STAGELAND.
(By “Jack Point.”) The Alan Wilkie Company are playing in Dunedin. The Kentucky Singers open at Melbourne to-night. The Williamson comedy company—- “ Applesauce” and “Laugh That Off”—aro in the South Island. Dennis Barry, who is well remembered as romantic lead with the Alan Wilkie Shakespearean company, is giving a recital in Hamilton to-night. Diana Wilson, an English actress who was eo popular in New Zealand a few years ago, will shortly leave England on a tour of South Africa. Maurice Moscovitch, who is in London, is experiencing some difficulty in obtaining good plays that would be suitable for him in Australia and New Zealand. Nat Madison will head a Williamson company that will open in Auckland shortly. The sensational dramas, “No. 17” and “Dracula,” will bo presented. Muriel Starr is touring the southern and western portions of New South Wales with her own company playing Interference,” “The Eye of Siva,” and “The Letter.” Gladys Moncrieff’s husband, Tom Alooro, is having a successful season in Melbourne. The latest production is a revival of “The Man From Toronto.” Yvonne Banvard (Lady Jane of “Hose Marie”) is in the cast. “The Desert Song” will open at Wellington on Wednesday. Marie Bremner, an Australian girl, who took over the lead some time ago from Virginia Perry, an indifferent English importation, is not coming to New Zealand. Her part will be played by Romola Hanson, who ha 6 gone on for Miss Bremner on several occasions in Australia. Mies Hanson is said to be a capable singer and actress. Lance Fairfax is corning, but there is no preliminary mention of Herbert Browne, a player well-known to local audiences. Some of the “Rose Marie” chorus will be paying another visit to Palmerston North. The comedian is Herbert Mundin, an Englishman. He was playing at Daly’s, in London, when engaged by the Firm. Owen Naros, Alfred Drayton and Nigel Bruce will act in the next play from Mr Edgar Wallace’s pen, in. England. The piece, whjch is called “The Calendar,” has racing for a subject. It will be 6cnt on a short provincial tour and later will be seen at a West End theatre. Guy Bates Post opened recently in San Francisco in “ihe Masquerader.” Mr Post’s performance of the dual roles of John Loder and John Chilcote has been called “ono of the finest examples of acting on the modern stage.” Conrad Charlton (Con Ziesler, of Timaru). who toured New Zealand not long ago with “The Student Prince,” “Madiine Pompadour,” and “The Vagabond King,’ has been appointed day announcer at radio station 2FC Sydney. The “talkie” version of “Rio Rita” has just been released in America, with Bebe Daniels in Gladys Moncrieff’s part. Because of her ability as a singing, talking and dancing performer in “Rio Rita” Miss Daniels has boen signed for eight musical productions to bo made during 1929-30. In time Irene Vanbrugh intends to return to the London stage. She told an inquirer that later she would “take up the work which had always been dear to her, and in which her husband (Dion Boucicault) played so prominent a part.” A wholly German audienoe enthusiastically applauded the first-night production at Berlin of the war play, “Journey’s End.” An all-German company playod the parts of British soldiers. The author, R. C. Sheriff, was present, and was given an ovation.
Rarely does it fall to the lot of an actress to succeed in both musical comedy and drama, but Bertha Riceardo, who plays tho loading feminine roles in the mystery drama “No. 17” and the thrilling vampire play “Dracula,” has that enviablo distinction. Miss Riccardo was one of the leading members of the Bandinann musical company which toured . India with success. Later she appeared in Australia under the Williamson regime, and played tho title role in the “Rose Marie” company touring tho Australian “smalls.” Drama next claimed her close attention, and this high-talented young actress has now set the seal of fame on her name by her realistic acting in the gripping plays named.
The Royal Comics have ceased to exist for the time being. With their last show, “The Student Prince,” in Melbourne, they temporarily closed shop, which they did once before—in 1896, after a tour of Maoriland with “In Town,” “A Gaiety Girl, etc. They started afresh on July 31, 1897, at Sydney Her Majesty’s in “The Gay Parisienne.” All the artists were new, bar the evergreen George Lauri. The company, with ono exception tho oldest in continuous action in the Empire, was originally started by J. C. Williamson himself at tho Svdney Royal on Nov. 15, 1879, with J.C.W. as Sir Josoph and Maggie Moore as Josephine. An Australian correspondent writes: No play of recent date has so stirred public interest in Melbourne as “Journey’s End,’’ the war drama at the Royal. Phil Finkelstein, of the Williamson firm, receives on an average a dozen, letters a day from Diggers, ranging in rank from generals to privates, and none deny tho authenticity of tho picture. One of the fow criticisms of its technical exactness came from a galleryite on the opening evening. v\ hen the German prisoner was brought in ana searched, the guard announced “That’s ail, sir,” after running over his jacket and the sides of his trousers. lromptly came a disgusted protest, “What about his back pocket?” Fritz’B uniform always carried one. Jazz is the “worst type of music, states Mr E. Branscombo, manager of the Westminster Glee Singers, who arrived in Auckland by the Aorangi. America is by no means the ardent enthusiast for jazz that sho.was not long ago, he considers. In both Onada and the United States the immense popularity of tho old folk songs his youthful company had give" showed that a reaction had set in. No bettor evidence of the changing taste of the public could be produced than the welcome which the United States gave to tho Glee Singers, continued Mr Branscombe. There the prevalent taste had been the jazz, but the American people had been surfeited, and welcomed old tunes. Commenting on tho change jn the taste for music, Mr Branscombe said it necessitated an alteration in the programmes. In addition to old country folk songs, it was proposed to introduce a number of chanties, also selections from the comedy element m music, many of the boys in the company came from old English cathedrals, sacred. music would not necessarily be included in the programme, unless there was a request lor One hundred people are in the cast of “Bitter Sweet,” the now operetta written and composed by Noel Coward, which has beon presented with great success by Charles B. Cochran at the Palace, Manchester. The costumes are those of 1870, 189 U and tho present period. It is expected to run for two years. A Lxmdon correspondent writes; Tho music is always tuneful, apt, and fluent; some of the numbers “I’ll See You 'Again,” for instance, “Tokay, and a sextet for women’s voices—are bound to achieve wide popularity. Hero is a new Noel Coward; the final scene has indeed, a typical Coward twist to it, but otherwise humanity and gentleness have taken tho place of cynicism and mordant satire.
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Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 245, 14 September 1929, Page 7
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1,197STAGELAND. Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 245, 14 September 1929, Page 7
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