A CINDERELLA EPISODE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1446, 10 January 1918, Page 32

A CINDERELLA EPISODE.

THE TRAIL OF THE SHOE:

Theatrical managers have to be prepared for all softs of emergencies; and sb Mr. Jbhfi Farrdll, J. C. Williamson’s well-kiiowii busiiiess manager, found during the musical comedy season in Auckland. As will be remembered, a feature of “You’re in Love” is the boom scene when Miss Maude Fane swings out over the auditorium and excites a keen contest for the possession of her shoes. This particular night one of the boxOS was occupied by a wealthy landowner from the south and his wife and party, who Were all eagerly trying for the coveted prize. However; both shoes were snatched bit by gallants before the bOOm vested Over to the box, and Mr. Blank quickly detached one of his wife’s shoes and transferred it to Miss Fane’s foot, trusting to regain it later. However, that shoe, too, went the way of the other pedal adornment, and Miss Fane once again being swung in close proximity to the afore-mention-ed box, Mr. Blank robbed his wife of her other shoe and fitted it in a trice on to the artist. The audience were enjoying the joke hugely, and once again a ruthless admirer seized the extra trophy, leaving Mr. Blank’s beautifully dressed Wife shoeless ifi the box! It was then that Mr. Farrell had to go to the rescue, and procuring a “property” pair from the stage wardrobe, put the finishing touch to the Cinderella act and enabled the lady to satisfy the proprieties !

Miss Marie Tempest’s way of uttering a simple phrase amounts to genius. Her guardian in the “Marriage of Kitty,” suggests that she should become a companion—-salary £4O a year. “Hum,” says Kitty. “That is £3 6s. Bd. a month.” Then she turns to him. “Now what do you suppose I could do with that?” her tone expresses frank curiosity—nothing more. It is utterly delicious, says one critic.

Writing from Hongkong on November 10, Mr. Jack O’Sullivan, who is touring manager for Edgar Warwick’s “Court Cards” Company, says:—“Our opening in China promises to be very big. About 250 seats booked already at the rate of three dollars, equal to 9s. in English money, at present and Saturday is a good booking day, so we may expect good things to-night. The “Court Cards” are big favourites over this way, everybody seems pleased at their return. We are carrying an orchestra of eight, all Filipino musicians and they are just fine. Called in at North Borneo, the port of Sandaker, and while there we gave a concert at the Sandaker Club in aid of the Red Cross. It was a big success, the first entertainment they had seen for 17 years at Sandaker. At Manila on the Saturday evening I dropped in at the Opera House to see Horace Goldin in his Tiger God, and in the afternoon I saw the picture of Les Darcy-Phil Smith fight.”

New turns opening at the Opera House, Auckland, on January 14 are: Brown and Newman. English comedy art'sts; Dozey, a Manchurian acrobat; and Walter McKay, instrumentalist.

“The Awakening of Montague Crane” is the title of a one-act drama, written by Mr. Kenneth Carlisle, the “heavy” lead of the A. BrandonCremer Dramatic Company, which the popular “villain” intends to produce in Auckland in the near future. Mr. Carlisle will also give character impersonations of the principal “heavy” studies as submitted by him during the 60 weeks’ season at the King’s Theatre. These will include: Herod Steinburg, the Jew in “The Night Side of London”; Danny Mann, the hunchback in “The Colleen Bawn”; Luke Dezard, in the vault scene in “As Midnight Chimes”; Martin Mason, the saloon keeper in “At Cripple Creek.”

