THEATRICAL NOTES. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT). London, November 2.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 430, 21 December 1889, Page 3

THEATRICAL NOTES. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT). London, November 2.

The sale of Dion Boucicault's copyrights, etc., took place at Puttick and Simpson's on Thursday, last, when some of the mo9t popular of contemporary plays were knocked down to shrewd Sam French for absurdly low prices. The property, in plain fact, was what is technically called 'Slaughtered." George R. Sims would not sell the English rights of an indifferently popular melodrama, Buch as "The Silver Falls " for under £1,000 at the very least, yet Boucy's " London Assurance <} and " Arrah-na-Pogue " went for £150 apiece ; " The Flying Scud " fetched £40 only; "Formosa," £54; "The Long Strike," £42; "Hunted Down," £22; "After Bark,' 1 £70; and " Babil and Bvon," 30s. Three of these at least— •* London Assurance," " Arrah-na-Pogue," and " The Flying Scud " were phenomenal bargains, being amongst the safest stock "draws " of the melodramatic reparloire. The Maymarket benefit, in aid of the octogenarian author of "Box and Cox," was a complete success, reading £250, which M r Tree handed to the old man on the following afternoon. Morton was too weak to J^e prebent himself at the theatre, and Mrsi .Tree recited Clement Scott'e apropos verses written for the occasion. | !Now that the new seating arrangements j at ttie-' ? J2y'c'eum are complete the house holds a little' over £400 a performance, or £2,400 a week. The advance booking is even better than during the first month of " Macbeth," .seats- being now engaged for Cattle Show week, in December, ,On the other hand,', of course, the nightly expenses, are much, heavier .than ever' before. The supers number 200." ' ! Undismayed 'by Mr Rutland Bafrington's reverses and the evil reputation acquired by the houpe, Mrs Langtry has taken the Stw James' Theatre for a year, and will open i>early next season, with Mr Bourchier as her leading man and a strong company, If ahe keeps clear of Shakespeare, the venture will probably do. The Kendals were successful at the Sfc. James', chietly because they remembered they .were in. the centre of clifb-land, and made their p'xeev, de resistance an amusing comedy, 1 or comedy-drama, commencing at 8.30. 'This just sutliced to tempt the man who had dined well close by, to look in to see if there were a stall vacant. The consequence was, even at slack times, the best parts of the St. James' were generally full. I hear that in " My Jack," a melodrama by a now man, named Landeck, producod at the Surrey Theatre six weeks ago, Geo. Conquest has the best piece produced at a transpontine house for year?, and that the Wes»j End is beginning to find this out. The Australian rights, were, it seems, snapped up two days after the play's production. Some idea of the emoluments of the music-hall star of to-day may be gathered from the ' fact that Vesta Tilley (a comparatively 1 second-rate serio-comique) has booked engagements to 1893, -when she goes to thfe Gaiety Theatre as "first singing chambermaid." Miss Tilley will not, however, permanently desert "the 'alls," as by doing " three turns a night " she can often earn ClOO a week, whereas £40 is the utmost slie has ,ever received for pantomime in the provinces ; £5,000 a-year is not a bad income for singing "Oh, You Ggurls, You Naughty Young Ggurls."