THE STAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12761, 3 October 1919, Page 2

THE STAGE.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. 1 3 Possibility that New Zcaland will be visited shortly by the ‘New Smith Dales State Orchestra, a splendid combination of seventy performers. J he conductor of .ibis bjxnd of talented, musicians is Henri Verbrugghon, and j. 0 deputy-conductor and leader is Allred Hill. The concerts given by the orchestra are musical features in Sydney.

1 l ie a od X. Tait Comedy Company, headed by Miss Lmelie Polini, will commence a tom- of New Zealand at the Opera-House, Wellington, on October 1. Miss Polmi has boon a wonderful success in Australia, proved bv the lact that she has been able to fulfil an eighteen months’ engagement on two plays, which will bo produced in New Zealand—“ De Luxe Annie ” and ‘“■’The Lyes of Youth.”

“Goody Two Shoes,” the J, 0. Williamson 191U pantomime, will be produced in Now Zealand shortly. The Scory of Goody Two Shoes concerns a or pink satin .shoes which the bad Demon wants, the good Fauw owns, and Goody wears. The two acts ot nineteen scenes are said to provide an entertainment crowded with fun, laughter and song. There is said to be a continuous whirl of gorgeous stage scenes of which The Children’s Flower ballet, the “Bubbles” scene, the Fortune Toller s -halle.t, tbs mystifying Scene, the Living Tableaux.* the Glittering March of the Menu and the Larch ner Girls ballet, take pride of place. Arthur Stigant appears as the Dame, and Madeline Harrison Dorothy. Hastings. Nellie Wilson, Maggie Dickinson, Maud Gray and Toby Claude also appear. There are three specialty acts—“ The Toy Soldier,” by Mr Fred Malton, a feature which has a distinguished record; “Jewel’s Marionette Circus.” and the Keuiia Brothers m their famous special tv “Bv Aeroplane to the North Pole.” “Dorian Gray,” an opera based on Oscar M ilde s strange tale of the passage of a man’s soul into a. picture, was produced at the Sydney Conservatoriuni Hall recently. The book was adopted by a well-known Sydney barrister, Mr M • J. Curtis, and the music is by Mr W. Arundel Orchard, whose principal earlier work was “ Ulla the Bowman.” The J. C. Williamson management in Melbourne claim for “ Lightnin’” that from the point of view of its qualities as a play, and its popularity with audiences, the American comedy-drama is “Struck Oil” and “The IBilvcr King ” rolled into one. “ Lightnin’ ” is the rage in Melbourne. Even the drapers and the boot shops are advertising “ Lightnin’ ” sales.

Miss Peggy Pryde, who will be in Aow Zealand shortly, is a. daughter of Jenny Hill, the “Vital Smirk.” Miss Pryde has only just arrived in Australia nnder special engagement to the bnllcr firm. For several years she has been celebrated for her comedy characterisations, and has achieved a reputation in English vaudeville equalling that of Miss Marie Lloyd and Miss Vesta Victoria.

h.ews has been received by cable that the King of the Belgians has conferred upon Mr Hugh J. Ward, managing director in Sydnev of C. Williamson Ltd., the Cross of Chevalier of the Order of Leopold 11. During the wax Mr Ward’s activities on behalf of patriotic and other causes resulted in larae sums of money being raised, including £21,000 from a matinee at’Her Majesty’s, Sydney, in aid of the Belgian Fund, and £142,000 from the Belgian Day appeal. The new tenor of the J. C. Williamson Grand Opera Company, Walter Wheatley, hails from Joplin, Missouri, U.&.A. While .still very young. Madame Nordica advised him "to take up an operatic career. He sailed for France in 1906, after having had considerable experience in operatic and concert work in New York and Chicago. He made his operatic debut at Covent Garden, London, as Turiddu in “ Cavalleria Rusticana, under the direction of Campanini. Mr Wheatley sang four seasons a,t Covent Garden and five seasons with the Royal .Carl Rosa Company, appearing also in concerts at the Queen’s Hal] and Crystal Palace, London.

