THE STAGE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16939, 13 January 1923, Page 7

THE STAGE

(BY "THE LIMELIGHT MAN.")

muaical comedy, “ A Night Out,’’ produced by the Williamson Company had a highly successful run at His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland. A strong and long cast includes Maud Tane and W. S. Percy. “A Night Out” was followed by ‘‘Oh, Lady. Lady.” after which (to-night) “Many” will bo given its first production in New Zealand. Some currency has been -given to a statement that at the close of his New Zealand season in Dunedin next week Mr Allan Wilkie will disband his company to take a holiday of twelve months (Says the Dunedin “ Star ”). When this statement was brought to Mr Wilkie’s notice this week he gave it an emphatic denial. It is his intention to lay off for a month's rest, but tho company will resume operations in Adelaide next month. The Westminster Olee Singers, who will tour the Dominion under the supervision of Mr Edward Branscombe, arrived in Wellington on Wednesdav, and will open at the Town Hall there to night. The company consists of six hoy sopranos, two basses, two tenors, and one male alto, selected from some of England’s most celebrated cathedral

choirs. Their programme will include glees, madrigals, part songs, anthems and chorals, nearly the whole of tie concerted musio being rendered with out accompaniment. The boy soprano; will he interesting alike to the oulturec musician and the amateur, they having been selected with the particular viev of securing the proper blending, in ton ation, and sympathetic expression sc essential to successful part-singing. Jean Gerardy, the world famou* ’cellist, who toured New Zealand sorve years ago. will pay us another visi' this year. He is tinder engagemeni to Mr E. J. Gravestock, and the ton will open in Sydney in April. M Gorardy was born at Liege, and firs: became famous as a bov prodigy. At the age of seven he entered the Liege Conservatoire, and made such rap* progress that six months later he car riod off the second prize for ’cello. A 1 nine he made his debut at Liege, an at eleven he graduated from the con servatoire —tho youngest graduate th H institution ever sent forth. Wit 1Ysaye and Paderewski ho then playec in England. His success was sens.t tional everywhere. Despite his e< fcreme youth he played with leadin.; orchestras and musical societi? throughout England, Germany, am Austria, whilst his American tourcreated the greatest furore. Wellington is to be the first city ir New Zealand to see “Bran Pie,” t-h-London revue, which 'is to introduce to us those brilliant revue artists. La< White and Clay Smith. Miss Wine? is a rare case of the power of persona l ity. She is not known as a greasinger, a superb dancer, or a fine ac tress, but yet with the aid of a whim sical and altogether winning per

sonality, plus the finest clothes ever worn by woman since the days of Queen Sheba, she triumphs everywhere She sings little songs in a way thao bewitches, and every movement with her has a meaning of its own. And with her is Olay Smith, whose won: at the keyboard provides just that touch of harmony and artistic fitness which makes the song seem better than it really is. The company will in elude such a fine array of artists as Ernest Sefton (a brother of Violet Lor raine’s), Luein© Beck, Rupert Julian, Zoe Wenke, Muriel Cathc-art, Lance Lister (who was here with “The Boy’ •. and those excellent dancers, Mao Baird and Archie Thompson. “ Bran Pie-” is to be produced by Mr Robert Greig, who was the original producer of the revue when it was produced in Australia three years ago. The Fuller pantomime which is running at the Opora House, Auckland, is accorded high praise by the erf tic', and is regarded as being one of the greatest successes seen in the Auck land district. The “ Sporting and Dramatic Review” says “To have pantomime at ( t- ■ -tin j. innovation, hut Sir Benjamin and Mr pTohn Fuller resolved that the Opera t \BUkturn* should house that particular at

