I have been captured by the Germans; everything is iovely; the food is fine; t'ne beds are good; in fact, everything is just like home. I do love the Germans." Then followed a postscript: "I forgot to mention, brother Abe was shot this morning for complaining." Many German opera singers are* said to behard up as a result of the war that they are living on the poor charity provided by various musical interests. NThe management of tche Richard Wagner stipend at Bayreuth lately handed over 27,000 marks for the relief of necessitous cases.