STAGELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 554, 5 January 1929, Page 20

STAGELAND

FIXTURES

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE Now Playing. "The Midnight Frolics,” Edgeley and Dawe. January 14, February 2.—lrene Vanbrugh and Dion Boucicault. COMING "The Desert Song.” "The Patsy." “Princess Charming." “Castles In the Air.” ST. JAMES THEATRE Now Playing. George Wallace Revue Co. COMING "Baby Cyclone” and "Good News," Elsie Prince and Jimmy Godden. “Rio Rita,” Gladys Moncrieff.

Dulcie Cherry, here last with Alan Wilkie’s Sheakespearean Company, has left that organisation and is now with the Muriel Starr Company. ... ‘‘Rio Rita,” which had a wonderful success in Sydney, has opened in Melbourne. The first night house was sold out months ahead. Gladys Moncrieff plays the lead.

“Many actresses,” remarks Kathleen O’Regan, a prominent light on the British stage, "put grease on their eyelashes; but I use only ordinary waterblack, because I find that it gives a much more natural effect.”

Dunedin Boy Steps from Chorus to Big Part

I j Di’G. TAPLEY, son of Dun- | edin’s Sx-Mayor and ex- | I M.P., has moved from the \ j chorus to a big part in “Good | | News," one of the Fuller at- \ | tractions in Sydney. I j He has taken the part of i | Beef Saunders, succeeding | ( Les. Pearce, who has gone | into ‘‘Rio Rita.” | Mr. Tapley was last in New [ Zealand with the Gilbert I and Sullivan Opera Company.

New York reviewers credit Hugh Buckler, In Australia for many years, with being a pronounced success as the central figure in “Revolt,” at the Vanderbilt Theatre. His character is that of a preacher who holds that “those who smoke are eternally damned’,’ and that “all pleasure except church-going is fatal to the growth of the soul.”

Marie Lloyd’s sister, Daisy Wood, made her last stage appearance at the Mancheser Hippodrome on October 20, after being before the public for 38 years. “I would rather,” she says, “retire as somebody at the top of the bill than as one who has been pushed down into the small cype. ‘Go while the going is good!’ is my idea.” There were five sisters. Rosie Lloyd is the only one now on the English stage.

Benn Levy, who wrote “This Woman Business,” “Mud and Treacle,” and “The Man with Red Hair,” is the author of a new play in London, “Mrs. Moonlight.” The chief role, that of a girl who does not grow old, has been given to Joan Barry, and also in the company are Leon Quartermaine, Alison Leggatt, Frances Ross-Campbell, Walter Pearce, and Bligh Chesmond. The play is in three acts, the first being set in 1881, the second in IS9S, and the last at the present date. W. Grahame Browne is the producer.

(By COTRURNOS.J

Beryl Walkley, who has been seen in New r Zealand many times with J. C. Williamson productions, has made a big success of the Marie Burke role in “Show Boat” in the English provinces. In the same touring company is Blake Adams, last in New Zealand in “Lady of the Rose."

Priest and flirt—such are the characters in which Dion Boucicault (Fere Clement) and Irene Vanbrugh (Nelly Daventry) appear in "Miss Nell o’ New Orleans,” to be staged during their New Zealand toui\ It is not until she is in her early forties that Miss Vanbrugh gets the man she truly loves (Georges Durand, played by J. B. Rowe), due to an unfounded suspicion on his part that has long separated them.

Leona Hogarth, now playing in “The Family Upstairs” in Sydney, relates that in a theatre dressing-room Margaret Anglin wrote: “Margaret Anglin says Mrs. Fiske is the greatest actress in America.” After Mrs. Fiske had come to occupy the same room the tribute read: “Margaret Anglin, says Mrs. Fiske, is the greatest actress in America.’ ’ Miss Anglin was in New Zealand some years ago.

OPENING DATES FOR VANBRUGH-BOUCICAULT SEASON IN AUCKLAND Dion Boucicault lias decided to include “The High Road,” Lonsdale’s comedy, in his New Zealand repertory of seven plays. The Vanbrugh - Boucie#ult company will open in Auckland on January 14 and will play a season of 18 nights. The dates * for the various productions will be: January 14, 15 and 16.—“A1l the King’s Horses.” January 17, 18 and 19.—“0n Approval.” January 21, 22 and 23.—“ The High Road.” The dates for “Belinda,” “Caroline,” “Miss Nell of New Orleans” and “Mr. Prim Passes By” have not yet been fixed. The scenery for the VanbrughBoucicault productions has already arrived in Auckland, and the stage manager and the mechanician will arrive on Wednesday from Wellington. Mr. Boucicault and Miss Vanbrugh will reach Auckland by the Aorangi on January 13.

Inquiries have led a London writer to the conclusion: “Roughly speaking, it may be said tliac £IOO a week is a lot of money, and the actor who gets more orders his hats a size bigger at once.” He adds that the two outstanding exceptions in truly big money are Robey, “who got £6OO a week at the Hippodrome,” and Lauder “who got £SOO a week in ‘Three Cheers’—even if the manager did sometimes have to rush round in a cab raising Sir Harry’s nightly instalment bit by bit.”

Howard Carr, J.C.W. musical director, is back in Australia from abroad after 20 years’ absence. He says that the managers’ principal trouble in London is to find leading women who can sing the better class of music now being written. There is no part for the woman trained for dancing, nonsinging roles, and there are so few women left who have both vocal prowess and personal appearance and acting ability that the composers are writing specially for them.