traction in Auckland, and so picked on ‘ The Babes in the Wood,” one of their biggest Australian successes, to mark the event. Opening on Boxing Da?, the matinee and evening perform ano?v were attended by an overflowing crowd and the one verdict was in unanimous praise of the production. Spectacular effects, artistic ballets, tuneful singing and catchy comedy run. riot through the two acts, and the old legend threads its way through in real fairy tale fashion, supplemented by all the accessories of real ( hristmas pantomime. Just to mention a few of the enchanting stage scenes, there are:--The Cave, of the Red ‘Witches. The Crystal Gates of Fairyland, The Home of Queen Paradise, The Beautiful : Transformation Scene, Revolving .Mill lof Myriad Lights, Cabaret Hall, and i many other scenic masterpieces. Wit.i | the latitude that is permitted in panJ tos., Robin Hood is a conspicuous iig ; lire in the progress of the play, and as ! the part is entrusted to Miss -Mabelle Morgan—principal boy of many prei vious successes-—it goes without saying ! that Robin is a dominant foice all : through. Tall and shapely. Miss Morgan has a voice of good range and sets oIT a wardrobe of striking costumes. Miss Ida Merton makes a charming principal girl. The Dame is capitally handled by Mr George Ward, who

keeps everyone in a simmer of merriment with his originalities. 3 Allen Doone is arranging for another I Australasian tour in Irish comedyj dramas. / Oscar Asche has a bath fitted up in his dressing-room, and is able to take a quick plunge between acts when tho temperature becomes tropic. Acfcording to cabled advices received ; by Mr E. J. Gravestock from his Lon- * don representatives, Madame Tettraziru is not visiting Australia this year, ns : announced recently. Miss Vida Wyatt, a young Dunedin : amateur who has been residing in Aus- : tralia for some little time, has received r ail engagement in J. and N. Tait’s 1 “Mother Goose ” panto, company. - Chiefly through the agency of Mr ’ Harry G. Musgrove a round-the-world circuit is being worked out for vaudeville artists, who will take England, | America. Australia, and South Africa ‘ on one tour - . To an interviewer Mr Hugh Ward declared that tho motto of the Hugh ' Ward Theatres. Ltd., is “ New play- * houses,' a sustained series of new pros ductions, and plenty and new artists.” Overseas representatives of the new company will*be Messrs Robert Court--1 neidge. Sam Harris, and George ; Bowles, with headquarters in England ' America, and France respectively. ? Among the artists engaged by the * Hugh J. M ard-Fuller firm to reopei a the Princess Theatre, Melbourne (.i Boxing Dav with “The O'Brien Girl” was May Beatty, who delighted New Zealand playgoers years ago. first wi l

Pollards and later in “ A Chinese Honeymoon ” and other well-knowr. plays staged by George Stephenson’.■ Comic Opera Company. As she ha> matured Miss Beatty has left 'low comedy roles behind her, and now cori lines herself to grande dame parte In “ The O’B'rien Girl ” she appears *s Mrs Drexel. When William Rignold was appearing in “The 31 rry Wives” at Melbourm Royal, coming from the stage after ar act. lumbering in his excess of adipose tissue and ihe burden of his “ makeup.' - he inadvertently stepped on the foot of Mistress Ward (writes .a Sydney "Bulletin correspondent). “Clumsy clumsy!“ she cried, sitting down amnursing the injured member. “ Yot are not an actor. 3 ou—you—you an a performing bear!” WT*iam bowee and apologised, mopping copious perspiration from his brow, for the nigh! was bitterly hot. “Performing bare ! ,: he grumbled. “Performing bare! J wish to God I were, madam.” “ 3es. this is my farewell trip tc this side of tile world. I'm saying Good-bye ’ to the stage and am going home to England to join my husbanc oh his pig farm in Surrey.” It wa:

