Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue I, 4 January 1902, Page 33

Music and Drama.

“The Second in Command,'’ the military play with which the Broughs commenced their farewell season in Auckland, is the antithesis of the sensational melodrama and the musical comedy on which Northern thea-tre-goers are wont to feed. For that reason alone there is no doubt that many will prefer the spiced meat ot the one. and the wbipt cream of the other, to the wholesome interest and stimulation of Captain Marshall’s clever comedy. But to those whose dramatic palate is neither crude nor degenerate, here is a drama that must appeal.’ For here are live men and women, instead of mere musical marionneties and impossible heroes and heroines, and here, too, is the realism that is altogether independent of the. tricks of the stage mechanism and the calcium light man. The whole thing is delightfully eoo! and sane in its tone, unmarred by claptrap and exaggeration, and eminently healthy. The admirably conceived and no less admirably evolved little plot is simplicity and naturalness itself, deals nothing in ingenious convolutions ft ■mystery, has no surprises; but depends for its hold on the audience on the skilful handling of such a dramatic incident as might happen in any of our lives. In the most quiet, unobtrusive way the story draws us into a charmed circle, and by the time the curtain has fallen on the first act we are. almost unconsciously, responsive to its most delicate influence as the needle to the magnet. It begins by mildly interesting, by amusing us. It ends by thrilling us in a way one could barely have expected. It brings us in touch with a play of ennobling .sentiment and passion; it leaves us better men and better women, with a higher appreciation of the depth of sterling worth that lies concealed in human nature. The military setting of the play—the barrack yard, the smart uniforms, the tramp of men. the bachelor luxury of the mess, the preparations for the war, the bugle calls, and the scenic appendages of the drama generally— must have credit for much. They give just the atmosphere in which the action of the piay shows to most telling advantage. Mr Brough, as that most loyal of souls, though far from the most brilliant or successful of soldiers, Major Christopher Bingham, fills a role in which his very mannerisms are a distinct aid. In that final scene, where sleep hears the reconciliation between his lost Muriel and Colonel Anstruther, and later receives the Victoria Cross from the hands of the Duke, the audienee remains spellbound. It was an admirable, piece of silent acting, a triumph of repression on the part of Mr Brough; a “« no better evidence of the success of tn» entire impersonation of the noble - hearted “Kit” was required an the absolute appreciation of the strong situation which the house dis-

played. Mr Brough took so much of the sympathy of the audience that perhaps Mr Ward, as Colonel Miles Anstruther, hardly got his fair share of praise for a convincing study of a none too easy part. A trifle too stiff in his soldierly bearing sometimes, in attitude, tone, expression, he allows the workings of iris stormtossed soul to reveal themselves through the barrier of a strong and reserved nature. Miss Temple, always good in whatever she essays, is natural to the last degree in the role of Muriel Mannering. It is a role that might easily be over-acted, and the chief praise that could be given the lady is that she never falls into that trap. Where the more subtle humour of the play might fail to reach a section of the audience, Mr Leslie Victor, as the Hon. Hildebrand Carstairs. iomes to the rescue with a broader fun. With his mother. Lady Hai(Miss Susie Vaughan), he can claim most of the laughter of the evening. Miss Vera Gibson, as Nora, was fresh and charming, and the other roles were all ably filled. To sum up one’s impressions of the play, it is absorbingly interesting, and holds the mirror up to phases of human nature which one cannot contemplate without feeling the better for it. It is an excellent play, excellently aeted. This evening (Tuesday) “The Magistrate” will be produced,- and on Thursday. Friday, and Saturday there will be produced for the first time in New Zealand Carton’s famous comedy “Lady Huntworth’s Experiment.” Mrs Bnough will re-ap-pear in the latter play.

The Pollards have no Intention of giving New Zealand up for a considerable time to come. Bookings are arranged far ahead in all the main cities, including Dunedin for a five weeks' season in January, 1903.

The Wilson Barrett Company will open in Auckland on February sth, playing during the season “The Sign of the Cross,” “Man and His Makers,” “The Manxman." “The Silver King,” “Virginius,” “Hamlet,”’ and “Othello.” The company commenced their New Zealand tour at Dunedin last Saturday.

Lily Mowbray, who was for a long time leading dancer with the Pollard Opera Company, and recently a member of the Holloway Dramatic Organisation, has (says Sydney “Newsletter”) decided to go in for vaudeville altogether. She has ’‘doubled” with Eilie Mowbray, and the pair raalie a petite and graceful team. They are now appearing at the Brisbane Royal, where • their “turns” have become a leading feature of the performance. Local critics say that their equal has not been seen there.

Advance agent L. J. Lohr, so well known on these coasts, now keeps a hotel at Anderson’s Inlet, about seventy miles from Melbourne.

Some twenty-eight characters have roles allotted to them in “A Message from Mars,” which the Hawtrey Comedy Company now in Christchurch are playing. An American critic says of “A Message from Mars’lt raps selfishness of every sort and kind severely over the knuckles. It points a dozen morals and adorns a pretty tale. It’s a dramatisation of Dickens “A Christmas Carol,” in short, made for everyday use. Dickens' Scrooge is transformed into young Horace Packer, a conceited, grasping, self-centred young Londoner, who refuses to take his pretty fiancee to a dance because he doesn’t want to go in the snow again. After the girl has departed, chaperoned by her aunt, in the highest dudgeon, young Packer falls asleep in his easy chair and is visited by a messenger from Mars, who puts him through such a set of paces that by the time the pretty girl comes

home again he »« a completely transformed character. It waraid be spoiling a good night's fun to enter into further particulars of tie plot. It is one of those rare comedies which, while it keeps the front of you shaking with laughter, manages meanwhile to keep cold-ehills runrting up and down your back.

When Charles Arnold revives bis old piece “Hans the Boatman" at the Palaee Theatre at Christmas, an important member of the east will be “Lord Barry,” the champion St. Bernard dog of Victoria. This massive creature weighs Hi stone, and was considered the most savage dog at the Victorian bench Shows; but Arnold took him in band, and trained him so skilfully that now “Lord Barry’* romps with the children, and even allows them to ride on his back. He also leads poor blind Hans about. Arnold agreed to purchase him if he succeeded in training him. but when the owner of the dog saw him act he declined to part with him. so Arnold has borrowed him for his Sydney season.

The Wellington Amateur Operatic Society is again allowing the public to choose its own opera for production next year. The operas to be submitted to the ballot are "Les Cloches de Corneville.” “Dorothy.” “The Grand Duchess,” “The Mountebanks,” “Ruddigore,” and “The Yeoman of ■the Guard.”

"Florodora” will soon celebrate the conclusion of a year's run in New York. The occasion will have special honour, and the composer. Leslie Stuart, will conduct the orchestra.

Mrs Patrick Campbell, the famous English actress, will make her first American- appearance in New York early in January.

We are all acquainted with Punch's advice to the person who was about to marry: “Don’t!" Now comes the English actor-manager, George Alexander, who is idolised by the English matinee maidens, with these bits of sage counsel to the stage-struck:— Don't—unless you can rough it. Don’t —unless you can wait. Don't—nnless you can eat your heart. Don't—unless you can weep—and win. Unless you can accept as your portion disappointment, delay, weariness, travel, travail, opposition, malice, neglect. and the thousand natural shocks that (stage) flesh is heir to. why—l would din it into you—don’t!

“The Thirty Thanes” is the title of a new and very successful English . production, the Australian rights of which Mr Musgrove has just secured.