DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4902, 17 March 1894, Page 3

DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

The English jubilee of Dr Joachim, who made his London ddbut in 13--, will be celebrated on March 28. It is stated that the late Mr Henry Pettit, the Adelphi dramatist, has lefc a fortune of something like .£40,000. Adelina Antonio, at the London Aquarium, throws a triple somersault backwards from tbe top of the dome into a not ninety feet below. Mr, J. L. Toole has started a prize competition among the members of hia company for the best title to the new farce which is to succeed Walker, London. The New Year has opened badly in London, for of all the pieces running on Jan. I, but one- third survived to Feb. 1. This ia. quoted as "the most disastrous month on record." Since the opening of tho new Queen's Hall, London, the prices for admission to Booeey'fl Ballad Concerts hava been lowered to 5s 33,2s and Is— an all-round rednction of one-third. Mrs Beqecke, a daughter of Mendelssohn, residing at Potter's Bar, near London, possesses the original MSS. of the Elijah, valued by the British Museum at from six to twelve thousand pounds. The immediate consequence of Henry Pefctitt's death has been a rush upon the Messrs Oatti, who have been inundated "with manuscript* and offers of manuscript from D_elodramafcistß of every clais. Eobert Buchanan's new play, The Charlatan, in which Mr Tree appears as a hypnotiser, a species of Herr Paulus, but "compact of inconsistencies," has achieved a moderate success at the Haymarket. A clergyman depicted in The Old Jew, Mr Grundy's new comedy at the Garrick Theatre, is made to remark that "We go to the theatre to hear sermons "—to which comes ' the obvious retort from the Jew, "Yea, and to church to see theatricals." Spsina Vckea, one of the famous Vokea family of actora, died in London on Jan. 29. Sho was fort jr years of age and went on the stage at the age of sis months. Ia 1877 she married Cecil Clay, and retired from the stage for a time, but returned again. Not long before his death Henry Pettitt "waa at work upon hiß new play for the Adelphic, which was to follow the successful Woman's Revenge; but there ia no possibility of his work being completed by another hand. As a fact, little more than the scenario of the new piece waa finished. Edouard de Bes_ke, who is appearing with Madame Meiba and other well-known singers in opera in America, is described by a New York paper aa " goreeous as ever —gigantic in stature, tremendous in voice, the most triumphant, superb, dashing devil who ever came down to make mischief here below." j The following are the latest quotations ■ for come London theatrical shares (Jan. 4, i 1894) :— Alhambra .£lO shares, j Empire (pref.), los, £5 103 ; (ord.), 10a, JS3 10a ; London Pavilion (ord.), £5, £6 10s ; Tivoli, £5, £9 155. Gaiety Theatre one- j pound shares at same date were down to, eight shillings. Amongst numerous presentß sent him on hie eighty- first birthday, Henry Bussell received a musical-bos which grinds out eight of his most popular songa :— "Cheer, Boye, Cheer," " Life on the Ocean Wave," "To the West," " Woodman, Bpare that Tree," "Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean," "The Old Arm Chair," "The Maniac" and "The Ivy Green." M. Paderewski was, it is eaid, the recipient, at Christmas of a miniature grand piano, of ebony, the tiny keys being of silver, with " black" keya of gold. If playable at all, the instrument promises to be rather hard to the touch. Senor Sarasate, on ths other hand, had a present of a watoh shaped like a toy violin. .According to one of the French papers, the great Spanish violinist now possesses at least thirty gold watches. Enormous figures (says the "Era") are quoted— all, of course, in the strictest confidence—as representing tbe offer made to Mra Langtry by the management of the Empire Theatre if ehe would appear in thoße tableaux vivants whose production (if we may credit some " who ought to know") depends upon her consent. According to some authorities, a salary representing some .£2500 a month was the offer made to Mra Langtry; and at present, bb it would seem, not accepted by her. The " Kouta-Eouta " dance, ac danced at the Trocadero by Vita, a la.dywho is described on the programmes as being one o£ tho eenrations cf the Chicago' Fair, BUggest3 the eerpentine in a limited degree, but the dancer makes greater and more gracoful uto of her body than is usually seen in the execution of the other whirling measure. ' A Mephistophelean poseur is used aa a sort of foil for the lady, ■who.it should be mentioned, is possessed of marked personal attractions as well a3 delicacy of motion. In the newly published life of the late Fred Leslie it is stated that he starred his career afc £1 a week. Next year (1879) it waß eight guineas ; in 1880, .£l2 ; in 1881 (while on tour in America), .£25 ; ia 1882, JE2S; in 1883, 1884, ISBS, .£4O; in 1886. JB50 ; in 1887, £oo ; in 1888. £60 ; in 1889 and 1892, .£100; aud in the prospective engagement for .he past year, J6120. He wisely mado it a rule to put by half of what he earned, and wa_ therefore able when he died to leava his children the handsome fortune of £16,113 16s lOd. Mra Kendall, according to a contemporary.is theauthorof the following American experience : — "Leaving the theatre I found that it wa3 raining cat 3 and dogs. I was in a dreadful dilemma. I had no goloshes, no umbrella. Tbe coupe stood thirty yards away, and between it and me lay a nasty big mud puddle. I waa juat on tbe point of calling to Willie, when suddenly I noticed that about twenty men in evening clotb_3 wero waiting beside the coupe to catch a glimpse of me aa I passed out. Aa they caught sight of mo standing on the threshold in perplexity, twenty crush hats were whisked off wjfh one consent. There was a click lite a diminutive roll of musketry as tte hata were shut, and then, as one man, the well-dretasd battalion advanced, and laid their hats down in the mud, thus forming a series of steppingstones?, which reached to my carriage door."