j thus that Miss Maud Fane, on arriving from Sydney, announced her decision to abandon the allurement of the footI lights and to resume the more homely joys of domestic liife. Three and a half ' years (says the “ New Zealand Herj ala ”) have elapsed since she last ap- . peared in Auckland in “ The Canary Cottage,” a J. C. Wiliamson production. Miss Fane’s theatrical career has carried her to many distant parts of the world. She has played in India. China. Japan and South Africa, and lias visited America and Canada. FresVi war clouds are looming on the horizon (says an Australian journal), but in this fray the people are merely onlookers. It is not an echo of the Near East or the struggle between King Coal’s rival “ Brown and Black ” forces. It is a battle with the theatrical magnates of Australia ranged on each side. The gauntlet has been thrown down by Mr Hugh Ward, who is getting his battle ground in order at the old' Princess Theatre, in which he timidly made .his first appearance on the Australian stage a good many years ago. The first shot fired by the V. ard contingent was loaded with reduced admission charges —and it is now n question of “ Whose move next?” A visit to the offices of “ The Firm,” vho are strongly entrenched in the opposition trenches, shows the atmosphere outwardly calm, hut everything • s in readiness, while Harry Musgrove’s vaudevilleans are nothing if not confine nt. The flock of singing birds who are winging home to Melba, in the hope that she will see them right to the top branch have perhaps failed to consider the position/ in regard to earlier compatriots (writes a Sydney “ Bulletin ” correspondent). The Dame has been Song Empress for thirty years, and in that time she has taken up a succession of young singers. But she appears to have a distinct knack of hacking the wrong vocal pigeons. The most expansive burst was in favour of a seprano whom she trimmed and tailored and beauty-parloured as a preliminary to an almost unprecedented debut, with rryal George and Mary in the front seats. The young lady was envied by every plodding Australian in England. ye l : she has almost vanished. Regina Nagel. Kirby, Stella Power, Dorothy Murdoch and even a weird youth with a “ double-voice ” affliction are others who have been in the boom with Nellie, for a space' Most of them might have gone further if left to push for themselves instead of pinning their faith to j a fluctuating affection. You drop from | a great height if Melba drops you. | The most extraordinary pilgrimage of modern times—a pilgrimage of laughter makers to a shrine of mourning—took place during the week-end following the death in London of Marie Lloyd. More than 120.000 people passed before her grave in Hanipstead Cemetery on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. An acre of green turf that was the pride of the cemetery staff was worn to dust by the slowly moving I feet of this pilgrimage of “ the gods.” ! Owing to the popularity of Mr A. S. M. Hutchinson’s novel, “If Winter ; Comes,” great interest is being taken 1 in the dramatised version of it, which is now running in the English provinces and is to be staked in London j at the St James’ Theatre toward the end of the present month. New Zealand and Australian playgoers will be interested to hear that Messrs J. C. : Williamson have purchased the rights ! of the play, and in due course it will be put on out here. There is naturally some doubt as to whether such a ■ book could be successfully dramatised, but Air J. N. Tait. who went to Bournemouth to see it- played, was greatly impressed and considered that the situations throughout were wonderfully dramatic.o * According to Sir George Tallis, of J. C. Wiliamson, Limited, who returned to Sydney recently from a trip abroad, at least seven thousand actors i nd actresses were out of employment :n the States. Many travelling companies had been forced to disband. In London the business was improving wonderfully after the terrific slump of June and July, but in the provinces it was deplorably bad. Prices in America, he said, were ruinous. It was quite impossible to get.into any musical success for less than three and a half to four dollars, and sometimes live dollars was the charge. In England reserved scats cost from 12s 6d to 13s 6d. In A i-‘tralia the prices were the cheapest m the world, and the shows compared more than favourably with those of London and New A ork. The London audiences are much more elemental in days. Of a gi'eat number of dramatic offerings in London and New York. 80 nr !)() per cent had had to be discarded as unsuitable or not good :h enough for Australia.

se “ The long search for his ‘ ideal girl ’ , n has ended for Mascha Elman, famous is v iolinist (says a New York paper). JbJ j* '•v lias found her right here in New York »• in the person of Miss Ivlildred Stone, a s. sister-in-law of Rodoif Polk, violinist, •s Mr Elman’s family have repeatedly had to deny rumours of prospective wedding hells during the last year, but friends £ of the pair said recently that no denial ie would lie forthcoming that time. M n Elman and Miss Stone first met at Eako Placid after the ■violinist’s return 3- from an extended European concert i© tour, accompanied by his sister, Niza ■v n well-known piapist. Elman became v, a naturalised citizen last month, an i id his father lias applied for his first iu papers.” Mr Percy Kahn, the wed*e Known pianist, a close friend of Mdscba, d whom he accompanied in the violinist & r- tour in 1914, was inclined to doubt it this report when it was brought under ” liis notice as he passed through W I lington the other day (says tha “Post”). He was sceptical principally on account of the fact that Elman :o is a Jew, of very strict parents, and ig the name of the voting ladv mentioned Ig did not seetu to be Jewish.' He woul ! id be very surprised if the news proved

