GREENROOM GOSSIP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1459, 11 April 1918, Page 34

GREENROOM GOSSIP.

Mr. Peter Dawson, the fine vocalist, is going into camp in Australia early in May. * * * * Miss Amy Murphy and Mr. Philip Newbury are proving a strong draw on the Fuller bill in Dunedin, both artists being well known in the southern city. * * * * In his Australasian tour under the J. C. Williamson banner, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson will be supported by his wife (Gertrude Elliott, a sister of the better-known Maxine), and will play Shaw’s “Antony and Cleopatra,” Jerome’s “Passing of the Third Floor Back,” and Kipling’s “The Light That Failed.” # * + * Messrs. Wirth Bros., following their custom, gaver the poor children of Sydney a bun and gingerbeer treat and a free circus performance, at the Hippodrome, on Good Friday. * * * ♦ On Sunday, April 7, a special train left Sydney for Melbourne, carrying the biggest company, numbering 250 people, that the Williamson management has ever transferred from one town to another. They reach Melbourne on Monday. * ♦ * * Miss Margaret Le Roy, of the Royle Trio at Fuller’s National Theatre, Sydney, danced her way into prominence in a London production, “The White Cat,” at Drury Lane. Later she danced at the same theatre in a production of “The Prodigal Son,” the Hall-Caine play. Williamson’s brought her to Australia, and she frivolled pleasantly in “The Arcadians.” For twelve months she has been with Fullers in vaudeville, and confesses to a strong liking for that branch of the profession.

A big step up in his chosen profession has been achieved by Mr. Harry I. Cohen, who, says the Dunedin “Star,” has been appointed to manage the Empire Theatre, London, for Mr. Sacks, a well-known London manager. The Empire, formerly a music hall, is one of the largest of the London theatres. The opening production last month under the new regime was the musical piece “The Lilac Domino.” Prior to this appointment Mr. Cohen was managing the “Damaged Goods” season at the St. Martin’s Theatre. * * * '* “The Cinderella Man,” in which Miss Kathlene MacDonell is appearing at Melbourne Theatre Royal, was written by Edward Childs Carpenter, who is declared to have made £50,000 out of the play. The idea of “The Cinderella Man” came to him after reading a fairy story, “The Snow Queen.” After putting down the book h e thought of the fairy stories he had read, and his mind dwelt on “Cinderella.” Then the idea suggested itself —why not a man who is like Cinderella? The next day he sat down and started the play. It took him six months to write. “But,” as Edward Childs Carpenter says, “I have found it well worth the trouble.” There is a quaint bohemian atmosphere about “The Cinderella Man,” summed up in an incident that forms the central pivot of the story. The sympathetic daughter of a millionaire has for a neighbour a poor author who resides in an attic room in an adjoining building. She resolves to visit him, bringing him some of the necessities she knows he must be lacking. So

she makes her way across the intervening roofs to the author’s poorlyfurnished room, and presents him with a choice collection of dainty things to eat. Later, a friendship springs up between the girl and the writer, who thinks the millionaire’s daughter is the companion of his neighbour. * * * * “Robinson Crusoe,” at the Bijou Theatre, Melbourne, is upsetting all records in the way of successful pantomimes, even those, of the “Bunyip” pantomime. Mr. Victor Prince is the author, producer and chief comedian. Mr. Charles Zoli follows him closely in the latter capacity, and Miss Nellie Kolle makes a splendid principal boy.