THE PLAY AND THE PLAYERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6452, 5 April 1899, Page 3

THE PLAY AND THE PLAYERS.

[Bt Prompter in " Canterbury Times/] Mr Dave O'Connor (baritone) and Horace Gleeson have joined Mr Pollard's Company. A new theatre is about to be built at Dannevirkc. It will contain a dress circle upstairs, a stage 49ft by 30ft, and good green- . room accommodation. Messrs Tom Pollard. H. T. Harrison ana Bert Royle -have collaborated, and intend producing a new and original burlesque i:'. Wellington during the coming season. The title has not yet been decided on. Mr Charles Arnold has forwarded me a copy of a splendidly got-up souvenir issue -1 by him in celebration of the 250 th perfor-' finance of "What Happened to. Jones," which is still drawing crowded houses at the London Strand. Miss Lily Everett, formerly a prominent member of the Pollard Opera Company, has taken up the part of Tommy, the midshipman, in the Sydney production of "The Geisha," vacated, by Miss Lily Titheradge, who has gone to London. Managers return from New Zealand to affirm as sure as they are alive that in that colony there is, in proportion to size and population, the bee-t " show town " in .-..J Australasia, says the Sydney ' Telegraph.'. This is Palmerston North, a small town of a few thousand inhabitants, where more mone\ has been taken by many companies than they could earn in any one of the four cities. There the Fitzgeralds gathered a seemingly fabulous sum in'one_day; and treasurers record with gratitude ttiat there, too, their takings were immense, in spite of the fact that several other entertainments were also being well patronised in that enthusiastic little inland metropolis. The new piece by Haddon Chambers Js called " The Tragedy of Tears." lhe Bronghs have the first refusal of the Aus- j tralian rights. i Bland Holt is having a splendid run with ; "The White Heather" at tlie Melbourne I Royal. It is described as " a really fin* i spectacular show. Mr Philip Newbury, owing to the preafc • success which has attended his " pops " in Sydney, has decided to malce them a I permanent institution. ■ Mr Brough has secured the Australian rights of Pinero's last comedy, " Trelawney ; of the Wells." The dresses are of the age of the crinoline, and are being made in Lon- ; don for tlie Australian production. It is wonderful remarks a Sydney con- ; temporary) what a season in Australia 1 effects for stars. Miss Ada Beeve, who' was not an excessively great gun in Eng- ! land "before she came out here, though she had scored some successes, has taken tlie critics and public by storm since her return, and is now described by the " Daily Telegraph" critic as "the nearest possible successor to Farren." The leading lady of " The Belle of New York" company, which will make its first appearance in Australia at the Melbourne Princess Theatre at Easter, is Miss Louise Willis Hepner, a Toronto girl. She recently seceded from a pantomime company on account of a dispute with the musical director, the cause being her refusd! to sing an encore because he delayed too long in giving the signal for it. The Melbourne Press speaks in high praise of "Mr "Brough's most recent production at (he Trincess Theatre, "The Brixton Burglary," a farcical comedy, by P. W. Sidney, now running in London. The piece extracts its fun from the shuffling manoeuvres of Dr Septimus Pontifex, whilst endeavouring to conceal from his wife that 'he and' his bachelor friend Diggle, joined an innocent supper party given "by the "Bounding Sisters of the Air." Mr Robert 'Brough seems to have had a particularly congenial role as Dr Pontifex. "The 'Brixton "Burglary" is described as fhe most amusing farce since " Dr Bilh" ''"Nine-tenths Of an .actor's life, 1 ' says George Moore, "must be given up to nib'bish.-; -rubbish is the fare of the- multitude, and it is the multitude that enables the actor 'to keep -the roof over Ins head; but he should reserve a tenth part of his life for Uihnself— for -his art." Mrs Robert Keeley, whose death was recently reported by cable, was born at Ipswich in 1806, and made her first appeal ance in London at the Lyceum in 1825. During recent -she occasionally appeared at dramatic gatherings, where she was LanoureU.asthe ol'dest'living representative of tShe.ttrnin&'.inlEnglan'd. Some English papers flatly -contradict tlie stories 'Of "Henry Irving's monetary embaTlassments and abandonment by Miss Ellen Terry. •"Irsving'," the "Sketch"" asserts, "will 'return to th,e stage in the company Of Miss Terry, -the "Lyceum is not to be sold, and it is not proposed to raise any public snbseriptions for fhe great actor." The "theatrical "business, not only in New York T 'b«tt dli around the country (says the "'New 'York Telegraph") continues to be literally enormous, and it is -evident that the -present season will 'be -quite the greatest 'an -record : in -this or .any other country. It may be, indeed, that if the prosperous conditions which now characterise the United 'States are maintained, the theatre tariff -will be advanced in -,all the l.est theatres cf :aH the leading cities. It cannot hs said the drama is neglected by the municipalities in Germany. Four important cities M3o3ogne, jFrankfort, Kiel, and Nuremberg — tare abont 'to build new municipal theatres, Tlie Frankfort one will cost about £75,000, «rf wliic'h £15,000 is reported to have been voluntary subscribed, and \he rest will be met by fhe, civic autlio-ritie-s. A number of the ol.fc playhouses in Germany also are being re-modelled, .and in raajijf- instances new stages nr« being put in. _ '