GREENROOM GOSSIP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1355, 13 April 1916, Page 36

GREENROOM GOSSIP.

J. C. WILLIAMSON ACTIVITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA.

In a chatty letter, Mr. Richard Stewart, resident director for J. C. Williamson, Ltd. (South Africa), writing from Johannesburg, gives some interesting details of things theatrical.

“Peg o’ My Heart” was the first piece for production after Mr. Stew art arrived. It proved a wonderful success (he says), as it is sure to do wherever it is presented in Australasia, for it is one of those delightful plays that cannot miss. Miss Eithne Magee, who was the understudy for Miss Laurette Taylor in London, was an excellent exponent, and has had her engagement extended in South Africa, Mr. Stewart having secured two other plays for her. She opens her return season in a London success, “Ann.” After this production comes “Under Fire,” the great war play. Mr. Cyril Mackay nas come over from Australia to take the leading part of Captain Redmond, and Miss Guildford Quin will also open in the lead. Miss Guildford Quin, by the way, who will be remembered for her good work in Australia, has won for herself a big name on the London stage at the Kingsway Theatre in “The Great Adventure.” Another English artist, Mr. Reginald Dane, will make his appearance in “Under Fire” as the journalist Charlie Brown. The opeia company opened at Xmas in the pantomime revue “Cinderella” and ran for four weeks to enormous business. This was followed by one of the best performances of “The Merry Widow” Mr. Stewart says he has ever been connected with, while at the time of writing (February) they were playing “High Jinks” to phenomenal business. “Potash and Perlmutter” is to be produced by the firm about June next, and “I can tell you (Mr. Stewart goes on to say) that we have all the latest plays here even before Australia sometimes.”

At the present time Miss Ethel Irving is playing a season at the African Trusts Theatre (Palladium). She is presenting all her old repertoire with such new plays as “The Ware Case,” “The Turning Point.” “I am rather taken with this city,” Mr. Stewart adds, “which is a marvellous place for its age (26 years old) and the quantity of gold turned out is simply sensational —-£5,000,000 per month. But I shall certainly look forward to a return visit to my dear old associations of New Zealand, as there is no better country in existence.”

There are rumours of an impending theatrical combine between H. D. Mclntosh, George Marlow and J. and N. Tait.

Tom Armstrong in the revue “You’re the One,” has a tongue twister which contains the following “In shearing season I shut my shaving shop and go shearing unshorn Shorthorn sheep.”

Mr. Reginald Wykeham, the wellknown actor, who has many friends in the Dominion, has joined the colours. Writing from Melbourne, he states that he has passed all the tests, and will go into camp on April 4.

Mr. Alf. Holt, the American comedian and mimic, is back in Australia under the Fuller banner, as the result of a promise to his wife — a Perth girl, to whom he was married during a former trip. When Holt heard Mr. Ben. J. Fuller was in Amercia, he took first train to meet him and fixed a contract immediately. Mr. Holt had to get released from several contracts with gramaphone firms, for whom he was making animal records, to come to Australia.

Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson may proceed to Australia if conditions are promising next winter (says a London writer). His final American appearance is fixed for April 24, at Sander’s, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He wishes to go to Australia that he may have appeared before all the English-speaking peoples before he retires. .

Owing to the plight of professional singers in England as a result of the war, Her Majesty Queen Mary has refused to attend any function unless the vocalists are paid. Sir John Madden, G.C.M.G., Chief Justice of Victoria, in accepting the presidency of the Victorian Vocalists’ Society recently, said: “It is so obvious an injustice that while the rest of the community is expected to contribute

what they can afford to the national necessities, the vocalists have been asked —in effect —to give all. Her Majesty’s wise thought and resolution are eminently worthy of imitation.”

Amongst star acts booked by Mr. Hugh D. Mclntosh is that of Horace Golden, acknowledged the world over as one of the best magicians the stage has known. Australia has seen remarkably fine illusionists in Chung Ling Soo, De Biere and Thurston, but Golden is claimed by many to be the master of all. In England he is placed on a level with La Fayette, who was burned to death in 1911 in an Edinburgh theatre. Golden is due to reach Australia shortly, and will begin his Australian tour early in May at the Melbourne Tivoli.

Quite a little controversy was being waged in London when the last mail left on the subject of Charlie Chaplin’s birthplace. Manchester put in a claim, but Londoners, by means of letters to the “Daily Mirror” and other papers, stoutly denied that the claim was justified. “Charlie was born and educated in south-east London,” a schoolmate declared, “and he is not, as so many people say, of Jewish blood.”

