LITERARY, MUSICAL, & DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1255, 27 March 1878, Page 3

LITERARY, MUSICAL, & DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

An old New .Zealand favorite, Miss Alice May, appears to have firmly established herself in the good opinion of both the pub'ic and critics in London, her engagement at the Philharmonic being described by the " Era" as a happy marginal thought, and her performance of Drogan in "Genevieve do Brabant" as admirable, both with regard to her vocalisation and dramatic skill. Mr G. B. Allen, Miss May's husband, receives special eulogy as the orchestral conductor. Miss Kloiso Juno also, at one time a popular favorite in Christehurch, also receives gr< at praise for her excellent representation of the character of Jennie Deans in the Scotch drama of the "Heart of Mid-Lothian" at the Surrey Theatre. The famous sensational drama, " The Bells," has been revived at the Lyceum, and Mr Henry Irving's performance of the character of Mathias is described as being as intensely dramatic as on the original performance of the drama. Harry Jackson retains the post of stage manager at the Princess's Thoatie. By the last advices "Our Boys" had reached the 979th night without any symptoms of abatement in its popularity or signs of withdrawal by the management. The Gourlay Family are star* ring in the provinces in their entertainment entitled "Mrs Macgregor's Levee." At the Criterion Theatre, conducted by an old Australian manager, Mr Alexander Henderson, the " Pink Dominos'" had reached its 290th night, the same piece having recently had a brief career in Melbourne, where it was severely handled by the critics for its alleged immoral tendency. The Turko-Russian War has furnished two theatres with sensational spectacular dramas—at the Grand National the " Siege, Storming, and Fall of Kars" being the piece dr. rexhtance, while the Royal Agricultural attracts the public with the "Bombardment and Fall of Plevna." In the latter spectacle nearly two* thousand men and horses are engaged. Mr Maskelyne, of Polytechnic and Psyche celebrity, has invented a musical automaton, which is said to rival on the cornet-a-piaton the finest performers on that instrument, Fanfare, as it is named, will be a probable rival to the great Levy, At a recent sale of theatrical relics, autograph letters of Andrew Ducrow, the famous; equestrian, t> Charles Mathews, and playbills of Astley's Amphitheatre, realised £2 ; illustrations connected with English Dramatic Authors, including Ben Jonson, Congreve, Addison, Dryden, Milton, itc., £7 7s : Grimaldi's and other clown's portraits and autographs, £3 12s ; portraits and playbills of Edmund Keau, £ll l!)s ; the Kemble and Siddons' family autographs and newspaper cuttings, &c., £l4 ; and Charles Matthews's (senior and junior) autographs and playbi'ls, 4 guinea's. An autograph letter of the late G. V. Brooke was receutly sold to Mr Perkins, of sho Occidental Hotel, Auckland, for the modest sum of 10s. A good anecdoLe comes from London referring to Mr (!. Pi. Ireland, the popular Melbourne actor, at present performing at the Princess's Theatre in that city. A London critic, after witnessing the Australian actor's performance of one of his favorite characters in which he failed to impress the aforesaid critic, the latter condoled with the artiste by informing him, that although his performance failed to discover his especial line, there was one still open to him in his last extremity—the Cunard ! Dion Boucicault has rivalled in New York the famous Battle of Dorking by the production of an imaginary Russian Invasion of England, including the Battle of Tunbridge Wells and the Siege of London. The great Sothern has struck oil in a new character, that of Fitzaltamont in the "Crushed Tragedian." He is not the only one in existence. Mr W. S. Gilbert, the talented author of "Pygmalion and Galatea" and "The Palace of Truth," was announced to appear in the novel character of Harlequin at the Gaiety Theatre, London, for the benefit of the Royal General Theatrical Fund;. The Bishop of Melbourne is not the only Church of England champion of the stage as a great moral teacher, as two clergymen of the National Establishment, the Rev. Stewart Headlam (late curate of St. Matthew's, Bethnal Green), and the Rev. J. Wright, of Bath, have, according to recent English papers, undertaken a vindication of the theatre upon moral gro.unda. The consequence of the iirst named reverend gentleman's advocacy was his dismissal from his curacy by the Bishop of London after, in the words of a testimonial presented him by the members of bid late congregation, " Jive years of earnest and, fruitful work among the poor of B.ethnal Green," The Rev. Mr Wright, in ft sermon delivered at Bath, took for his subject :—" The Theatre—the Ally, not the Knemy, of Religion," and then proceeded: "I find such assertions as that ministers of religion generally speaking disapprove of the Theatre; that to ailow children to go there is to put cyi} in their way ; that it is a place where, generally speaking, men aje tempted to sin, a place to which a clergyman may thank ho has never gope, and a general tone of righteous horror against the Stage, then I feel bound to protest against such ignorant bigotry and narrow Phariseeism, and to say in public what I say and act on in private, that I consider the Theatre as lawful and as righteous cultivation of the natural human taste for art as the picture gallery or the concejt room, and capable of exercising byen a greater influence for good than, any oilier of these similar institutions,