MUSIC AND DRAMA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5, 4 August 1906, Page 39

MUSIC AND DRAMA.

louts le monde et sa femmie” are asking what is the “ Lady Typist” all about? Well, it is all about a lady typist! She is a clerk in a large type- " riting agency, and very much in love with a young Indian Civil servant, one Geo. Fairchild. But Fairchild’s stepfather and mother object to the marriage as a terrible mesalliance, and desire that their hoy should marry money'. Clouds gather, all is dismal, when there returns to London a West Australian mining millionaire, who discovers in Ethel Blyth, the lady typist, his daughter. whom he has never yet seen. She was born while he was digging in Australia. The clouds are lifted, and all ends happily. Within this simple old I>lot are woven two minor plots, and those who have been privileged to read the book say that the author has handled the work well. There are various comic scenes, and the characters are boldly and broadly drawn. Two or three of them are, we may say, from life. The dialogue is quick and bright, as is the music tuneful and very melodious. Mr. Fred. H. Graham is working hard to make this “ All-Auokland production” a huge success. Some pictures from scenes in the comedy' apear amongst our illustrations this weekk. JX JX Mr. Chas. Holloway has purchased the Australasian rights of two new dramas. "The Village Blacksmith,” and ‘ The Coal King.” J* Melbourne ‘’Table Talk” has the following:—Mr. Claude Bantock is looming large in Melbourne just now. Can it l>e on marriage thoughts intent! Mr. Kyrle Bellew has been engaged k T Mr. Charles Dillingham for a London season. Time has dealt leniently with “Kyrly,” and-he . looks as juvenile M •ver on the stage.

“Sinbad the Sailor” is panning out a rich reward in New Zealand for the Anderson management. It ran for IS nights in Auckland—a record for any play in that city—and mostly bumper houses, too. JC Cinquevalli, who could balance anything, from a piece of paper to a man seated on a chair, is getting tired of juggling. He says he will give up the game in three years and spend the rest of his days in London. By that time he will be half a century old. JX JX When the-South-eastern railway Station in London collapsed recently, the Avenue Theatre adjoining was ruined by the falling masonry and ironwork. A London cablegram of July 18 says the railway company has given Mr. Cyril Maude, the proprietor of the theatre, 420,000 as compensation. Interest in the Gazoka has been much stimulated during the week by a series of advertisements in the Melbourne press, setting forth various exciting episodes in the life of that quaint little animal, and by the time it arrives in Melbourne the public will have begun to look upon it as an old familiar friend. JX JX Mr J. C. Williamson’s latest dramatic acquisition, His House in Order, reached its 150th performance in London last month, and to all appearances would double that number before withdrawal. Already two companies organised by Mr George Alexander are “on the road” through the English' provinces with Pinero's great play. JX The Gilbert and Sullivan Company who left New Zealand after a prolonged and popular season will follow the Brune Company in Sydney, whither they go after a visit to Brisbane, which is their immediate objective. They spend three weeks in Sydney, and then “take the long trail. In other words, Mr J. C. Williamson has decided to dispatch them direct to West Australia, and they are due to open in Perth on the Ist October. J* Extra special will be the description applied to this years pantomime which Mr J. C. Williamson is to produce at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, on Boxing night. Mr Coleman is already hard at work on the planning and the painting of the succession of elaborate senes necessary for it, and some startling electrical effects will be a prominent feature. As for the company to be enlisted with it, Mr Williamson has commenced organising it. and will be in a position shortly to make some important announcements. JX JX The popularity of “Thunderbolt” scarcely seemed on the wane after nearly a week’s run in Auckland, but on Saturday evening Mr Anderson replaced it by “The Work Girl,” which judging from its reception, is also sure of a good long run. Of the bushranger series of melodrama “Thunderbolt” is one of the best, but seeing that the annals of dare-devil theatrical youthful crime is on the increase, one cannot but feel some greater affection for such thoroughly wholesome dramas as “The Mariners of England,” which is certainly one of the best acted melodramas in the Anderson repertoire. One wonders by the way if “The World” could not be revived by Mr Anderson. W-ho holds the rights? It would just suit his lavishness in stage management. 'J» JX The four days extra holiday did the numerous invalids of the Royal Comic

