DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5211, 19 March 1895, Page 2

DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

■■ ■♦ . I [feom our own cobbbspondsnt.] ] London, Jan. 19. - Sir Augustus Harria haa, according to report, offered even higher terms than this to Lady Clcncarty (Belle Bilton), who will re-appear (if at all) as heroine of the next lutumnal melodrama at Drury Lane. ; Mrs Justin Huntly M'Carthy -will positively re-appear in London next May, and has signed for a lengthy engagement at the Palace Theatre, the terms being the same she now receives in America, viz., cne hundred guineas a week. Mr Beerbohm Tree and hia company have gone to America, where I expect our mO3t versatile of actorg will mate a big hit. Mra Patrick Campbell's engugenient at the Hayniarket ended with the temporary rnn of John A Dreams, and she was in the drees circle at the Lyceum on the first night of King Arthur. Both Slaves of the Ring and Guy Domville are failures, and the former will disappear from the stage of the Garrick to-night, the popular A Pair of Spectacles temporarily taking its place. Mr Hare has been phenomenally unlucky with his new pieces, even Pinero'd delightful Lady Bountiful, which should havo run a twelvemonth, failing to attract. I hear Mr Hare meditates another revival of old comedy, probably The School for Scandal. Edward Terry - opened Mb once-pros-perous theatre in the Strand on Monday with High Life Below Stairs and a short three-act farce entitled An Innocent Abroad. Herein the comedian fills . the familiar role of a respectable married man, who has in a weak moment etrajed from the straight path of matrimonial rectitude, and having sown the wind reaps the whirlwind. Unfortunately we have again and again met Mr Terry in precisely this predicament. His every grimace iB an old, old friend, and we know precisely how ho will behave. The audience laughed as one laughs at a recognised "chestnut," but I doubt their recommending the programme !at Terry'a to their iriends. To tell the plain truth, the days of old-fashioned comedians with stereotyped manners and jokelets are over bo far as London ie concerned. Toole and Terry atill draw overflowing houses in the provinces, but their London seasons are pro forma. .