BY "MASQUE."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11953, 23 May 1903, Page 2

BY "MASQUE."

"Sweet Nell of Old Drury" has completely captivated the playgoers of Auckland. Misa Ndlie.p»wart'B sparkling vigour and vivacity, tfcfc general excellence of her supports, and the scenio magnificence of the piece constitute a trio of iwisistible attractions. Local patrons are waiting patiently for "Sweet Nell." Wiliam Anderson's Dramatic Company brought a highly successful season at .Auckland to a close on 'Saturday last. Williamson's Dramtic Company conclude their Dunedin season to-night with a ~evival of "Sherlock Holmes.'1' It is said that "Secret Seifvice," with Mr. Cuyler Eastings as the United States secret service agent, and as Miss Varney°s lover, has run the big detective stage story very close for precedence in popular favour. t The Majeronis are still running strongly at the Wellington! Theatre Royal. • "A Edng of Iron,", which was put on on Wednesday night, is at present filling the bill. v "Tom, Dick, and Harry," revived on Wednesday night by the Bawtrey Company, concludes a (three nights' run at the Wellington Opera House to-night. "A Message from Mars" was the preceding attraction.

By the way, you "will find an interesting yam about Manager Priestley, the gentleman who keeps one eye on the local Opera House and the other on the look-out for "good things" theatrical, in to-day's supplement. ""- # . • Percy Hettman, one time lessee of the Rutland Hotel, has,been getting, into trouble with the local authorities of Christchurch for permitting the structure of the Theatre Royal, of which he is one of the owners, to be altered withouti first obtaining permission: from the City Council. "Sweet Hell of Old Druryf was the attraction, and the management, with) Mr. Herman's sanction, moved back the stall barriers so as to make more room in the stalls and lesa in the pit. Result., according to the estimate of the City Inspector, and extra £120 a week added to the takings of "the Sweet! Nell Company—and a 40s. fine for Percy. Harry Riokards' new English, American, and Continental Vaudeville Company commence a seven nights' .season at ChristchureLj to-night. What is styled as "Dancy Hyland's great vice-regal circus" is a current attraction in Christehurch. The Oswald Dramatic Company h&ve juist concluded a season there. The Pollard's opened their South Africantour with "Dim Djui." The Westminster Glee and Concert Party did enormous business at Christehurch. Miss Aggie Kelton has terminated! her engagement with Mr. J. 0. Williamson's Musical Comedy Company, and Miss Rose Hamilton has "been engaged to play her parts. The company are now playing in Sydney. Fitzgerald Brothers are showing a new aot in Sydney. Three horses dive from a heigh* of over 21 feet into a speciaHyoonstructed tank, 50 feet long, 22 feet <Jeep, 20 feet wide. The act is of a most sensational character, and created! a big stir when it was introduced during the Melbourne season. Mr. J. L. Took celebrated his 73rd birfchdiay last month. The veteran is now enjoying improved health. A comic opera in which all the characters are played by negroes has recently been a gfieat success in New York, and. negotiations are at-present mi progress to take the whole production to a London West End theatre.

Mr. George Musgrove's enterprise in connection with the production in Melbourne of "A Midsummer Nighib's Dream" has met* with well-deserved success, arid! it is to be regretted that we in New Zealand shall not have an opportunity of witnessing, one of the most notable stage productions seen on this side of the hemisphere. However, Mr. Musgr'ove has a number of novel attractions, both operatic and dramatic, which he is going to send us shortly. Mr .Sweet, the Musical Burglar, judging from the English papers, appears quit* to have taken London by storm with his quaint, droll style. Nothing, it ia said, has been seen so really funny in London before. George Titbieradge, of Brough, fame, is playing Rev. Oliver Barry in "The Story of Winifred" at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith. Albert Gran, who was to have toured New Zealand with the Sweet Nell Company, but didn't, has been giving scenes from "Romeo and Juliet" "Hamlet," etc., in Sydney. . Miss Ada Delroy is in the bill at the Melbourne Gaiety, where her dancing is one of the special features in the performance. . A tribute to Frank Thornton from an Australian exchange—The idiosyncrasies of Fred Leslie, the sporttaneouis merriment of Anson. the vigorous gesticulations of Robert Brough are necessary in combination to equal Thorntonfs unique, eccentric, and really funny pburtratals of the characters which form ihia repertoire. Every character interpreted! by him; is genuinely comae, andl he loses his individuality directly he faces the footlights." King Hedley, the Australian actor, is> going into management in London. Frank Thornton is said to have taken £1,068 during the first isix nights of his present Sydney season. Lieutenant Herd's New Zealand brass bandsmen were being boomed in. advance in London papers ■under the style of the Hinemoa Band.

