THE THEATRE.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2588, 9 October 1915, Page 9

THE THEATRE.

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The World's a theatre; tlie Earth a stage.—Haywood. Musical Comedy Coming. The Williamson Musical Comedy Company is described as the best of its class sinco the last of the London gaiety companies which visited Australia. Certain it is that in two of the three pieces to be played the company did splendidly in Australia, and that success is being repeated in Auckland, throughout the whole of last week 11 ' n .the Taxi" was played to excellent business, and 011 Monday last "High Jinks, a non-stop laughterplay, was produced with equal success. :l as ™ 1 ' g M all( l to-night) "The Girl on the Pilnr 1 is to be produced. The company which includes such elever artists as Mr. W. H. Workman (a leading Savoyard for some years) and Miss Dorothy Bninton is sure of a good welcome in Wellington. , The season hero commences on Saturday, October. 16.

Vaudeville In America^ Those artists iu vaudeville who do not know America and American ways will doubtless bo interested in the following extract from ft letter received by Mr. Walter Fuller from a prominent artist who played the firm's circuit last year. - The writer says-.— "Things in our profession are in a bad way here; thousands of actors out of work. Of course the fellow who has had a good season quite for the summer and takes himself away to the country, .or to some seaside resort, whilst the fellow with a bad season hangs around New York all the summer, and is willing to work for little or nothing "Another peculiar situation we have here,: that you are not bothered with in England, is the artist who has had a good season .with a burlesque show (a show similar to your pantomime), will go in vaudeville in the summer, and works for half of what he gets with the show,, because he realises that the next season he is booked with, another burlesque .show, and working for a .small salary in vaudeville during the summer doesn't hurt him, whereas it hurts the regular vaudevillian to out .his salary during the summer.

"Show, business, especially vaudeville, does not compare with England or-Aus-tralia. Lack of sentiment, cold-blooded business methods, and the desire ' for money and cutting each others' throats are some of the reasons why America is behind in variety. Mind you, we have some of the finest theatres in the ; world here, and run in first-class style, but for the artists, the treatment accorded them, does not compare with England or Australia.

. '.'Contracts made in Amerioa, are a joke, and ;as a rule are not worth the paper they are written on. Business methods are very sad; you cannot take a man's word ; as they say in the State of Missouri, you have got to show,me. It is not a question of one having a good act here to keep working. • No I Generally' the one : with a good act 'lays off';, one may be a very .big:hit, and still find lots of trouble in procuring engagements. If the agent doesn't like your act personally it; doesn't mat? ■ ter how big a success one is." "Nobody's Widow." ' The plot of Widow," the "Frenchy" American comedy in which Muriel. Stan 1 is to appear, at Melbourne Theatre to-night, is based oil a remarkable happening. While travelling abroad, an impressionable, but self-re-liant American girl, lloxana Clayton, hurriedly marries the Duke of Moreiahdy a flirtatious young , Englishman. The same evening as. their wedding, she catches , lliim, kissing " another woman. This 'so. enrages' her that she -'immediately returns to America, and announces to all her friends that her '.husband, "Mr. Clayton," died, suddenly of "enlargemeint tf. tho heart."' She appears dressed in,widow's weeds, at the home o? her friend, Betty Jackson, who also has the Duke of Moreland on her visiting list. The tangle begins when the Duke turns'; up, an invited guest. The position is rendered still more intricate when the Duke, who is madly in love ivith his wife, i_s a.ngled for by Betty, who is fond of "this sort of sport, and is persuaded to attend a little midnight supper with Betty. Of course, they are discovered by the indignant Roxana,. and the fun begins, all over again' and ivaxes fast and furious till .the end of the play, the exhilarating'interest be- 1 ling maintained till tho end. - The cast is as follows:'—Muriel Starr, pis Roxana Clayton; Grace Palotta, as Betty Jackson; Gertrude Boswell,; as Countess Manuella Valencia ; Bertha Gordon, as Fanny; Owens; Sidney Stirling, as Ned Stevens; Clarence,Blakiston, as the Baron; Frank Harcourt,'as 'I'eter; Charley A. Millward, as Duke ■of Moreland. ' The comedy is in three acts, and the scene is laid.at Palm Beach, Florida. It will he produced by George Baruum. Notes. 4 Leoncavallo's new opera. "La Candidate," staged recently iu Itome, has'not apparently improved the composer's reputation. One critic remarks frankly: —"It is really hard to imagine why a man who has won a certain name for - himself as one of the creatures of the modern Italian operatic school- descends to anything so very common and vulgar as 'La Candidate."' Mr: Shayle Gardner, of Auckland, rephew of Bishop Boyd Carpenter, who has been taking leading parts at several London theatres for the past two years, and recently played lead ;to Miss Irene Vanbrugh in "The Land of Promise," underwent a severe operation by Sir- A-rbuthnot Lane recently, and has booked a passage to New Zealand by the Turakina, in order to complete his convalcsence. He hopes to give several concerts in the Dominion, and later on -intends to enlist. He has already tried to enlist three times, but without success. .Mr. Barry Lupino, the brilliant comedian and dancer, who has'figured in the "firm's" two last pantomimes, has engaged himself to appear in vaudeville under the Fuller management in Australia. This is the best catch the Fullers have made for a long time. Geo. M. Cohan, whoso comedies, played in Australia by Fred Niblo, have achieved such success, specially wrote a new play for Fred Niblo's reappearance in New York on his return from Australia. This piece was entitled "Hit-the-Trail Holiday." A cable received by the J. C. Williamson management announces Mr. Niblo's groat success in tho production of the comedy on Broadway. Mr. Niblo plays the title role— that of a temperance lecturer and an erstwhile bar-tender, based on tho celebrated Billy Sunday. Miss .Mary Law, a noted English violinist, is appearing' at the Tivoli Theatre, Sydney. < Pictures' of the Jack Johnson-Willard fifilit are being shown at the Tivoli Theatre,- Sydney. "The Waybacks," a dramatisation of Henry Fletcher's Australian jams, was produced at the Sydney Palace by Philip Lytton on Saturday evening last ■ Mr. A. E. Greenaway, who recently returned from England to Australia, is in the cast of "Stop, Thief!" at tho Criterion Theatre, Sydney. •