(FflOil OTTB OWN COBRE3_ , ONDE_!_.j j London, Jan. 12. Despite Mr Herbert Vivian ahd the British Anti-Semitic League, the Jews are high in favour with us all just now. Quite recently a leading novelist devoted three volumes of "fiction with a purpose" to # the laudation of the chosen people, and' now Mr Sydney Grundy gives us a play pointing the same moral. In An Old Jew, the new comedy-drama afc the Garrick Theatre, all tho nice people are Jews, and all the objectionable men Christians. The hero and central figure of the new play is the Jewish millionaire, Venables, who, under the name of Julius Sterne, has amassed abroad enormous wealth. Everything that the old Jew touches has a habit of prospering ; and now, after twenty yeara' absence, he returns to England to seek out and befriend hia wife and children. Why has he neglected this duty co long? The anawer, whioh ia withheld until the action has made considerable progress, iB that Sfcerne'a past history haa involved a sorrowful secret. He had detected his wife in a criminal intrigue ; ehe ia penitent, bufc they agree to separate, he makin k provision for her support; and at. he is convinced that the consequences of that position will fall less heavily on the heads of hia son and daughter if the fault of the parting is believed to be his, he bind* his wife by a solemn promise to conceal the truth. Why he has not inquired into their circumstances, or ascertained fchafc by tho fivuid of a rogue his investment on tbeir behalf has been dis•jipated, ia nob explained ; but when afc last je arrives, he discovers that his daughter Buth ia earning a precarious living as a

3 performer at a music hall, while she is the object of the dangerous attentions of ' Bertie Burnside, musical critic of a acurrii lous journal called " The Vulture," who, ' I baffled in his 'object, finally insults and 1 taunts her with her mother's shame. His i > son Paul's Bole occupation appeara to be j that of de-patching a manuscript to ■ manager after manager, aDd as regularly receiving ifc back unopened — for he has neglected to enrol himself in the coterie which is Buppoaod to make and unmake reputations. Sterne introduces himself ' into the household of the Venables with less precaution to escape the eye of his repentant wife than might have been e_k pectad. His excuse ia that he s_w the young man looking with interest at a collection cf old plays at a bookseller's, and J had come to ask hia acceptance of them. ' i Paul proudly ref uses aßtranger'e gifts, but j the old man'- placid, benevolent air and ' 1 dignified manner touch him, and a sort of half-serious bargain is struck. Paul will r j exchange the despised manuscript for the p proffered volume-, and on this the old man 1 takes his departure. What follows con--1 cerna Sterne's acheme-* for securing a trjal ' for his son's play, and the exposure and 1 downfall of the syßtem of "success by mutual assurance." The scene changes to 1 the spacious club-room of the Moonlighters, ' where we are introduced to a variety of | , journalietio, literary, and other types. There is Wandle, whose power is due to tho fact that he reviews books for a ' i syndicate of papers ; there Is Polak, • I novelist and playwright, who inclines to ; . the lugubrious, despises plot and con- • j struction, thinks meanly of the opinion of audiences, considers it indispensable tbat 'J a work should be "palpitating with : actuality," and wants a subsidised theatre. 1 ! There is Bobb, the old actor wbo will 1 interpolate anecdotes of when he played with Charles Kean ; there is tbe Hon and Eev Mr Finucane, who unwisely puts faith in investments recommended by an unscrupulous financial organ; 1 there is Walsingham, the theatrical manager ; there is John ' Sl&tar, A.M., LD.D., a ruffian who indites spiteful criticisms and libellous paragraphs for his vile paper in the intervale of whisky drinking; together with several others hardly less prominent. Mr Grundy has evidently bestowed on these personages great pains, and they undoubtedly afford amusement ; but tho spectator cannot help a feeling that the power of these representatives of what Mr Grundy with good reason calls "gutter journalism" can hardly be co far-reaching as it is depicted. Mr. Sterne, at least, makes short work with them— thanks partly to his inexhaustible purse and partly to his convenient knowledge of their compromising antecedents. He oven compels the reluctant manager to produce his son's play, and finally buys the very club-hou_e over the members' heads, and with Cromwellian decision turns the key upon them.