AMUSEMENTS.

Observer, Volume II, Issue 47, 6 August 1881, Page 531

AMUSEMENTS.

— A dramatic version of Wilkie Collins sensational novel, "The Frozen Deep," was produced at the Theatre Royal on Monday and Tuesday nights to poor houses. The plot in the acting version is comparatively slender, the interest of the spectators being concentrated upon two or three sensational incidents, heightened by " striking scenery ;" but the play contains alot ofterribly wearisome talkee-talkee and long dialogues (particularly in the second act) duri:;_j the preparation of the set scenes behind. Allowance must of course be made for the difficulty of reproducing within the condensed limits of a drama a plot elaborated in a novel of some hundreds of pages, and the consequent necessity for dialogue in order to elucidate the intervening gaps between the scenes in which the main interest in the drama turns. The play was moderately well represented, and the scenery was striking and appropriate. Mr Carden (Richard Wavdour) was exceedingly realistic in the final scene, and Miss Marston Leigh (Clara Burnham) impersonated the character very effectively, without exaggerating its intensely emotional features. The other parts were also well sustained. There was only one slip in the progress of the play, when a leading lady executed a very artistic swoon too near the footlights, and had to get up and do another faint m order to avoid being left in front of the flats when they Avere slid together.

■—Mr Fred Marshall, the famous low comedian, who will make his first appearance in Auckland some time next week in "Blow for Blow," was born at Glasgow on November 5, 1848. He was educated to the stage from childhood, appearing as one of "The Marshall Family " in various dramatic pieces written by his father, C. F. Marshall. His first engagement as a member of the dramatic profession proper was at the New Theatre Royal, Bristol. In Easter, IS7O, at the Theatre Royal, Bradford, he played the character of Quilp, in a version of " The Old Curiosity Shop," written by C. Rice. This performance Avas so far a success that it had a long run on tour in the provinces. Subsequently Mr Marshall became a member of the company of the New Theatre Royal, Nottingham ; and, later on, of the Prince of Wales's, Liverpool. At this theatre he played several important parts in "revivals," notably Biles ("Miriam's Crime"), Peter Probity ("The Chimney Corner"), Daniel White ("Milky White"), Sampson Barr ("Porter's Knot"). OnMarch29, lß79, Mr Marshall opened at the Philarmonic Theatre, London, in a burlesque entitled " The Talisman ;" and also again enacted the part of Peter Probity, in which he was very .successful. On March 6, 1876, he was engaged by Mr W. S. Gilbert to play the character of Mousta in ' ' Broken Hearts, " for a lengthened tour through England and Scotland. Of the performance the Scotsman (July 11th, 1876) said: " The best piece of acting in the comedy is undoubtedly that of Mr F. Marshall as Mousta, the dwarf. Highly effective, in a quiet, subdued style, was the expression of feeling in the passages where the deformed creature pleads for the love of the queenly Hilda, and still finer the rendering of utter prostration, physical and mental, as he sinks under her reproaches." In September, 1876, Mr Marshall joined Mr Duck's so - called " Our Boys " company of comedians, playing the parts of Perkyn Middlewick (" Our Boys ") and Percy Pendragon (" Married in Haste ") witli much success. In June, 1877, he was engaged as a member of Miss Lydia Thompson's travelling company, and visited the United States, performing at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, &c. Returning to England December, 1877, he afterwards fulfilled a two months' engagement (June-July, 1878), at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, appearing as Perkyn Middlewick. In April, 1879, MiMarshall sailed for Australia with the London Comedy Company, and in an amazingly short time blossomed into a star of the first magnitude. He is said to be the safest "draw" that ever visited the colonies, and invariably attracts crowded houses. His tour through New Zealand is sure to be an immense success.

— Planquette, the composer of " Les Cloches de Corneville," which, after many delays, will positively be produced at the Lome-street Hall to-morrow evening, is a sort of "single-speech Hamilton " — that is to say, he has never written anything at all comparable to his first work. The more you hear of "Les Cloches de Corneville " the better you like it. The music, after the manner of good champagne, is bright, fresh, sparkling and full of brilliance. From the delightful rondo in the first act, in which Serpolette describes her fatherless condition, down to the famous Cider Song in the last, all is melody ; and "some of the airs, like the " Bell Chorus" and "Just look at that, just look at this," ought to bring down the house.

