THEATRICAL GOSSIP.

Evening Star, Issue 3597, 2 September 1874, Page 2

THEATRICAL GOSSIP.

* ‘ Prompter” sends as the following items of theatrical interest : the Loyals and the Grif Company have been devidiug popular support, the lion’s share going to the former, which is a very clever company. Zaicla (Mrs Loyal) is remarkably clever, and to my mind superior to Lottie. They expect to be ia Dunedin in about five weeks. The Grif Company baa broken up. Towers and his daughter, with Burtord and Buckingham, have been up country, and the rest are showing at the Oddfellows’ Hall with indifferent success. There was a most amusing case in the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday. Towers sued Gydea and Glover for L3O damages, for the latter designating their company the Grif Company. The case was very amusing, as the following report will show Frank Towers deposed that when a manager assumes a name for a company he baa the exclusive right to trade on that name. He had brought up the company from the south, but they had not given him satisfaction, owing to their drunkenness and general incapacity.—By Mr Travers : I never heard of any other man dramatising Farjeon’s novel of “Grif.” 1 am the only man who has dramatised the pieces 1 have not registered the manuscript, Mr Hydes was engaged as a comedian, and Mr Egerten (Glover) as an “utility.’’ mm I was bound to keep them because I could not have replaced them.—By Mr Allan : Mr Glover, like many oilier evil necessities, had to be endured.— (Lout! laughi ter.) —Charles Burford : I was in partnership with Towers. When the partnership was dissolved nothing was said relative to the use of the appellation by which the late company had be.n known. I should have considered it an open question as to which of us used it, but as a matter of courtesy I should have foregone any right to its use. When the play was first produced in Christchurch Souter was adver i-ed as the dramatiser, as lowers was so well known there that his name would have no authority. J. P. Hydes deposed : 1 am an actor, and my Jorte is comic. I sometimes indulge in a little liquor ; am advertised as highly moral and temperate. Joined Towers in Dunedin, before Burford joined ;) Company had no name • payed “ Grit ” and other pieces. Remember Burford joining. After that assumed a name to go to Invercargill. Towers asked what we should call ourselves ; I said the “ Grif Company,” and we played under that name. There were thirteen of us, aud when Towers and Burford left us we agreed to still carry on. I did nob care about the name. I considered there was no money on it. Towers gave no notice that he intended carrying on underthat name. He advtrated that he would not be tnswerable for debts of the company We advertised to play as the “ Grif Dramatic Company.” By Mr Allan : Have you had a drmk this morning ? Witness: Certainly not at your expense. By Mr Allan: Mr lowers did not discharge me for being drunk. Cannot play when not drunk. I call mvaelf as much iho (Itif comply one else. Put Burford’s name in the adve£ whpn tU b o beCaUS3 , lle , said h j? would 9 join us when he came back from the country. I never heard of managers having property in name irrespective of company of Ss“ °fK Urt w f s , cou Y ulsed 'With laugbter during the whole time Hydes was under examination. The Magistrate asked Johly Ln fb/° ? ',V" as not co ™<hj where* upon the latter made an affirmative

reply, adding, with the utmost nonchalance “But not in opposition to you. your Worship." Allan’s *'pt ra Company opened at Napier on the 26th, and stayed there twelve nights, their season havb g been bought for '7O a night—a long prVe foi such a little pi ice. They open in Wellington on September 14, at Christchurch on November 2, and at Dunedin on e' ocim. Night. Their aceutinforms me that in Due edin they intend to produce a large v.iriet' of new operas {including “ Cind rail a/’ “Der Freischutz,” and some of Lequoq’a new opera) opening on a grander scale, with several new attractions. It is rumored that the company will be strengthened by a new contralto and a tenor. From Auckland I bear that the majority of Mr Collier’s company, together with Miss Hattie Shepparde, and the members of the Asiatic and Siamese Circus Troupe, have sailed for Sydney. I hare not had time to take more than a glance over the English papers. I note that opera is in full swing at Drury Lane, where the tide of sucoess has turned in favor of MrMapleson. His new tenor Gillandi has achieved a triumphant success, and he is said to be a treasure, and the most reliable acquisition to Her Majesty’s opera the house has gained for many years. Henry Irving continues the attraction at the Lyceum, and. his benefit on June 22 in “Eugene Aram,” was a bumper. Miss Ellen Langham, who, under the name of Nelly Power, achieved much popularity as a burlesque actress, has taken her farewell of the stage, having been married on June 17, at Paris, by the Chief Rabbi of France, to Mr R. G. Israel, eldest son of Mr Bennett Barnett, of Russell square, London. The following items, thought almost out of date, are not without interest:—

Mrs Herman Vtzin {Mrs Charles Young) has renounced all intention of visiting these Colonies. Mr Charles Mathews, during the latter part of last month and the earlier part of the present, has been playing in Dublin, Glasgow, and Manch.ster. in Dublin he was very plainly reminded ‘that his time to retire was come, and that it was a most injudicious proceeding on the part of the management to raise the prices to witness the performances of a gentleman who at one time held a foremost position as a comedian on the British stage.” Miss Emma Stanley •till pursues her provincial tour. Clarence Holt and George Leyborne have again united for a tour in the midland counties of e.upland. 6

Mr and Mrs Bandmann were (March and April) travelling through Scotland. At the latest they were in Glasgow. It is pleasing to notice that however much the English people delight to hear our beloved bard and the English language tortured and mauled by a self-possessed foreigner, the Scotch peop'e estimate the Herr on his merits. He and his wife have lately been pla3’ing anything but successfnl engagements. Barry f>ulliyan’s successful provincial tour is nearly at an end. Miss May Holt is making rapid strides in her profession. In March last she was playing in Manchester with the veteran Charles Mathews, who publicly complimented her on the very efficient support' she had rendered him during his engagement, Mr Charles Billion was in March last performing at West Hartepool. He has formed a company for costume recitals to make a teur through the United Kingdom and Irelond. The troupe consists of Mr Fitzroy Wallace (who will be remembered in Melbourne as the diester for the late G. V. Brooke some years ago), Mr J. Irving, Mies Clara L’sle, and Mr Charles Dillon. Mr J. L. Hall has made another great bit at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Liverpool. In the burlesque ef “The ajaid and the Magpie” Mr Ball’s performance of Viliabeila is spoken of as “a genuine piece of burlesque, open taneons, and not forced. He has the vis comica to a great extent, and never oversteps the bounds of prudence even in his wildest pf dances.-\lr Robert Heller, the clever pjarqst and piagician, accompanied by M ias Haidee Hel er, has been nightly crowding the large Free Trade Hall in Evlauche ten They aie spoken of as the greatest success that has ever occupied that historical building. It is their intention, so private advices from Mr Heller state, to revisit Melbourne in the course of three or four months with an entirely new class of entertainments. The great Frederick Maccabe intends “ making a tour of the world. He will hist visit the principal towns and cities of America, finishing with California. Then to New Zealand and the Australian Colonics. Then home by way of India, China,, and Japan. He think* he will be in New Zealand about April, 1815.”