THE STAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16455, 17 June 1921, Page 6

THE STAGE.

NEWS AND NOTES. (By “THE LIMELIGHT MAN.’’) Christchurch patrons will remember Miss Maggie Foster, “The Dainty Girl and her Violin,” and will be delighted to hear that she is booked for another tour of the Dominion. Daintiness combined with her wonderful ability as a viol ini she mnde Miss Foster many friends when she last appeared in New Zealand and her return will be very welcome. Her season opens in Auckland on Monday. Miss Gladys Verona, the brilliant soprano who lately appeared at Christchurch, has concluded her Australasian contract with Fullers and gone to London. Hers was one of the best acts which has appeared here for a considerable time and she will doubtless “make good” amongst the big Btars in the Old Country. An act on the Fuller circuit which should be at Christchurch shortly and j which is evidently one of the most novel I c-vcr seen in Australasia is that of the Three Girton Cycling College Girls. The Adelaide “Register” say a. of them:—-“One of the premier turns was that of the Girton Cycling College Girls. This gifted trio of youth, beauty and prowess absolutely brought down the house with their multifarious exploits on silver bicycles, whose wheels seemed built to turn and twist at will to any ludicrous angle. Like charming bits of quicksilver, the Girton Collegians held sway, and infectious comedy permeated all their original, and sometimes. dangerous, tricks on the wheel. Jumping a. stone wall “ turning a header,” bicycle and all, and then ! serenely continuing the trip was only ! one of tlies© exciting novelties. One ! girl was a veritable serpent, to judge j from the manner in which she glided ! in and out of the bicycle framework.” A new arrival from America who is delighting Australian vaudeville audiences is Otis Mitchell, with a singing, patter and banjo act. Commenting on his first appearance, the “ Sydney Sim” said: —“ Otis Mitchell, a newcomer from America, who opened yesterday at Fullers’ Theatre, lias a Danjo that he has toned to. such an extent as to reproduce the bride’s ‘ Yes ’ and the parson’s udinonitions at a wedding ceremony, as well as solemnly to pronounce the ‘ You go to ’ of the groom a month later when returning from his club in a highly hiccoughy state he answers his wife hack. He does a lot of -other things with that banjo, including 4 O Star of Eve ’ from ‘ Tannhauser,’ the ‘ Anvil ’ chorus from 1 Trovatore 5 and the ‘ Soldiers’ Chorus ’ from ‘Faust,’ sandwiched between slices of ragtime. In addition to his banjo playing, Mr Mitchell is an excellent comedian and patter artist. Ho went very big, and was made to overstay to a considerable extent his allotted span on the programme.” The young man in question comes of a musical family. He originally played the violin, but, when jazz and syncopation became popular, he took up the banjo as a better means of reaching the hearts of the people. Gradually he became efficient enough to play highclass stuff and to-day he is considered one of the best banjo players in this line of business. He heard such a lot about Australia that he became anxious to make the trip there and he cancelled a long list of engagements in America to sign up with Mr Ben Fuller in SanFrancisco for the Fuller Vaudeville Circuit. A keen sport, he was a keen baseball player at one time, but with the banjo us his means of livelihood he cannot now afford to risk injury to his hands, which are heavily insured with an American firm.

So great a success has Jascha Heifetz, the phenomenal young violinist, achieved in Melbourne, that J. and N. Tait are making arrangements for an extension of the season, in order to give additional recitals. At each concert at the Melbourne Town Hall scenes of enthusiasm of a memorable kind have been witnessed.

The Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne “ Argus ” mentions that there was a proposal by the Australian Labour Party’s conference to nominate Sir Ben Fuller to the Legislative Council of New South Wales, but that objection was raised because of doubts as to Sir Ben being as deep-dyed a unionist as the circumstances of the case seemed to demand. The fact that he is personally and professionally a fine type of public man was not the first requirement in union Labour politics. To be a petulant and persistent public scold would have been a stronger recommendation, as many an actor playing his part in the tragic comedy of politics knows. Mischa Levitzki, the wonderful young Russian pianist, like Jascha Heifetz, visits Australia in the prime of his success, and but three years after his great triumph in New York. Levitski began to play the piano when he was barely five, and three months later so amazed his parents that he was placed under the tutelage of Sigismund Stojowski, who described him as “the wonder pianist of the century.” Jascha Heifetz could have been a great pianist if he had decided to forego the violin for the piano. Apart from his genius as a musician, he has a notable qualification in being the possessor of a marvellous, memory. Heifetz’s secretary, Mr Purver, recalls how on one occasion in New York, five minutes before Heifetz was to upon the platform for the opening item, the accompanist found that the music for this number was missing. Heifetz was worried, whilst the accompanist was in despair. When the frantic search for the music failed, Heifetz called for the secretary. “ Get me some paper and rule it,” he demanded. The secretary got the paper, ruled it, Heifetz sat Sown in a corner of the artists’ room, and in a few minutes reproduced the whole of the concerto. It was played by the accompanist, and not a note was out.

The name of Frances Ross will give rise to recollections of many years back in the minds of most theatregoers (says the Melbourne “Leader.”) It will recall at once the names of Bland Holt, William Anderson, Reynolds Dennison, Walter Baker, and the firm of Clarke, Meynell and Gunn. Miss Ross’s last Sydney appearance was about five years ago, when she was seen with Reynolds Denniston in “Nobody’s Daughter.” For many years before that she Was with Bland Holt in a number of successful Drury Lane dramas. among them “Hearts are Trumps,” “Flood Tide ” and “ The Prodigal Son.” She began her career at Daly’s Theatre, London, then coming to Australia for Bland Holt. Though she expected her visit to be short, she was induced to prolong it, and she appeared underj the Anderson-WaJter Baker partnership, and under Clarke, Meynell and Gunn, when Mr Anderson Joined with that firm. She played in such pieces as “ Term of his Natural Life *’ withi Mr Baker, and subsequently toured New Zealand, starring withi Allan Hamilton. Recentlv she has appeared in several of the Sydney suburbs for the Education Department’s scheme of familiarising school children with Shakespearian plays, in the role of Titania in “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Now she rejoins the stage with a leading part in “ Wedding Bells.”

Ia it better to be beloved- bf the public as a “ one-part ” actor or actress or to make a name for versatility P The point is a nice one (says a Sydney paper)- Make a real hit with a character in a piece which has a universal appeal and you play it to the end of the chapter seems to be the inescapable rule. Apropos, few Australian playgoers mould imagine that Miss Jennie Lee,