There was a theatre in Australia once that used to be empty for long periods (says the “ Theatre Magazine”). Managers wondered how it was that tho money m the house never tallied with the attendances. The ticket count never disdosed anything wrong. Every effort at discovery of fraud baffled them. At last a plumber was called mto attend to some piping. He found pipes that had no reasonable explanation for existence. These had been fitted in and acted as ticket “shoots” from ticket takers to sellers. They were cunningly arranged, and had been the means oi bleeding managers for hundreds oi pounds. _ One of the best stories told oi discovering a swindle proves once again that truth is greater than fiction, iho wife oi a manager was tho star of a big tour. One day she lost a gold chain purse in the street. She rushed into the treasurer’s office, took up the telephone, and rang up the detective 0 i a detective here immediately, she said; She was very excited and, putting down the ’phone, she looked at the treasurer. He turned very pale, and told her he would tell everything if she would give him a chance. Then he unfolded one of the' biggest swindles ever plaved on any Australian manager. It led to the recovery of £2OOO. And the best of it was neither she nor anyone else -ever suspected that anything of the kind had been taking place!

.. £°“ ?. cv ?, r can tell (writes a Sydney Bulletin correspondent). The most angelic stage children grow up to be, the worst women in London. .Nellie" f erguson, who is consistently criminal m the Sydney Opera House dramas, wore more halos than any other young, ster of her time. She was the original Australian. Little Eva in “ Uncle Tom’s Oabin, with her mother (Helen Fergus) as Gassy, her father (D’Orsay Ogden) as Legree and Carrie Swain as lopsy. Carrie lent her to Charles Arnold to he the original little Hans in Hans the Boatman.” Her father did the most comprehensive Dickens repertory Australia has known, and in turn Nell played Joe (“Bleak House”), Little Nell, voting Copperfield, Little Dornt and Oliver Twist. I believe by the way, that D’Orsay Ogden was the original Australian Fagin. At old Sydney Majesty’s his daughter was the boy-king in “ Henry Y.with Rig. nold Joe Tolano, Tommy Cosgrov© and the hapless Scot Inglis in the cast. She was also Puck in a panto staged by Rtgnold in which Plorrio Ford, now on the London halls, was principal boy. But her real start was in a drowning part in “ The Tomboy.” In this she was nightly thrown into five feet of water by her mother, and floundered about while Came Swain uttered splendid sentiments prior to making a spectacular 15ft dive. During the run Neil fell ill, which is pot surprising. Her youthful understudy spoke the lines, but resolutely refused to hair-drown, and for three weeks Came Swain, rescued a dummy.

For some time past an agitation has been on foot in Australia, and to a lesser extent in New Zealand for the propose of bringing about theabolition of the amusement tax which was imposed by both Governments durum the war period. The Amusement Managers' Association of Australia,’ which' meludes the whole of the theatrical and motor© industry of the Commonwealth, holding more than 900 theatres, eml ploying over 12 ; 000 people, and catering to a public exceeding 3,000.000 persons per week, has issued a leaflet conjoining a number of, extracts from' leading newspapers roundly condemning this tax. The “Sundey Times ” (Sydney) says: ‘‘One of the enactments wlush should have been removed long since is athe* amusement taxT Its undemocratic character and the comparatively small revenue to .bo derived from it make it difficult' to justify it even during the currency of- the war.

Thar© is however, ©very reason why it should be immediately abolished. * The genius of the public financiers of the Commonwealth must be very limited if the_ highest flights of their imagination lie in the direction of the humble amusements of th© people.” The Melbourne “ Herald ” also makes out a strong cause for the removal of the tax. It remarks: “The .entertain-' ments tax is absolutely against the principle of fair taxation, for it is levied upon oue section of the community only. People are allowed to indulge in all kinds of sport and luxuries without having to pay taxation thereon, but the comparatively small section of the community which seeks harmless and pleasurable amusement after the day’s work is penalised-