Mr. Harold Ashton, associate director of J. C. Williamson, Ltd., who is at present in America securing attractions for the firm, cabled that he had secured for production in Australia by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., two of the biggest successes the American stage has ever known — “Romance” and “The Great Lover.” The first-mentioned is by Edward Sheldon, and is based on the love of the grandson of a bishop for an actress. The bishop, in his efforts to dissuade the young man, tells him his own story, and the play takes the audience back to the past years of the bishop’s own life. Crowded and delighted houses have witnessed “The Great Lover” in New York. It deals with the foibles of operatic artists, and takes the audience “behind the scenes.” There is not only romance and comedy but also strong dramatic power by way of contrast, and the play amuses and thrills. Both will be produced in Australia in the near future.

In the suit brought by George Cross, actor, against George Marlow, Ltd., claiming £5OO for wrongful dismissal and breach of agreement, plaintiff was awarded £486 by the jury. He claimed that he had been engaged by defendant for three years at a salary of £l4 a week for the first year, £l6 for the second year, and £lB for the third year, but that before the expiration of the terms he was dismissed. Defendants denied any breach of agreement. A stay of proceedings for 14 days was granted.

“It is not a propitious time for taxing the theatre,” says H. B. Irving. “Very, very few theatres came through the past 12 months with anything like a profit. The four or five weeks of prosperity that we gladly welcomed with the Christmas holidays was no more than a spurt. Let there be cause for alarm any one night, and the theatre is doomed again to months of losses.”

The net value of the late Mr. Geo. Titheradge’s estate was sworn at £1623.

Miss Madge Fabian, the English actress, will . make her first appearance in Sydney at Easter in “On Trial,” an American success.

Keith Kennedy, violinist of the Kennedy Concert Company, writes to say that they have bet** performing at the Federal Government House, Melbourne. After the concert their Excellencies entertained them to afternoon tea, and an enjoyable time was spent.

The Hale Hamilton and Myrtle Tannehill company, now appearing in “Twin Beds” at Melbourne Theatre Royal, have put into rehearsal a famous play with a title of particular interest to Australians —“The Boomerang.” It is a sly hit at the medical profession, gently and humorously administered. The New York “Dramatic Mirror” recently said that, “ ‘The Boomerang’ continues its recordbreaking success at the Belasco Theatre, where large numbers of theatregoers are being turned away at every performance. The play has registered itself as the biggest popular hit in the theatre in years. The most delightful of comedies, it also is a real and big human play. Its appeal knows no bounds. It strikes the heart of the playgoer, and it also hits the funny-bone.”

An accident that happened during the visit to Ballarat of the J. C. Williamson “Mother Goose” pantomime had remarkable results. Ross and Falls, the famous comedy acrobats, whose turn is one of the sensations of the pantomime, were practising a new feat when Falls fell, and was found to have received severe injuries, including two broken ribs. It looked as if one of the features of the pantomime would be missing that night, but Mrs. Falls saved the situation. Donning her husband s clothes and imitating his make-up, she went on in his place, and did the whole of his portion of the turn, turn cling and all. No artist ever earned more worthily the applause bestowed oa her by the assembled company when the performance had ended. It was a remarkable and heroic enterprise that placed Mrs. Falls in a class by herself as a clever artist and a brave and resourceful woman.

Mr. George Barnum, producer of “Under Fire,” pays a word of tribute to the part the returned soldiers play in its success. “I never had a finer body of men serve under me. I’m proud of them. The shrieking of the shell in its flight we worked days over, under expert advice, for, naturally enough, I had never heard a shell; but that we got it perfectly, every soldier who has heard it will agree. There is a little touch of detail in this play, if I may speak of it without displaying too much ego, that escapes the attention of the average spectator; and that is that every English soldier wears a wrist watch. Seems insignificant, doesn’t it? Perhaps. But, slight as it is, it is most important. How many men go to the front without a wrist watch? Not many. The audience may not see them, and if they do see it, pay no attention to it; but to me it is vital and necessary. And if only one in the audience notices it, to me it is worth while.”

“Why should there not spring up a special class of actresses impersonating men in plays?” asks the “Era,” with reference to the probability of a deficiency of actors of ability. “The disguise of sex on the stage is no novelty. In Shakespeare’s time boys

represented women, and very successfully, and from time to time actresses have played male parts without any loss of illusion being felt. Perhaps dramatic authors will consider the desirability of writing plays in which women shall play a prominent, if not the most important, part. Exactly how compulsion will be carried out, and exactly how much the drama will be affected by it when it comes, it is impossible to say; but the theatre has given too many proofs of its vitality and resourcefulness for us not to be optimistic.”

Miss Sarah Allgood, who has been engaged to play the title role in the Australian production of “Peg o’ My Heart,” became acquainted with many celebrated people during her famous connection with the Irish players. One of the eminent men whom she encountered and who interested her greatly was J. M. Synge, the ill-fated author of “The Playboy of the Western World.” This remarkable masterpiece, which is regarded by the best critics as one of the greatest plays ever written in English, was only one of Synge’s astonishing contributions to the Irish drama. He was a tall, gaunt man, says Miss Allgood describing him, with a shy demeanour, and wild grey eyes and lived in mysterious poverty in Paris before the brilliant poet W. B. Yeats discovered his extraordinary faculty for expressing the thoughts of Ireland in a vivid and imperishable idiom. Unfortunately, poor Synge died before he had time to realise the extent of his unassuming endeavours for the stage. He died of cancer in the early middle life.