who appeared on local stages in the long ago in a version of “ Bleak House. is still, at an advanced giving her ilimitable impersonations of Poor part in which she won world-wide Yet we read in English exchanges at a performance recently given at the Lvrio Theatre, London, Miss Lee a P~ S eared in the old part in a series oi dekens tableaux. She was received with all the old fervour by the audience, which roared its approval at the i fall of the curtain, when the pathetic j little figure of Jo bowed its acknowledgffients, and the actress spoke the neverfailing tag, “ You wo9 worry good to me, you woe." Thep there is the. case ' of the veteran comic opera artist, Mr 44 Johnny ” Wallace, who ha 3 been known in connection with Offenbach s “La Fill© du Tambour Major ” ever since h© first came to Australia 50 years ! ago. Mr Wallace still plays Bambini, the light comedy character he was seen . in originally—truly a remarkable record, considering that Mr Wallace is nearly 80 years of age. Dumas’s romantic tale “ The Three ; Musketeers” has been successfully pro- j duced in operatic form by Isidore de j Lara in the Municipal Casino at Cannes. In their libretto Henri Cain and Louis j Raven'skilfully present the leading ©pi- J sodes of the famous story, starting with i I>’ Artagnqn’s meeting with Athos. Porthos and Aramis. and ending with his up- j expected arrival at the Tuilleries with the Queen's diamonds—a form of opera ! very much like that of Dumas’s time : with airs, duos, trios, quartets and ensembles all very neatly done. Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson. in * one of his lectures in London recently, i told how he produced “ Hamlet ” at the ago of twelve in his father’s draw-ing-room. His sister, who was nine, doubled the narts of Ophelia and the i first grave digger, and the audience , was delighted to see poor dead Ophelia j i digging her own grave. “I doubt,” ! | he went on, “if there ever was a more | distinguished audience. Rossetti was ; ! there. Ford Madox Brown and his wife, j ! and William Moms, while stretched ! on the floor between the stalls and the young actors, with his pale face resting on his hands, lay Algernon Charles Swinburne.” Before Mary Garden became the artistic: head of the organisation (says an American paper), she drew 2500 dollars an appearance- Gallicurci 250 u dollars. Titta Ruffo 2500 dollars, Mawtore 2250 dollars, (an increase <?f 250 dollars n per f enhance will be made next vear), Sehipa 1800 dollars, i Rosa Raisi 1800 dollars, Edward * Johnson 1000 dollars, Yvonne Gall 1000 dollars, Carlo Galeffi 800 dollars. Georges Baklanoff will get 900 dollars. There are others who geti below this amount for a single performance. The conductors get 1300 dollars and 1500 dollars a week. These are paid under a contract guaranteeing a minimum number of appearances and they receive the full amount of money at the end_ of the season, though they do not sing a single opera. Ia it any wonder that grand opera does not pay? It has been customary for many years for the actor out of an- engagement to announce his want of a job by the one word, 11 Resting,” and this was so widely Acknowledged in the profession as an adequate indication of the true si .ate of affairs that: it caused quite a flutter in the Strand and thereabouts when a bold member of the art frankly declared himself in public print to be “Disengaged.” It didn’t seem right somehow to be as businesslike as all that, and so “At liberty” came into fashion. This was succeeded by “Vacation but it didn’t last long, and to-day it is a toss up between “ At liberty ” and “ Disengaged.” But even these comparatively frank announcements are in danger, for Mr Ben Webster, the wellknown actor —so well-known that it seems strange he should have to advertise at all-—is making it known to all whom it may concern that he is “Unemployed”! Surely enough to ( make the old-school actors spin in ■ their graves I

At a cost of a million dollar (saya | a New York paper), the production ; rights of every kind, including drama- j tic, motion picture and all other rights j to “ Ben Hur,” General Lew Wallace’s j famous novel, have just been acquired j by a producing combination composed ; of A. E. Erlanger, Charles B. Dillingham and IE Ziegfield, jun., all three of whom a-rte well known to the New York stage, though neither has ever been identified to any great extent with motion pictures. The foregoing announcement marks the culmination of* negotiations which have lasted over a period of several years during which time many other theatrical magnates have endeavoured to secure the famous spectacle, even from, the time when the author of the original novel. General Wallace, was alive. “ Ben Hur,” as a play, was first presented on the stag© at the Broadway Theatre, New York, on November 25, 1899. An entirely new stage piece is. to be made by Messrs Erlanger, Dillingham and Ziegfield during the coming season with a production more elaborate and spectacular than ever before attempted. Music hall comedians lately complained to the influence of the movies on audiences, says St John Irvine, in the “ London Observer.” The silentdrama lias produced a silent audience. There is now developing in onr midst an audience which does not applaud. J do not share the alarm of the music hall comedians at this development. On the contrary, I welcome it, and 1 live in hope that some day I shall see a new piece produced before an audience which will li'ave the decency to listen to it fz*om the beginning to th© end of an act without irrelevant interruptions. It is only in the cruder melodrama houses that the audience nowadays applauds some exalted sentiment as it it» uttered by the hero. I often tell the old story of the ambitious young actor who stirfode on the stage one idglit aind, having uttered his “ line,” “ Dinner is served!” marched down to the footlights and exclaimed to the gallery, “ And in my opinion the man who strikes a woman is no man.” receiving for his daring tumultuous cheers from gentlemen who had either recently been guilty of that crime or would shortly be guilty of it. Educated people are able to listen to wofithy sentiments from the stage witfhout interrupting the play with their endorsements of them; and it ia surely a curious thing that we cannon exercise the same restraint on beholding a popular actor or actress. Applause in the is delightful in its proper place—at the end of each act; ,it is *- nuisance during the performance.