Opera Company all the good in the world, and it waa a thorough tit cast who delighted a packed house of Adelaideun with Messager’a charming opera, “The Little Michus” on Wednesday last (July 18th). It was, however, only played for four nights, because in view of the shortness of the season, and the number of peces to be played, Mr J. C. Williamson lias resolved on changing the programme frequently. “The Shop Girl,” “The Girl from Kays,” “The Country Girl,” and “Paul Jones.” : comprise the repertoire, which has to be negotiated before the company leave again for Melbourne. JX JX Mr Charles Waldron, Mr J. C. Williamson’s new leading man in "The Squaw Man” Company,’ has already, by dint of sterling and artistic work, cst iblished himself a warm favourite with Australian audiences, and it is not too much to expect that before his sojourn in this part of the world is at an end he will stand very highly in their estimation. Though a young man, he has a stage ex perience which dates back some dozen years, and for more than half of that time he has been “playing lead,” both with his own companies and others. Altogether he can count no less than 300 parts in his repertoire, and these char acters range from ligat comedy to high tragedy, and from Augustus Thomas to Shakespeare. JX JX Miss Tittell Brune is back in Victoria again after her noteworthy season in West Australia, and on Friday, 27th July, is announced to open at. Ballarat for a five nights’ season to be occupied with Dorothy Vernon, Leah Kleschna, and Sunday. She opens for a special four weeks’ season in Sydney in the first named next Saturday (4th August). and at the end of the mouth moves on to New Zealand. Wellington will be the first town visited (on September sth). The tour should be more than usually successful considering the strong repertoire at present possessed by the company. Dorjothy Vernon. Leah Kleschna. Merely Mary Ann. and La Tosca, to say nothing of the older favourites like Sunday. L’AigJon, will constitute a series of {Powerful attractions. The William Collier Company are said to wish never to see Melbourne again (says a writer in “Table Talk"). Yet their comparative failure here, while bitterly disappointing to such a “star” as Collier, can be attributed to other causes than non-appreciation of his talent. He attracts the more intellectual and reading people, who appreciate his smartness and caustic wit, not so much the lug general public. It was the same in London, where he played to full stalls and circle —most of them at a guinea a head—and a poor gallery'. Then, for his style of play, Her Majesty’s Theatre is much too large. Both in London and New York he played in cosy little theatres. Here much of the dialogue never reached the more distant portions of the house, and at best about half, owing partly to the American intonation, partly to the size of the theatre, was really followed. But almost worst of all. in Australian eyes, both “On the Quiet” and “The Dictator” are two hour plays spun out to till three. The wait until a-quarter past eight, then the long intervals, did much to” flatten their effect. Why, Barrie’s “Little Mary,” with really far more hi it, was preceded by a curtain raiser. JX “I Wouldn't Leave My Little Hut For You,” with which Madame Titus has fairly captivated Southern vaudeville patrons, lias (says a Christchurch contemporary) only recently been added to her repertoire, having been picked up in London a few months back, and, as the air strummed on the hotel piano in a room below greeted our cars, she expressed, her pleasure at the manner in which, it had taken on. American matters were discussed, and Madame Titus explained how the position of vaudeville artists in the United States had deteriorated in recent years as the result of a conflict, between performers and managers. The former banded together in an organisation known as “The White Rats/’ with Mr. George Fuller Golden at the head. Funds were raised, and at a certain time, the vaudeville artists belonging to the. “Rats” in all parts of the States simul-

taneously ceased performing as a meanx of enforcing their demands. The managers, us a counter-move, combined, and the fight wbi<h ensued, ended, as such fights ust ally do, ina win for capital. Vaudeville remuneration since that time has never reached its former level.

A few particulars of the career of Mr. Charles Waldron have already been given, but in addition to him there are other members of Mr. J. C. Williamson’s new Dramatic Company well entitled to a few words of personal reference. Miss Ola Jane Humphrey, for example, the loading lady of the combination, can claim a singularly extensive stage experience. seeing that she has in her individual repertoire more than thirty parts, most of them of a far more exacting nature than the one she is at present filling. Another of the newcomers. Mr. Raplev Holmes, who plays Big Bill, the cowboy, with such cheery bonhomie, attracts attention not only because of his clever acting, but also because his birth, and upbringing by all the rules of environment should have fitted him for anythng but the stage. His father is a Canadian Methodist clergyman, high in the estimation of that denomination, and in the family circles there are no less than eight, other ministers. Naturally Mr. Holmes* choice of a profession is not regarded with unmixed favour by his kith and kin. but that the choice was an eminently wise one has been already fully justified, and if lie continues in Australia as he has begun, he will certainly be able to answer all objections with weight. JX With audiences unusually large all through the week, and absolutely pack-

cd houses in which hundreds are unable gain admission, on Saturday evenings, there can be no doubt that "The Squaw Man" is to be a prime favourite with Australasian theatregoers for many months to come, and that Mr J, C. William son’s new dramatic company will continue to be a very strong attraction wherever they appear. E. Milton Royle’s piece certainly deserves its success, for it. is full of powerful and admirably-play-ed situations, redolent of realism, and surrounded by an atmosphere so vividly reproduced, both by the acting and the scenery, that nothing whatever detracts from the completeness of the stage pie ture. Its problem is a human one, and its characters are natural, while the way in which they are interpreted from the tine efforts of Mr Charles Waldron, Mi-s Ola dane Humphrey, down to the slightest of comedy sketches, leaves nothing to be desired. Only three weeks now remain of the company's first Melbourne visit, and on its conclusion they begin a tour of Victorian provincial centres. taking in Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong. Castlemaine, and Warmambool. Adelaide and Sydney will be the next places visited, anu afterwards Mr Williamson will send his latest organisation to New Zealand.