Mr. Jack Waller has evidently caught the taste of New Zealand theatregoers with his “Look Who’s Here” organisation. It is the sort of show (says a Christchurch paper) that will give enjoyment to the tired business man, the frivolous young thing, or the composer of a New Zealand ode, just as much as it will delight a professor of political economy or a major-general. In fact, if Mr. Waller misses you with one portion of his programme he cannot fail with some other part, and whatever your station or the state of your liver, the position will be the same, you will bless the impulse that made you accept the invitation to “Look Who’s Here.” The Theatre Royal accommodated a house big enough to make the front of the house staff glow with pleasure, to crack jokes with the critics and produce cigars from the other pocket, and the show went so brilliantly that the artists could forget the income tax and the terrible things the critics of military affairs predict. In a word, and a serious word at that, “Look Who’s Here” scored a brilliant success, and fully justified all of the eulogium that its Press representative had uttered in advance. From the first wave of the purple band conductor’s baton to the Nat’onal Anthem at the close the show goes briskly, now soaring to the heights of grand opera and then going to ragtime; then running along in brilliantly conceived, and as brilliantly executed, burlesque, to plunge at times into a pocket of drama or a side-current of dance. At what-

ever moment the company is examined the judgment will be the same, and surely in these days no higher and no more innocuous compliment can be paid to any company than to say that its average is as high as its best, and its best is very high indeed.

In the “Marriage of Kitty,” Kitty’s guardian suggests typing for a living. “Spoils one’s hands,” suggests Kitty, “and doesn’t sound respectable.”

Miss Essie Jennings is the new principal boy in the revival of the Fuller pantomime “The Bunyip” at the Melbourne Bijou. Miss Jennings was for some years in vaudeville, both by herself and playing sketches with her husband, James Gerald, who is now with the Australian forces in Mesopotamia. She was also for three years with the Stanley McKay pantomimes, and has just returned from' India, where she played a lengthy engagement in musical comedy with the Bandman Company.

Mr. Ernest Drake, of Auckland, who went to Dunedin to fulfil an engagement in “The ~ Messiah” with the Dunedin Choral' Society, is thus referred to by the “Star”: —“Mr. Ernest Drake, the tenor of the occasion, was accorded a great reception as he took his seat, and he sang in a masterly manner. His voice has gained in strength, and he can put on the weight without jeopardising quality. He has also cultivated those lower notes in the stave that some tenors despise, and thus was able to keep tone and solidity right to the E on the line in ‘Ev’ry Valley.’ His interpretation of the various solos is traditional as to outline, with much internal elaboration. Some may think that in ‘Thy Rebuke’ and in one or two passages of other solos the detail was rather too wealthy; but there can be no question as to the value of the embellishments in “Thou Shalt Break Them’ and music of that fiery class. Mr. Drake’s rendering of that solo will be long remembered.”

It required a motor van to carry away from Her Majesty's, Melbourne, the vast collection of floral tributes sent to Miss Vera Pearce on the opening n : ght of the J. C. Williamson, Ltd., pantomime, “Dick Whittington.” It was a remarkable test imony to the popularity and success of the young Australian, who has worked her way to the top of the profession by sheer ability, ambition and hard work. Many of the floral tributes had been ordered by telegram from well-wish-ers in var'.ous States of the Commonwealth. and several from New Zealand. One of the most striking stood about eight feet high, and was surmounted by a peal of bells and a cluster of electric Tghts. It was a magnificent example of the florist’s art. The enthusiasm aroused n’ghtly by Miss Pearce’s delightful performance as principal boy in “D’ck Whittington” indicates that if a prophet has no honour ; n his own country a popular and successful artist like Miss Pearce has.

“American press agents have an inventive genius that always excites my admiration,” says Miss Mar'e Tempest, the famous English comedienne, who is to appear here shortly under the J. C. Williamson management “For instance, I once figured in a piece of fiction wh'ch would have been shocking if it had not been so amusing. And I could not stop the story. It seemed to me that it was in every newspaper I picked up. It described with great detail a small island in the West Indies. The local colour of the imag native writer was beyond reproach. On this island dwelt simple fisher folk. It was away from the world. Then a man of religion came among them, and in time the islanders bu'lt a little chapel, but none could think to whom to ded cate it. ‘Patience,’ counselled the priest, ‘we will await a sign.’ For months they waited. A great storm raged on the ocean, but at last it- subsided. The islanders put the'r fishing boats to sea again. Then it happened that one of them saw something sh'ning on the water. He steered his boat to see what it was and discovered a s ; x-sheet poster of mine stuck on a floating board. Evidently it had been washed from a vessel carrying theatrical material across the Atlanta. The fisherman brought it ashore, and seeing the portrait of a beaut'ful saintly lady, inscribed Marie Tempest, called h ; s flock together, and said, ‘Behold the sign!’ And so the simple islanders dedicated their chapel to ‘Santa Marie della Tempesta.’ ”