Vaudeville had a caviare dish at the Opera House last week in De Baker’s Living Models, an act defined by artistry and symmetry of poise. With a fine value of stage setting and lighting effects, the De Bakers, by their beauty of form, gave chaste reproductions in the flesh of such ancient and modern masterpieces as “Love and Psyche,” “The Awakening of Galatea,” “Descent from the Cross,” “Daphne and Chloe.” “In Spite of All,” “Truth,” “Good-bye,” and “Forward.” The latter, by the way, was a representation of the statue which is to be erected at Ypres by the Belgians in honour of the Highlanders who fell fighting in that vicinity. The De Bakers themselves hail from Belgium. After a week’s presentation in Auckland to admiring and appreciative audiences, the De Bakers left for the South.

Melbourne audiences have been surprised by the remarkable versatility of Mr. Leslie Holland, who, after making a name for himself in light comedy roles of the “juvenile lead” type, has achieved striking success in broad comedy and character roles. Mr. Holland made an inauspicious first appearance on the Australian stage in that ill-fated comedy “The Brass Bottle,” in the role of juvenile lead. Subsequently he slipped into his own sphere of musical comedy, his successes including the “Quaker Girl,” “Our Miss Gibbs,” “The Dancing Mistress,” “After the Girl,” and “The Arcadians,” in the last-mentioned taking the role of Jack Meadoms. The next comic opera season at Melbourne introduced the comedian in parts of quite a different, type, including Don Trocadero in “Paul Jones.” The present season of the Royal Comic Opera Company has introduced him as Dragotin in “Gipsy Love,” following up his success in Lehar’s opera by his performance as Ichabod Bronson in “The Belle of New York.” When “The Arcadians” is revived Mr. Holland will play Peter Doody.

The writer of the theatrical notes in “London Opinion” says the one thing that Sarah Bernhardt bars is the public reception. “I know something about those functions,”, he says, “and particularly about two at which Madame Bernhardt was being honoured. One took place on board a liner in Sydney Harbour lots of years ago. You see, they are wary folk in Sydney, and, to make dead sure of getting her, the reception committee (what awful dreariness the phrase suggests) hustled off some time about dawn and left the eminent visitor no hope of escape. Sarah, I remember, faced the inevitable in the saloon of the ship, standing resigned in a flood of summer sunshine. She had her reward, however, for one of the speakers, a well-known M.P. of Irish extraction, with a superbly imperfect knowledge of French pronunciation, repeatedly alluded to Charlemagne as “Charlie Mann,” and imparted to the world “belle” an anatomic significance that sent the rest of the committee into squeals of laughter. Every time the excited “mimber” fired off a reference to “La Belle France,” I looked at Sarah Bernhardt, and the memory of her face and of its convulsive workings in the cause of politeness is a possession beyond price.”

Margaret Mayo, one of the authors of “Twin Beds,” which is now being staged at Melbourne Her first exploited the bedroom farce. With “Baby Mine” this clever writer struck it rich a few years ago, and she had many imitators. Then two years back she got the idea for “Twin Beds,” and wrote it rapidly and with deft craftsmanship. “Twin Beds” ran 18 months in New York. It is credited by the critics with possessing new comedy ideas and plenty of invention in the way of neat situations. The author, too, has the gift of leading one up expectantly to a development, and innocently and adroitly depriving it of its logical conclusion. Miss Mayo is one of the few woman writers who have succeeded in the field of farce. She married a prominent New York manager, Mr. A. Selwyn. who has also written comedies. She is reputed to have made a million dollars over “Baby Mine,” and her royalties from “Twin Beds” have been enormous. Her success as a farce writer is said to be in that she does not overelaborate her situations. But, in addition to that, there is a thorough knowledge of the stage and its possibilities for fun.

The wonderful popularity of “The Belle of New York” in Australia makes it all the more remarkable that on its first production in Melbourne years ago it met with a decidedly hostile reception. Possibly at that time playgoers were not educated up to the light and .bright type of American musical plays, coming as it did after a long series of the “solid” old English comic operas at the Princess. Yet the late George

Musgrove subsequently produced the play in London with an amount of success that made three fortunes for him and amazed the theatrical world. Since then “The Belle of New York” has been revived time after time by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., and it has never failed to draw. At Her Majesty’s, Melbourne, on a recent Saturday night, “The Belle of New York” was played by the Royal Comic Opera Company, to immense enthus iasm, and it will have a 12 nights’ run.