MA John Lennmone, the clever flautist first here with Amy Sherwin, and who ia noW- managing the Australasian tour for Mark Hamburg, the celebrated pianist, notifies that he will commence the New Zealand season at Dnnedin on June 17. 4

A new play by Mrs. .Madeline Lucefcte Ryley, the authoress of "Mice and! Men," recently produced by Mr. Musgroye, has been produced very* .successfully ia London, and the lady "is spoken of as one of tbb earning playwrights. Mr. J. O. Williamson has four com panics touring New Zealand! this.year. Miss Cynthia Brooke, who was specially engaged in England for Mr. Musgrove's Shakesperian season, is an Australian native. An amusing scene was witnessed in the Berlin Court last month, when a performer who styles herself "She" appealed to answer a charge by Miss Loie Fuller of using her patented! apparatus in a so-called "fire dance." "Shle" offered to give ocular proof that Miss Fuller's contentions were untenable. Dressed in loose fitting garments she gave a performance before the judges on a table prepared for the purpose. The result was the dismissal of the charge. Mr. E. B. Russell a member of the MusgrovaT Dramatic Company, received tin? news when in Christchurch of the death, at the early flge of .27. of his oldest- daughter, Avell known in the profession as Miss Belle Russell. She visited New Zealand

when six years of age with Mr. Theo. Hamilton, playing Eva in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," a part which sfae also played for 21 weeks in Melbourne. Miss Russell also played several engagements with Messrs. Williamson, Garner, and Musgroye. Mr. Harry Grey, "The Australian Nugget," a native of Wellington, who recently arrived in England, can boast a unique and rapid headway. He arrived in London without a date on New Year's Day, mad© an appearance at. the London Pavilion two days later, then started on the Moss Empire tour, and has been since playing starring engagement with this circuit, which (according to the "Era") has secured him for three years. He is booked at tho leading halls with very few vacancies till the end of 1905, when he intends playing a return tour through India, China, and Japan, in conjunction with Fred Harcourt, the magician. The Australian tour of the Neill Frawley Dramatic Company will commence at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, on the 30th instant. The first* production will probably be the American and English success, "Arizona." Ofaher pieces to be produced are "Under the Bonnie Biliar Bush," "When Knighthood was in Mower/ "Secret Service," and! "The Altai' of Friendship." Says "Lorgnette" in the "New Zealand Mail"—Miss Winifred Austin, whose Minnie Templar in "A Message from Mars" has made such a favourable impression during the past week at the Wellington Opera House, hails from Sydney, andl had her finst professional offer from an agent of Mr. Bland Holt, who had witnessed' one of her performances in an amateur comic opera, written by Mr. A. B. Paterson ("Banjo"). At the same time, however, she had another offer from Mr. Brough, which was accepted, andl Miss Austin took par)? with the Brough company in many productions, induding ''Madame Sans Gene," "The Liaws," "Dandy Dick," "Trelawney" of the Wells," "The Happy Life," etc. After staying with the company for about a year, Misa Austin joined the Hawtney Company, andl will by next month have been with the company two and a half years. The two roles which. Mjss Austin1 likes best are Minnie Templar in "A Message from Mars," and Dick, the bootblack, in "Little Lord Fauntleroy." Miss Austin is art enthusiast, and is much attached to her profession, and with youth and good' looks on her side she has the prospect of a prosperous stage career before ner. Miss Winifred and her sister Elsie Austin, who is also prominently associatedl withi the company, are nieces of Mr. Alfred Austria*, the English poet laureate. Madame Dolores, before sailing from Auckland, .sent this cable to the Australian Press—"My two years' sojourn in the Commonwealtih! has been extremely happy. I will more than cherish the kindness of the citizens. Although I VBI sing in the art centres of Europe .shortly, I will return to happy Australia in a few years. With the sincerest wishes for the Commonwealth's prosperity, am revoir." The New York correspondent of the Melbourne "Argus," writing on the 2t9h March, says—Although Miss Ada Orossley, the fine contralto who comes to us this season from Australia andl London, had already been heard in song recitals and at social functions, she achieved! a fresh success last evening in the part of "The Guardian Angel" in Dr. Eolward Elgar's cantata, "The Dream1 of Gerontius," which! was produced in flSew York for the first time by our Oratorio Society. This admirable work —first heard at the Birmingham Festival in 1900, and since regarded with great favour in Germany—is based upon Cardinal Newman's • poem* of the same name. A superb example of orchestration and choral writing, it made a profound impression here upon the large audience assembled in Carnegie Hall. The production was thorughly sucessful. Of Miss Crossley—one of the three soloists—-a leading critic says—'"Her beautiful voice and intelligent jstyle gave an admirable reproduction of tbe mystic elevation) of the heavenly companion's deliverance." Others speak of her fine intelligence and deilightful vocal manner. Comments upon her previous recitals hadl refertned to the. lovely quality of her voice1, hexl, excellent phrasing, her thoughtful appreciatibni of sentiment, hler skilful treatment of subtle effects, and the rare taste shown in her selections. "It ia rather curious," said one of our best journals, "that Englishspeaking lands seem to have a monopoly of contralto voices just at present; and Miss Oossley is one of the illustrations of the fact that the true contralto can come out of England's southern colony's as well as out of England! itself."