SOUTHERN STAGE NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1409, 26 April 1917, Page 34

SOUTHERN STAGE NOTES.

(By

“Lorgnette.”)

The J. C. Williamson firm has decided to send D. W. Griffiths’ colossal picture spectacle “Intolerance” on a tour of the Dominion. The tour will open at Wellington on Monday, May 21, for a six nights’ season. It is said that “Intolerance” puts Mr. Griffiths’ previous masterpiece, “The Birth of a Nation,” completely in the shade. Though but 40 people figure in the cast, thousands of performers enact the four stories that make up the one big theme. The magnitude of the spectacle may be gauged from the fact that 67,000 people were concerned in the acting part alone, whilst many more were associated with the working side of the production. Those who have seen the film in Australia consider it on a more stupendous scale than even “The Birth of a Nation,” and that is saying a great deal. Walter Johnston’s Musical Revue Company is due to open a season shortly at His Majesty’s Theatre under the Fuller management. Included in the company are Messrs. Jack Kearns and Ernest Lashbrook, Misses Vera Kearns, Lola Hunt and Lydia Carne. During an entertainment given at the Children’s Hospital by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Greig and the other members of the J. C. Williamson Comedy Company, Mrs. Greig (Miss Beatrice Holloway) presented the matron for the hospital with a very fine plaster cast of the head of a sleeping child, the work of Mr. James B. Atholwood, which will make a beautiful addition to the decoration of the hospital. I regret to have to record the death of Mr. Henry Adams, which took place on Sunday, the 16th inst. Mr. Adams had charge of the cloak rooms in the old Opera House and the new Opera House for the past 10 years, and during that time made many friends amongst the patrons through his courteous and tactful manner. Mr. Bert Royle, during the past few weeks, has been kept busily engaged booking dates for the various attractions that the J. C. Williamson firm intend sending to New Zealand during the next eight months. The colossal picture film “Intolerance” will be followed by the pantomime “The House That Jack Built,” opening at Auckland on June 18, and “Daddy Long Legs,” opening at Wellington on the same date.