It sometimes happens that a play, being endowed with exceptional virility, will reach itß thousandth* performance! but the “Beggar’s Opera” beat all operatic records when it notched ite tenth century ab the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith) writes our London correspondent on November 9). Thus twice has this jolly little work made history, for when it was produced in 1728 it ran for sixty-three nights—in those of far-off days, as Pope remarked in one of his essays, “ unprecedent and almost incredible.” John Gay, the author, started life as a mercer’s assistant in the Strand ; and La vim a E’en ton, the original Polly Peaclium, lived to become the Duchess of Bolton. Clay was a wit, and, encouraged by liis friends. Pope and Dryden, wrote the “Beggar’s Opera,” as a skit on the fashionable socalled Italian opera at the time ; and its success was so phenomenal that a contemporary’ jester penned the punning lines, “Tt made Rich gay and Gay rich,” John Rich being the manager of the Theatre Royal, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Curiously enough, when it was reproduced more than two years ago, its promoters hoped it- might last six weeks ; now there seems no reason why it should not run for six years, for some people actually make a habit of going to it once a week. Frank Bacon, the veteran American actor who created the character of I ightnin’ Bill Jones, was taken ill on November 12 while playing the part in Chicago, and died a week later. “No suffering and no pain beset him at the end,” says an American paper. “He was ‘just tired,’ and he laid clown his burden and went to his repose. With him at the end were his wife, who had shared his years of struggle and near poverty, and his daughter, Mrs Bessie Allen, who arrived from Kansas City, where she had been playing the leading lady’s part in her father’s play with the road company. The late Mr Bacon was born on January 16, 1864. His first role was that of Switchel in “ Ten Nights in a Barroom.” Then followed years of drudgery- in stock and repertory. mostly in the West. In 190(1 1 e secured engagements in Eastern States, and latter fourteen years in various productions, came his big success in “ Lightnin' ” which broke all records in New York, running for 1921 performances at the Gaiety Theatre. The play was originally his own idea taid his. own work, but was revised by M inehell Smith, the well-known plav wrigbt. The Chicago season commenced on September 1. 1921. When .stricken down bis part was taken, at his request, by his old friend John D. O’Hara, who presented the play to Australian and Now Zealand audiences.

LONDON THEATRES.

SLUMP AT AN END. The theatrical “slump,” which has caused a great deal of real distress in theatre land for two years, at last seems to have been overcome, and for some months now the majority of We ;t End theatres have been playing to excellent houses (says “ The Times.”) r flie “slump” was of unprecedented duration, but it was bound to be only temporary, and it is now anticipated that it has come to an end for good. There are still likely to be periods when “ business ” at the theatres temporarily fails, but among West Eni managers it is now confidently believe.! that the period of depression which followed in the wake of the end of the war has been left behind. This depression was inevitable, eveu if it was unexpected. It went hand in hand with the general industrial depression and. was prolonged and exaggerated by the exceptionally fine summer of last year. Jf this summer had been .equally fine it would probably have continued even longer, but the unsettled weather that has reigned since the beginning of the summer has been of the greatest benefit to the theatres, and since June conditions have much improved. Now that the worst period of the year, from the theatrical point of view, i K over there is little fear of any recrudescence of the depression until business temporarily slackens during next summer. Some theatre managers have blamed the entertainment tax for the “ slump.” but facts hardly bear out this contention. At present theatres are crowded, and the excellence of theatrical business can be judged by the number of West End plays that have had long runs. At the present moment there are ove r twenty plays running at West End theatres which have established themselves as settled successes. “ The - Beggar's Opera” at the Lyric, Hammersmith, has run fop more than two years, and .several pieces have now run for over three hundred performances. With a few exceptions the plays that have failed recently have been adversely criticised, and there is no doubt that at present a good play has as favourable a chance of succeeding as in tho days before the war. In the provinces also there has been an improvement in theatrical conditions and feeling throughout the theatrical world is far more confident of the future than it lias been at any time since the end of the war.