GREENROOM GOSSIP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1381, 12 October 1916, Page 34

GREENROOM GOSSIP.

The following are the dates booked for the North Is’and tour of “Peg o’ My Heart”: —Gisborne, October 21st to 25th; Auckland, October 28th to November 7th; Hamilton, November Sth; Wanganui, November 9th and 10th; Hastings, November 11th; Napier. November 13th and 14th. Palmerston North and Masterton will be visited in December, after the South Island tour.

Hale Hamilton, now starring in ‘ It Pays to Advertise,'’ to be staged here shortly, was leaving the stage door of the Theatre Royal Melbourne one afternoon, after a matinee, when he heard these remarks: “Look, there’s Hale Hamilton. What a big fellow he is!” Yes, he’s the original ‘Wallingford’. That’s why he gets on the fat s’de.” But what’s that got to do with it?” “Well, Wallingford was suppos ed to be a big man, so Hale Hamilton's given up taking exercise in order to get larger. He’s going to play the part.” “By this time,” said Mr. Ham Iton, “I had settled down into my car, so didn’t catch any more. But, thank goodness, Wallingford was not a living skeleton or —accord.ng to the remarks I overheard —I should have had to get on to starvation diet in order to look the part!”

Another of the list of young Australians who have made their name abroad and returned to their own country is Clyde Cook, who will be remembered as a dancing specialist in various J. C. Will.amson productions, including pantomimes. His last appearance in this country vas in “Jack and the Beanstalk 9 " cil iter wh.ch he went off to London to try his luck in the big metropolis. His cleverness as a dancer, his ability as a comedian, and the novelty of his turn soon brought him to the front, and before long he was starring at the music halls whence he graduated to the leading musical plays and re vues. Mr. Cook is making his first appearance in Melbourne in ‘ The Cinema Star.”

Donald Bowles, the producer of “It Pays to Advertise,” “Twin Beds,” “The Boomerang.” and other pieces of the Hale Hamilton Myrtle Tannehill company, chatting with regard to producing in America and Australia, admitted that a certain amount of difference had to be made in the method of staging and acting a comedy in the two countries. ‘Australians have a keen sense of humour, and are ready to seize on a point, but they are not yet quite educated up to tne American brand of comedy. Moreover, Australians like their comedy of

a broader type. A remark that in America would evoke roars of laughter if merely uttered in a quiet way without “throwing” it at the audience would in Australia perhaps be passed over; so here we would accompany it with an expressive movement of gesture. to give it added point or emphasis, or ‘color it up a bit.’ The result is that comedy productions in Australia are certainly more lively than as staged in America. However, once Australians start to laugh, they laugh heartier than the American, and are much more demonstrative in their appreciation. This is delightful to Amerlcan artists who, I must say, love applause.”

Mr. Cecil Brooking, who has been specially engaged to play the weak and futile Alaric Chichester in the J. and N. Tait production of “Peg o’ My Heart,” is an actor, dramatist, and scholar, who has had an unusual experience of the stage in many parts of the world. A few years ago he went to Berlin with Sir Herbert Tree’s Shakespearian Company, and achieved much success in a long repertoire, including “Hamlet,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “As You Like It.” He also did a season in Holland in Alfred Sutro’s “The Walls of Jericho,” and was seen also in Paris in several French plays, for which his knowledge of the language especially fitted him.

Mr. Victor Beck has concluded negotiations for the English Pierrots to visit New Zealand next May.

Lawrence Campbell, now giving recitals from “The Sentimental Bloke” under the J. and N. Tait direction in Sydney, is helping to further advertise C. J. Dennis, the author of that wonderful book. Dennis was born at Auburn, South Australia, and had a good position in Adelaide journalism before he set out on the path which has made him famous. Lawrence Campbell’s recitals have enhanced the sales of his book immensely and have served to excite interest in a new volume which will shortly be issued from the press under the title of “G nger M ck”.

Any one booking a box or four stalls for an evening performance in the Kingsway Theatre, London, is privileged, provided he lives within the metropolitan radius, to drive to the theatre in a comfortably appointed motor, which calls for him at his house, takes him first, if he so pleases, to a restaurant, and then, after dinner, on to the theatre, the chauffeur returning to take him up and drive him home after the performance.

A critic’sm more potent than polite: “An audience of 100 and “Hamlet” were done at the theatre last night.” A small American town was the scene of the happening.