— Viextemps, the renowned violinist,is dead. — Alice Dunning Lingard sailed for England from New York on June 11. — Lizzie Morgan has joined Hart's HappyHours Company, at present at Hokitika. — Aprima donna, with the quaint name of Gahhi, has made a hit at Her Majesty's Opera, London. — "Parsifal," Wagner's new opera, is highly spoken of by the few who have seen it in its unfinished state. — M. Massenet, composer of "Le Roi de Lahore, " is engaged upon a new opera, a version of Goethe's " Werner. — There were no less than four companies travelling in the English provinces with " Les Cloches de Corneville " when the mail left. — Little Joe Sheean, who created so much laughter as the Bosun in "Pinafore," has e.ven a funnier part in the new opera. — Mozart's " II Seraglio " was one of the novelties produced at the Royal Italian Opera this season. —Baker and Farron were recruiting in New York on June 18. They were to open in San Francisco in July.

— Clive Hersee, a brother of Rose Hersde, and husband of the "high kicker," Miss Duggan, committed suicide when travelling with the Soldene Troupe in America. — Tilda Horan is doing well with a burlesque troupe in N.S.W. The landlady with whom | the lady boarded when in Auckland would like | to hear from her, — The famous "Legend of the Bells" in " Les Cloches de Corneville " generally evokes an encore, and, as sung by little Julia Simmons, is sure to bring down>the house. — Bernhardt says her receipts in America amounted to nearly one million francs — over £40,000 — and. that her manager even made more. — Miss Maria Wallen, who achieved such a triumph as Josephine, when May Pollard was ill, is understudying Serpolette, and will, doubtless, give us a "taste of her quality" before the close of the engagement. — In London Serpolette s great song, and chorus in the first act of "Les Cloches de Corneville," "Just look at that, just look at this," used to be encored three, and often four, times nightly. — "Stephen Massett," says the New York Mirror, "came here last winter to get a manager. He has not found one yet. Poor Steve, I'm afraid his day has about gone. He was never much, and now lie's quite pumped out." \ — Mary Holt (daughter of Clarence Holt), a lady well-known in the colonies, has written a comedietta, entitled " Waiting Consent," which is acted nightly at the Folly Theatre, 1 London. ! — Miss Maude Pollard, who never had a chance of displaying her really fine voice in "Pinafore," should make a hit as the hero of "Les Cloches." Her rendering of the popular waltz song is perfect. —A new play, entitled "Coralie," by C. W. Godfrey, the clever author of the "Queen's Shilling," is a great success at the St. James' Theatre, London. Mr and Mrs Kendal and Mr Hare play the principal parts. — Miss Louise Pomeroy, who is now starring it in Melbourne, will shortly arrive in New Zealand. On the occasion of her benefit, when she took the part of Hermione, Marcus Clarke, the clever Australian writer, was so charmed that he presented her with a bouquet of red and white camelias, and some verses, which might have been better. — Much regret has been expressed because the name of tiny Amy Brooks does not appear prominently in the cast of the new lilipution opera. We are, however, in a position to state that Amy will be facile princeps in the next piece produced by the Pollards. — James Dewlmrst, a second-rate tragedian, who never did anything worth mentioning in England, has arrived in Melbourne under the engagement to Coppin. We shall no doubt have him here by and bye. — At the Arch Theatre, Philadelphia, Darrell played his "Back from the Grave," which is described as containing "enough of the mystic and sensational to run half a dozen variety theatres of the blood and thunder sort for an entire season. Mrs John Drew was his principal support. — Lynch Family Belli ingers drew the largest houses ever known at Armidale and Uralla. Numbers being unable to gain admittance on each evening. — Miss Ada Ward, an actress well-known in Christchurch for the severe verbal castigation she inflcted on a -member of the Fourth Estate some few years ago, is at present supporting Madame Mojeska at the Court Theatre, London. —The late Charles Dillon's son (W. C. of that ilk) has been benefitting at a public hall in Sydney, and letting our "nyumy" little friend, Marie Wilton in for quite a peck of troubles. The fact is, the roughs present made fun of poor Dillon's performance, and literally laughed the entertainment into a miserable failure. — The latest absurdity in which Toole (whose acting, by-the-bye, strongly resembles Marshall's) appears is called "Welsh Rabbits," and seems to be not unlike " The Illustrious Stranger, " Mr Toole, as Cecil Streeter, Esq. , a visitor at Margate, is supposed to be washed away from its sands in his bathing machine, to find himself presently landing in a new and beautiful country, and the object of curiosity and admiration to a savage and lightly-clad queen and her court. The fun is heightened by the arrival presently of his landlady, a bathing woman, and a Margate boatman, in quest of the missing man. After many extravagant flights, the tem-a firma of common sense is reached in the explanation that Mr Streeter, having fallen asleep on the sands, has been dreaming very badly, the natural consequence ' of an unwholesome supper of Welsh rabbits.