THEATRICAL TOPICS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

THEATRICAL TOPICS

PLAYS AND PLAYERS In the near future New Zealand will see some very striking musical comedies and plays (writes a Sydney correspondent)— 44 The Girl Friend,” and 44 Hit the Deck,” in which Annie Croft and company have scored such wonderful successes, and 4 4 Princess Charming,” and a more ambitious play musically, 44 The Vagabond King,” Annie Croft and Reginald Sharland would make any show, and in addition the musical comedies possess all the elements necessary to make them highly popular. 4 4 The Girl Friend” and 44 Hit the Deck,” go with a whirl, and are exceedingly bright fare. In 44 The Vagabond King,” James Liddy (principal tenor in 44 The Student Prince”) will again play the title role, and the cast will be one of J. C. Williamson’s best—and that is surely saying something. * • # ♦

44 If J. C. Williamson send the Muriel Starr Company to New Zealand,” writes a Sydney correspondent, it will be a new Muriel you will have the pleasure of seeing. Since undergoing an operation she has enjoyed better health, and the result is that she can now make the fullest use of her wonderful histrionic ability. In some of the most dramatic scenes in the gripping plays she is producing she holds the audiences spellbound by her realistic acting.” Mary Macrae, with Muriel Starr, is a young Australian who has come rapidly to the front in both dramatic as well as comedy productions. In 44 The Donovan Affair,” 44 Whispering Wires,” 44 The Last Warning/’ (the last-mentioned by the way, is based on the novel 4 4 The House of Fear,” by Wadsworth Camp) and other Muriel Starr productions she received high praise for her all-round excellent work. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

A Sydney correspondent writes: For the Australian revival of Pinero’s remarkable play 4 4 The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith” the cast was as under: — Miss Irene Vanbrugh as Agnes, Mr Dion Boucicault as Duke of St. Olpherts (his oiginal part), Mr J. B. Rowe as Lucas Cleeve, Miss Prudence Vanbrugh as Sybil Cleeve, Mr Ronald Ward as Sir Sandford Cleeve, Miss Gwynne Whitby as Gertrude Thorpe, Mr Norman McKinnell as Rev. Amos Winterfield, Mr G. K. Souper as Sir George Brodrick, Mr Reginald Wykcham as Dr Kirke, Mr Hugh Williams as For-, tune, Miss Peggy Willoughby as Nella and Miss Annie Saker as Hephzibah. “Mrs Ebbsmith” was first produced at the Garrick Theatre, London, on March 13, 1895, and was staged in Melbourne in .1896 by the famous Brough-Bouci-cault partnership, which presented all the principal successes of Pinero, Henry Arthur Jones and other leading dramatists of the day. There is every probability of the play being staged in New Zealand during the forthcoming tour of the Vanbrugh-Boucicault company. • • • •

A sort of mild bombshell has been dropped into the theatrical world of New York by a decision of the fashionable authorities of Newport that actors and actresses are not to be allowed to disport, themselves on the sands of Bailey’s Beach unless invited and escorted. The New York papers contain indignant 44 interviews” on* the matter, and a distinguished diva has declared with folded arms and bitter glance, that “the society gentlemen of Newport seem entirely dominated by their wives ’ ’--which, after all, is perhaps exactly what the 4 4 society ladies ’ ’ of Newport wish! • • • •

The German Theatrical Directors ’ Association has lately held its annual conference in Vienna, and discussed the situation in which the theatre of the Fatherland stands to-day. Apparently it is extremely bad. Throughout the German provinces theatre after theatre has declared itself bankrupt, and the explanation given is that in Germany to-day the theatre is no longer a picture-frame surrounding the beautiful works of well-known authors and actors, but 44 a crass mirror of the times,, which only people who have the courage to look at themselves in reflection can bear; all the others stay away.’’ The chief need seems to be that of dramatists with a vision of something higher and farther than their own noses.