The “Kewpie Kids,” who are a feature of the Haverly Musical Farce Co., to appear shortly at the Auckland Opera House, were recruited from three separate acts and banded together as a ballet for the new Irish show. The- result is that every one of the Kewpie Kids is capable of doing an act at a moment’s notice without the appearance of amateursliness often exhibited by chorus girls called upon suddenly to speak lines. Each of the “Kewpies,” bos'des being an expert dancer, is an acrobat, and in one of the Murphy adventures which Mr. Haverly will present the whole bunch provide a daring and original specialty.

Mr. J. P. O’Neii, the Irish comedian, is one of the most earnest workers in the theatrical business. Rehearsals are no picnics for h'm, who has never in his long career been known to miss a cue. The comedian, who is with the Haverly Revue C 0.,, made a big hit as an Irish suffragette in the Willoughby pantomime “Aladdin.”

The charm of Miss Marie Tempest, who has variously been described by celebrated folk as “Puck in Petticoats” and “A dainty rogue in porcelain,” is said to be indescribably elusive, and one cannot determ ne whether it is her wonderful human sm'.le which extracts and expands to express the shades of humour of her mood, or her expressive mobile face, which takes the greater bold of one, but, without attempting to analyse the fascination of the great English comedienne, she s recognised as an artist o" rare and precious quality. Not the least of M ss Tempest’s assets is a sympathetic . singing voice—a voice trained by the great G'arcia, and his method : s evidenced in the singing of the charm ng French song in the second act of “The Marriage of Kitty.”

M ss Mabel Hard nge, formerly of the Brandon-Cremer Dramatic Company, is leading lady at the Palace Theatre, Melbourne, for the Fuller firm.

The J. C. Williamson, Ltd., pantomime, “Dick Whittington,” which is be'ng staged at Melbourne Her Majesty’s, is the most elaborate Christmas production the firm has yet presented. There are no fewer than 17 scenes, the majority of which take up the full extent of the stage. Mr. W. R. Coleman is again responsible for the greater number of the stage settings, and Mr. George Upward and others are also represented.

It was Miss Marie Tempest who gave Arnold Bennett his first production. “The Honeymoon” was the title of the play. Arnold Bennett once told Miss Tempest that he had written a play a year for 15 years. He has had four staged. When Miss Tempest was managing her own theatre she made a search among the great unacted for a play. “In less than a year I paid over £2O returning ‘scripts’ by registered post,” she states.

Mr. Harry Lauder recently spoke on behalf of the Liberty Loan from the steps of a building in Wall Street, New York and £lOOO in cash was the result.

Mr. J. B. Atholwood is playing the part of a priest in “The Bird of Paradise” at Melbourne Royal.

Miss Connie Ediss says her favourite part is Grace Miller in “So Long, Letty.”

It is recorded that when the famous Drury Lane drama, “A Run of Luck,” was touring the provinces one of the foxhounds was lost. Three weeks later, while the company was playing in another town, the missing dog made his appearance in front of the theatre. The manager of the company averred that the dog eagerly scanned the pictorial posters on the bill-boards of the theatre, then yelped with spasmodic joy and made an effort to get into the theatre. That night he played his regular part with his fellow canines. When a wellknown actor heard this story he asked, “Did the hound bark for the three weeks’ back salary.” “I think not,” answered the manager. “Then it is evident that was his first season in the profession!” sighed the actor.