An _ old Sydney Thespian, becoming reminiscent the other day, deplored the lact that the drama had quite disappeared from the Australian stage. He had before him (says Sydney “Daily Telegraph ”) an ancient scrap .book, and, fondly turning over its pages, observed : “ There you see Louise Pomeroy m ‘ London Assurance ’ and ‘ Lady o'f iy nns but that was a few years ago, and a generation or two of playgoers has been born since then 1 recall Genevieve Ward iu ‘ Forget-Me-Not,’ and Airs G. B. W. Lewis in ‘ Jane < ■^ ovr - ** that you don’t see r orgot-Me-Not ’ nowadays? What is the matter with the colonial stage that we don’t get actresses of her talent again to delight us? Then there was Florence Wade in ‘Puck,’ the Maier- - oa nS 'll. ‘ Fedora ’ and ‘Wanda,” also ‘ J . h< L .I' 1 Corporal ’; Janet Achurch in <4 ’ Cliarlcs Warner in Dnnk, Hands Across the Sea,’ and <-aptajn Swift- ; "Wvbert* Ttecwc, who produced ‘A Woman in White Kyrle Bellow as the Baron in ‘La Tosca’; and Harry St Maur in some good parts. One thinks, too, of Titheradge, Cathcart, Anson and Maltby in Mira th 6 lenman and of Lucia Harwood, Brough, Ranald. Mila, Bentley, and a school of others who from time to time graced the old colonial stage, and who have not been replaced. The present generation, to my view of thinking, has quit© gone over to the frivolous, and theatrical managers catering for the times, think not of art but of money. I believe you will see sooner or later, a return to the drama of those days, when nearlv every member of a company was a star.” ‘ Then be glanced at a playbill of “ Milestones ” and agreed that th© times were changed, indeed-

A national English theatre was among tho war memorial schemes proposed at Home.

A memorial tablet to Beerbohm Iree in the outer wall of his old theatre. His Majesty’s, London, has been solemnly unveiled with praver by a bishop “ The Lost Chord,” by Uaia Butt, and speeches by the laird Chief Justice and ex-Prime Minister Asquith.

Strong comment on a Nottingham Magistrate s refusal to allow two gfrls, aged eleven and twelve, to appear on the stage as fairies in a pantomime is made by a leading London daily paper, this was the Magistrate’s decision on £PP e ?‘, *F om . the manager: “We don t think it right for you to exploit these children for your pecuniary advantage. To he out after ten is not. tu /n t - m morally or physicallv.” Ihe following is an extract from the Press criticism“ If the theatre is if™ ?Vf Dy s ® , T ,ce m th ® reconstrn«t on of tho nation, we have on must bP' S these children must be acted by children and not by those poor stunted creatures whose employ monk and manufacture the Magistrate and his friends have in their ignorance done their best to encour-

I Jrn a ,V° n fe a t6rvie W Mr Isidore de Lara, the English composer, expressed Miss Rosina Buckman, was to appear in tho leading feminine part in his new at CoVent Garden ta v'WV He Bai d that Miss Buckman had temperament, «nd what was even ss,nceritJ5 s,ncerit J and JJJ3 Buckman made many Australian^appearances, chiefly in light musical play? Oscar Hammerstein. theatre builder and producer of grand opera, died in here r°‘ njgllt of a complication of diseases (says a New York telegram published in San Francisco papers tb '’K death removes from the public ey'e one of the most interesting personalities the melting not of h ?f , p ™ duced - In life were crowded all the tragedies, all tho high and ah the romance that an aoHvo imagination might attribute te 1 the jears of a man of genius and tireess energy, who began life as a nenniless immigrant, made and lost fortune after fortune and before he died established himself as one of the world’s greatest impresarios of opera. He was born in Berlin in 1847. Being chastised one day by his father, he sold his viohn and came to America, landing with two dollars. In 1880 he began to build theatres, finishing up with the Lexington Avenue Opera House in 1914. In a few years he had built ten great theatres one of them in Philadelphia and Tnnr A l, n period from 1906 to 1910, when' Mr Hammerstein reigned at tho Manhattan, New Y’ork renewed its acquaintance with or heard for the first time such operas as “ Salome ” “Elektra,” “Thais,” “Carmen,” Les Contes de Hoffman.” “Quo Vadis:” “ Jongleur de Notre Dame” and Louise. u Mary Garden, Tetrazzini Dalmores, Bond, Calve. Zenatello Melba Sammarco. Renaud, Lina Cavaherl, John M’Cormack—these are a few of tho names mention of his Manhattan Opera House brings to mind. Miss Eileen Castles has arrived in Sydney from abroad, in fulfilment of a contract with the Grand Opera Company now appearing in Sydney. Miss Castles, who expresses her defight at being back in Australia, has been appearing in grand opera and in concert work for several years past in Europe and America. She was in Vienna before war broke out. At the close of her Australian tour. Miss Amv Gashes who is with the J.O. Williamson Grand Opera Company, will return to America for a series of sixty concerts in the United States and Canada, under the direction of tho V’olison Bureau.