CUTHBERT ROSE, COMEDIAN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1322, 26 August 1915, Page 30

CUTHBERT ROSE, COMEDIAN.

Mr. Cuthbert Rose, comedian of the Violet Dandies, is famed far and wide for his clerical characterisations, the innate refinement of the English entertainer making it possible for a perfect impersonation without the slightest jarring note. In fact the “cloth” is always in evidence amongst the audiences. Mr. Rose has figured at Home in drama and pantomime, and for some years exploited ■ ins talents in the drawing-room entertainment line of work. Five years ago he came out to stage manage the Dand es for Mr. Branscombe in Australia, but this is his first visit to New Zealand. Mr. Rose is the originator of most of his numbers. He wrote “I Couldn’t Distinguish the Words,” “My Dictionary,” and “The Simple Curate,” amongst a long list of others, which have diverted Australasian audiences. As Mr. Rose remarked, it’s all very well to write your own stuff, but when someone else hears it and precedes you in another place, then the audience aggrievedly say they’ve heard it before. And to say you feel annoyed is to put it nr Idly I

Mr. Herbert Winter, who will be remembered with the Randell Jackson Concert Company, is doing a single act at the Tivoli, Sydney. “After the Girl,” produced by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., in Sydney, is styled a “revusical comedy.” * * * * Mr Claude Bantock is to take his old part as the Earl of St. Ives in “Our Miss Gibbs” revival in Sydney. * * • As in Melbourne and Brisbane, Sydney James, the leader of the Royal Strollers, has achieved fresh fame in the New South Wales capital. Apart from his qualities as a singer, siffleur, and humorist, his powers as a ventriloquist have burst on the Sydney public with all the force of a new phenomenon. What is especially impressive is the humanity and spontaneity of his patter and people cannot understand how he achieves such naturalness in a sustained conversation with a wooden dummy. The great secret of his success is that he never over pitches his voice, and never strains his humour to obtain a sudden, but artificial triumph.

Mr. John Farrell arrived in Auckland from the south on Saturday, and is making active preparations for the spy drama, “The Man Who Stayed at Home.” “It has been a tremendous success everywhere in New Zealand,” Mr. Farrell said. “There is plenty of excitement, plenty of sensational incidents topical of the times, and there is also a big dash of comedy to relieve the tension. Frank Harvey, as Christopher Brent (the secret service agent) is simply great.”

Dramatic writers throughout the United States predict a general revival of interest in stock companies, having local popularity. They are replacing motion pictures in many communities.

While in Sydney Madame Melba was made a presentation in the Lord Mayor’s room at the Town Hall by the executive committee of ihe Polish Relief Fund, as a token of remembrance for her generosity in the cause. The gift took the form of an address bound in brown suede, with a silver monogram. The case ‘was made from Australian wood.,],’

“How did Messrs. Lechmere Worrall and J. E. Harold Terry, the authors of “The Man Who Stayed at Home,” become acquainted with the methods of the German spies, as disclosed in the play?” The “Daily Mail” caused something of a sensation by supplying the answer. It was that the authors had had the unofficial assistance of a Secret Service officer, but that the latter’s co-opera-tion was known to the War Office authorities. It was suggested that the exposure of spies’ methods would have

good results in awakening the public to the danger around them, and putting them on the alert to watch for and detect the presence of the alien danger in their midst. A recent performance of “The Man Who Stayed at Home” in New York, where it is being played under the title of “The White Feather,” was characterised by an exciting incident. ;n the scene wh.re Carl Sanderson is trapped by Christopher Brent, the Secret Service officer, a man in the front stalls, presumably a German, ihiew a bottle of some corrosive liquid at the actors on the stage. In the

uproar and confusion that ensued the miscreant escaped. One of the artists was burnt about the hands, and narrowly escaped serious injury.

The critic who looks for a plot will (it is claimed) need a microscope to find it in “After the Girl,” which will open the season of the Royal Comic Opera Company at Her Majesty’s, Melbourne, on August 28. “After the Girl” is a mixture of musical comedy and revue. It conforms largely to the latter type by reason of the fact that the two acts comprise six scenes, which are crowded with introduced features and novelties. There is an unlimited amount of irresponsible funmaking, plenty of pretty girls, lively dancing, tasteful dressing and glorious scenic studies. The variety of stage settings may be gauged from the fact that the location of the incidents of the piece is respectively the Belgian frontier, Amsterdam, Venice, Petrograd, and London.

“On Trial” is to be produced in London, where (says a Detroit paper) every good American play goes nowadays.

Mr. Frank Harvey, who makes a decided hit as Christopher Brent in the J. C. Williamson production of “The Man Who Stayed at Home,” was educated for the Royal Navy, but his stay at the Devonport College, familiarly known as “The Shop,” was ended by an injury to his eyes on the cricket field. His stage career, which began by playing six parts in the bloodcurdling drama “The Executioner’s Daughter,” is limited to nine years. Of this he spent a year with the famous Compton Comedy Company in the old costume classics, and eighteen months as juvenile lead at the London Lyceum. Miss Tittell Brune played the central role in three of the six productions in which Mr. Harvey took part. More than a year ago the actor came out to Australia with J. C. Williamson’s company, which was headed by Miss Ethel Warwick, for the production of “Joseph and His Brethren” and “Secret Service ” but his first real chances were as heavy lead in the Julius Knight revivals.

Air. Leslie Victor, who will make his reappearance in Auckland as Fricz, the German spy waiter, in J. C. Williamson’s production “The Man Who Stayed at Home,” is one of the best character actors who has ye f visited Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Victor first left England for this part of the world with the famous Brough Comedy Company. At the termination of his engagement with the late Robert Brough he joined the ranks of J. C. Williamson, Ltd.

During the season at the London Opera House a Japanese' singer, Mme. Tamaki Miura, sang the part of Cho-Cho-San in the production of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly.” “Her acting,” says the “Daily Telegraph” critic, “at first piquant, naive, and full of coquetry, developed the tragic side with extraordinary subtlety directly Sharpless had hinted his warning of Pinkerton’s unfaithfulness. It was the quintessence of subtlety, and was always convincing, just as in a sense was her singing.” As for the vocalism, it was as characteristic, it seems, as the deportment. “In suave and long-drawn phrases it has quite an Occidental quality, but in the short phrases so well-beloved of Puccini it became slightly nasal, and was used with a kind of sta ;cato that was quite fascinating.”

A sad little pencilled note was sent by a wounded soldier to Miss Marie Lloyd when she was singing at Richmond last month, says a correspondent of the “Daily Mirror.” She had invited a number of wounded soldiers from a local hospital to come to a performance. One of them scribbled this on a scrap of paper:—“Miss Lloyd: The last time I heard, but this time I but look at you, because I have done my bit.” It came from a brave lad who had been smashed by a shell, and whose hearing has gone for ever.