Music And Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XX, 15 November 1902, Page 1258

Music And Drama.

“The Chinese Honeymoon’’ has reached Dunedin, where it opened to big business on King’s Birthday.

“The Wrong Mr. Wright” scored a record house in Dunedin (according to “Pasquin”), £223 was taken on the first night.

Mr. J. F. Sheridan has revived the burlesque “Little Christopher Columbus” at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney. “Sherlock Holmes” at the

Royal, and “A Million of Money” at the Lyceum, are drawing well.

The band contest music arrived by the ’Frisco mail and has been despatched to the various competing bands. The Newton (Auckland) Band has entered, making a total of 21, a record for the Australasian colonies.

Mr. Pete Hughes wires from Wellington: “Mr. J. ('. Williamson’s Musical Comedy Company opened on Saturday night to an enormous house, and met with a great reception. ‘The Runaway Girl’ achieved a notable success.”

Mr. Charles Carter, who is severing his connection with the Pollard Company. and who intends going to England to study, is to be tendered a grand complimentary benefit on the 26th inst., when “Maritana” is to be put on the boards. Mr. Carter taking Don Jose. Both on the stage and off Mr. Carter has a host of friends, and in Auckland he is particularly popular, so that his benefit in that city should be one of the biggest things on record.

Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Drew, who come to New Zealand with Sandow, are described as the Kendals of their profession. They give a sketch, “The Yellow Dragon,” which, according to the unanimous verdict of the papers on Sydney side, affords a glimpse of restrained and powerful acting exceeded by few actors the colonies have seen. The praise bestowed on these artists by the very best critics is so obviously sincere, that their appearance here will be looked forward to with more than ordinary interest. i

On her return to Australia, Miss May Beatty, who has divided with Mr. Edward Lauri the chief comedy roles in “A Chinese Honeymoon,” and ■‘The Thirty Thieves,” is to prepare herself for taking up a leading part in the first Australian performance of “The Fortune-teller,” under Mr. Musgrove's management. It is Mr. Musgrove’s intention to keep this colony permanently in his touring circle, presenting what he considers most suitable to modern tastes. The difficulty in the way of catering adequately for a public whicih is ever looking for “something new” can only be realised by those who have tried the experiment. For instance, a manager, writing to Mr. Hudson, Mr. Musgrove’s manager, after a trip through the United States, observes: “Having seen about thirty plays, there are only about two I would have the cheek to try on the Australian public. I am tired of travelling a thousand miles to see a piece that Bland Holt would not look at, and drawing £2OOO a week perhaps,” and we out here, it must be remembered, get the pick of the market.

Miss Eva Mylott, the beautiful Sydney girl (says “Table Talk”), being about to proceed to Europe for the purpose of completing her musical education, and that fact having been brought under the notice of Maddame Melba, the diva expressed a wish to hear the popular contralto. Miss Mylott accordingly waited upon the diva, at the Hotel Australia, and sang at her request. Madame Melba expressed the greatest interest in Miss Mylott’s singing, sat down to the piano, went through some vocal exercises with her, showing Miss Mylott how to obtain notes previously impracticable, and eventually gave her a letterintroduction to Madame Marchesi, in Paris, under whom Madame Melba recommended the young contralto to study. The diva most kindly intimated an intention of interesting herself in Miss Mylott’s artistic career, and hoped to see her in Paris on returning from Australia.

Janet Waldorf and a Melbourne collection have sailed from Melbourne to play Janet’s repertoire in the East. After doing Asia they strike for America. A Melbourne journalist goes along as press representative, and to play small items. Janet promises to produce his plays in America, and he takes a tankful along.

“The Toreador,” which was produced for the first time in New Zealand by the Pollard Comic Opera Company in Auckland on Monday, is a really admirable musical comedy, and should prove one of the most telling cards Mr. Tom Pollard has ever played. It is chock full of light, sparkling, effervescent music, and there is an abundance of beautiful dresses and pretty girls to fill them. The plot, too, is more rational and interesting than usual, and “the book,” if not clever, yet escapes inanity, which is more than can be said for half a dozen pieces of a similar stamp we have seen of late years. Miss Connie Buttel has a part in which she scores very heavily. Dona Teresa is a passionate Spanish plotter, and a jealous, jilted woman to boot, and Miss Buttel has, therefore, an exacting if effective role to fill. She is quite admirable, and both sings and acts exceedingly well. Miss Alice Edgar has a very congenial part as the vulgar Cockney widow. Mrs. Hoppings. Nothing funnier or less forced has been seen here. Mr. Percy has, it is needless to say, the chief male part—so far as comedy is concerned—and all that can be said of his exceedingly clever performance is that it is as full of well-thought-out work and brisk business as anything he has ever done. All the other parts in a very important and well-balanced cast are

well filled, a special word being due to Mr. Percival Aylmer, whose study of the rich, brainless dude, Sir Archie, is decidedly effective. The opera is handsomely mounted and beautifully dressed, and will certainly run for a large number of nights in Auckland.

