SOUTHERN STAGE NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1423, 2 August 1917, Page 32

SOUTHERN STAGE NOTES.

(“By

Lorgnette.”)

WELLINGTON, July 30. An important event in local theatrical circles is the coming. season of Messrs. J. and N. Tait’s Musical Comedy Company, which opens a ten nights’ season at the Grand Opera House on yVednesday, August 8, with the successful musical play “Very Good Eddie.” This piece has been one of this year’s hits in Australia, and enjoyed a twelve months’ run in New York. “Very Good Eddie” will also serve as a vehicle for several artists to renew acquaintanceship with a whole host of friends made whilst on former visits to Wellington. Amongst them are Miss Nan Taylor, Miss Emily Fitzroy, Mr. Barry

Lupino, Mr. Andrew Higginson, Mr. Lionel Walsh, and Mr. Charles Pope. Of the artists to make their first appearance here, Miss Fayette Perry, Miss Lilian Tucker, Miss Daisy Revette, and Mr. John Beck will be seen in leading parts. The second production will "be the musical tale of Japan entitled “The White Chrysanthemum.” Mr. Scott Colville, the touring manager, has been in town for several days and has got everything in readiness for a successful opening. New Zealand playgoers will be pleased to learn that a tour has been booked by Mr. H. D. Mclntosh for the talented English comedienne Miss Ada Reeve. The tour opens at the Grand Opera House, Wellington, on September 1, and will extend over twelve nights. Dunedin will be played from the 17th to the 20th September, Christchurch from the 24th September to the 3rd October, and Auckland from the 15th to the 25th October. It is marvellous what some amateur organisations in the Dominion think they can stage. In conversation with Mr. Bert Royle the other day, he told me that he had received applications from two societies to produce “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch” and “Mice and Men.” From what I know, there is not a professional company in Australasia at the present time that could stage “Mrs. Wiggs.” It is a piece of pure character type, and no amateur crowd can be got together to play it as it was staged by the J. C. Williamson firm some years ago. As for “Mice and Men,” well, I would like to meet the people who can give such finished performances of the piece as Miss Nellie Stewart and her company, when it was produced in New Zealand several years ago. The late George Musgrove, and he knew something, told me dozens of times that the finest thing in all his experiences was “Mice and Men,” and it was the only play he ever handled that “brought him back to earth again,” being full of the wherewithal that appeals to everyone. “Mice and Men” is a play that contains a moral, and not of the same class that we get thrown at us nowadays. Judging by the enthusiasm displayed by the members at the rehearsals, the coming production of “La Mascotte” by the Wellington Amateur Operatic Society will excel all previous productions. The cast of principals has not been definitely chosen.