THEATRICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1368, 13 July 1916, Page 20

THEATRICAL NOTES.

Super-scenic display is said to be one of the several attractions of “Mother Goose.” The two acts and sixteen scenes comprising the J. C. Williamson pantomime will include the following attractive features and specialties: The Children’s Soldier Ballet; the wonderful Golden Goose; the beautiful Bon Bon Ballet; the gorgeous illuminated swings; the novel Balloon Parade; the glittering Hall of Gold; the marvellous comedy acrobats; the spectacular hunting scene; the comical donkeys and the horse; the fascinating Flower Ballet; the alluring Allies Ballet; the stirring Boy Scouts’ Parade; the entertaining educated horse and the wonderful ship scene; the quaint little Dream Girl; the Ballet of Copper, Silver and Gold; and G'ooseland, showing the glittering capital of the feathered kingdom, and grand goose procession, introducing an astonishing array of “Gooseland” citizens. The humorous, it is said, is a big feature, the “book” being full of comedy and the comedians having plenty of scope for unlimited fun-making. Much music that charms is ancthei important item. Mr. Victor Champion has succeeded in securing the most alluring song successes, whilst the ballet and incidental music has been specially composed for the pantomime. The scenery is again one of the most brilliant phases of the production, the 17 gorgeous scenes being from the brush of Mr. W. R. Coleman and assistants. A special feature of beauty will be doubtless found in the ballets, marches, and spectacular ensembles, which comprise some of the most striking effects in the production. It is claimed that thoroughly cosmopolitan, and the very latest in novelty and brilliancy and oeauty, is the costuming. London, New York, Paris and Australia are all represented in the design and execution of the work.

Master Reginald Newberry, the boy soprano, who won the Daisy Jerome competitions at the Auckland Opera House recently, has been meeting with marked success in Sydney, making his first professional appearance over there at the Town Hall. The lad, who is now playing

on the Fuller circuit and creating a most favourable impression with his phenomenal voice, has just signed a contract with the firm for 24 weeks in Australia, with the option of another 20 weeks, at an advantageous figure.

A particularly strong cast will handle “To-night’s the Night,” and in some cases the versatility of the Williamson Company will break out in a new vein. For example, Miss Connie Ediss plays a French maid with a roving disposition, and Mr. Workman is a middle-aged gentleman with an austere wife and a gay eye for the ladies. In musical comedy the two abilities usually go together, and who shall say they do not in real life as well? Mr. Alfred Frith has a typical “Grossmith” part with some excellent numbers, while Mr. Fred Maguire rejoins the company for another of those youths who are not quite so simple as they look. Miss Dorothy Brunton may be expected to give the very best account of herself in a part which by singing, acting and dancing offers her as many opportunities as any one past. “Too many Cooks,” a most laughable farce touching humorously on the dual ills of a wife’s relations and labour troubles, is listed for early production by the Hale HamiltonMyrtle Tannehill Company in Sydney. * * * * Sara Allgood and Cecil Brooking, who respectively play Peg and Alaric Chichester in the great J. and N. Tait success “Peg o’ My Heart,” have had the rare pleasure of appearing in Masefield’s much discussed tragedy entitled “Nan.” Miss Allgood appeared as Nan in one of the first production of the play in England, and she considers the character to be one of the most dramatically effective that she has ever undertaken. Mr. Brooking, who yields to no one in his admiration for John Masefield, was also cast as Drew at the premiere of “Nan” at the London Haymarket. Subsequently he played Drew during an English provincial tour, and was such a success that he was further engaged for the same character during a season of “Nan” in Canada and the United States. Cecil Brooking has played Drew may times and regards the part as an excellent example of Masefield’s careful character drawing.

Melbourne playgoers are eagerly looking forward to the first production of J. and N. Taite’s “Peg o’ My Heart” at the King’s Theatre on the 22nd inst. Aptly described as “The Supreme Success of Successes,” the wonderful little comedy has taken Sydney by storm, and promises to repeat in Australia its unbroken run of triumphs in Great Britain and America. The play is merely a delightfully human love story, but its quaint fun, its sentiment, and its telling illustrations of the lighter side of Irish character make it an entertainment that will set the gloomiest pessimist smiling gaily. The piece is interpreted by a brilliant cast, among whom the celebrated Sara Allgood takes first place in the part of Peg. Other members of the company are: Miss Doris Gilliam, Miss Beatrice Yaldwyn, Gerald Henson, Cecil Brooking, and Ernest Ruston. The producer who is responsible for the artistic stage effects is E. W. Morrison, the experienced actor, who is already well known to Australian audiences.

In “Romance,” which was put on for the first time in Australia on Saturday night, July 8, at the Royal, Melbourne, Edward Sheldon, known to Australians as the author of “Salvation Nell” and “The Nigger,” breaks fresh ground entirely. In place of the realism of these two pieces he has built up a delightfully realistic story of love, in which emotions are powerfully studied, and there is a fine and searching study of character and its development, all set in the romantic atmosphere of “the sixties,” when “all the world was young.”