Kyrle Bellew has his autobiography for M.A.P. According to his own account his earlier career has been considerably chequered, particularly the Australian part of it. Out here he has been census collector, miner, station hand, sundowner, sign painter, boat builder, sexton, bush parson, lecturer, reporter and general knockabout. Kyrle does not let his modesty run to waste much in his story, and such expressions as these occur frequently: “As reporter on the “Age” I made rather a hit. I was cast for the heavy part, and got magnificent notices. Clement Scott gave me a fine notice for this. I made a big hit as So-and-So.” In all of which Kyrle exhibits a quality common in the profesh.

The shutters have been put up with a bang on Dunedin Alhambra, says “Pasquin,” and the people thereof, and the audiences thereof will know it no more for an indefinite period. The little band of extra girls who tried to look as if they were not extra girls have long since departed, and are now following various other walks in life —mostly following. The end man and the serio-comic—who look like so many other end men and so many other serio-comics—have joined another end man and another serio-comic, and started a show of their own. The orchestra was paid off months ago, and only the conductor left. Now he, too, has gone, which shows the wholesale nature of the sw-eep. The only person about the premises is an official in blue dungarees. He might be an engineer or a bos’un—but he’s not.

The following account of the Nance O’Neil final fiasco (it differs a little from previous accounts) reaches us per the “Argus”: When Miss O’Neil appeared in Giacometti’s “Queen Elizabeth” she received several very favourable press notices. Had she appeared in the first instance in a part which great actors had not made familiar, her undoubtedly good qualities would have been better appreciated. Her want of success had its effect upon the exchequer of the Adelphi, and on Saturday night there was a crisis behind the scenes, when the “supers” struck for unpaid wages. Their demonstration was romantic. In the third act of the play, where there are 100 persons on the stage, Queen Elizabeth orders in her guard to arrest the Earl of Essex. On Saturday night Miss O’Neil stamped her foot, according to the text, and shouted, “What ho, my guards,

my guards,” but no guards responded. They all kept out of sight, and the Earl of Essex had to consider himself arrested. The house did not reopen on the Monday, and the manager had to face his men with promises of a settlement when the draft arrived from America. There is much sympathy among theatregoers for Miss O’Neil, who is regarded as a clever and intelligent actress, though she may not be up to the level of “star” work.

According to a Sydney newspaper, the various syndicates formed to buy large quantities of guinea tickets in connection with the Melba concerts in the hope of afterwards reselling them at boom prices wear a worried look at the present time. There was quite a number of these enterprising syndicates, for the wonderful prices some of these tickets realised in Melbourne had been duly reported in the papers, and it was rumoured hundreds of pounds had been made by shrewd ticket scalpers in Melbourne. It looked an easy way of making money, involving just a little early rising and a couple of hundred pounds capital. But the ticket scalpers reckoned without tha public. Sydney people did not rise to ginuea tickets with remarkable enthusiasm. Anyhow, they did not rush the Melba concerts. Those who were prepared to pay a guinea were decidedly averse to paying 25/; and when they found all the seats booked on the night of the first concert, and only syndicate tickets available at boom prices, they decided to stay at home. It is said that the Sydney ticket scalpers lost hundreds of pounds. Some of them endeavoured to rid themselves of their stock at the Town Hall door at cost price, but with indifferent success. Others tried an auction, but with miserable results. Others, again, putting a cheerful face on their losses, utilised the seats they could not sell by hospitality, bringing along all their neighbours to hear the diva. On the night of one of the concerts £1 1/ tickets could be had for 15/. In fact, instead of there being any boom in the high-priced part of the house, it was all the management could do to fill it, 10/6 being the limit of the majority of the concert-goers. The postponement of the last two concerts was a veritable God-send to these enterprising gentlemen with numbers of tickets on their hands which they could not dispose of. When the management advertised that they would return the money or book for the new dates, the syndicators were down as soon as the booking-office opened, delighted to get some of their money back. They did not want to re-book, but considered themselves highly fortunate at the chance of getting out of the mire without further loss. New Zealand speculators take warning.