STALLS GOSSIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1916, Page 11

STALLS GOSSIP.

MUSIC, MIMES AND MOVIES. The Christclmreh Opera House has closed down, so there will be no vaudeville in the Cathedral City. Maud Allan is asking £ 1000 per week to appear iu American vaudeville. Will she get if; Most likely otherwise. Mischa JCluian'a London l'ec l'or one night is stated to be a hundred and twenty pounds. New Zoalanders did not fully appreciate the joy of heaving biin. * * # Harry Lijpino lias become the principal eomedian of a New York revue. Miss Gertie Latehtord (Mrs. Lupino) also has a part in the New York frivolity. Mr. W. S. Percy, billed as the Australian comedian, and Miss Blanche Browne, who will he. remembered agreeably in ''Our Miss Gibbs," are appearing in "Who's Who," a revue being presented at the I.ondori Oxford. ''Will you Walk into my Parlor," a new one-act play from the pen of tlie New Zealand dramatist, MUs Rosemary Rees, is heing used as a curtain-raiser in England to 11. A. Vachell's highly successful drama, "Searchlights." Ilarry Lander's income tax for the New Zealand tour, says Mr. E. J. Grave stock in the Theatre, was a pretty considerable amount, but he just looked it over, made a few calculations, and paid up. Many other famous players have spent days in fighting the assessment.

It is stated that Sir Herbert Tree is to receive .€20,000 for the appearances he is to make in front of the camera this winter for the great film : producing company in Los Angeles, California. He will be filmed in many plays, and that means that he will have much work and long hours in the theatre out there. Ail the same—taking into account the number of weeks he will be occupied—his fees establish a record. '

One evening recently a returned soldier in the stalls at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, called out, "Good old Maggie!" when Miss Maggie Moore war. giving her clever performance in "Kick In." The popular actress and Miss Eileen Sparks could hardly keep their composure, and the movement of the play was momentarily held up whilst the applause from all parts showed that everyone agreed with the interjecting warrior.

Were she unknown, says the Musical Courier, referring to Melba's New York concert, Mme. Melba would prejudice any audience in.her favor before she had sung a note, by the ideally satisfactory way in which she walks on to the stage and greets her hearers. That is a complete and finished act in itself, as is her way of acknowledging applause, points which should be impressed upon the minds, of the many aspiring Melbas.

Messrs. ,T. and N. Tait, who have secured the sole rights for the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand of HaUlcy Manners' famous comedy, "Peg o' My Heart," are fixing up a company in London, and the play will be produced in Sydney next Easter. Miss Sara Allgood, who has made such a brilliant success as Peg in the provinces, will play the part in Australia and New Zealand.

London is grieving over the transition for two years of Mdlle Gaby Deslys to America. "We can bear philosophically," says the Tattler, commenting on the departure of the favorite, "the possibility of the financial centre of the world being shifted to New York; hut it is difficult indeed to endure the aftermath of that somewhat mysterious transition, namely, that the loveliest—and most expensive—artists are irrevocably drawn after it."

It is a curious fact that at the most tragic epoch through which England has passed there should have been produced two of the most hilarious farces London lias seen for many a long day. These were "Stop, Thief," and "A Little Bit" of Bluff." The mirth induced by the latter, at the traditional laughter-box—the Criterion—is described as "good, healthy, old-fashioned laughter over a good, healthy, old-fashioned farce, which includes practically every sort of familiar farce trick from Moliere to Tristan, not to mention 'Charlie's Aunt' itself."

Paderewski, the celebrated pianist, has been furthering a relief campaign in America in aid of his distressed countrymen in .Poland. All that Belgium and Serbia suffered and something more ha 9 been the lot of Poland since the armies of Russia and Germany swayed backwards and forwards over that'fair land. Considering the tribulations of the Poles, Paderewski feels justified in combining charity with music on his professional tours. At each of his recitals he explains his mission in a short speech, and pushes round the hat with successful results.

The Sydney Referee says that Edwards and Parkes, a specialty duo, are quite the applause hit of the bill at tlie National Theatre. The male member of the team recites a fine war poem, entitled "The Kid from Woolloomooloo," written by Barry Marshall, of New Zealand. This never fails to get several recalls. The Referee should be wise enough to know that it was Barrle Marschell, now with the New Zealand Picture Supplies Co. at Wellington, who wrote the poem, the original title of which was "The Kid from Timaru," and, if we remember aright, it first appeared in print in a Timaru contemporary.

"Harrison O," writing in the Bulletin, says: Excuse me if I appear to have a neutral bee in my crush hat; but, really, there seems to be no limit to the impuence of these Yankee play-makers. "Stop Thief," the latest offering at the Melbourne Royal, is not even the customary curtain-raiser expanded into a thrce-acter. It is merely a dismal conjuring turn snowed under with patter. The scene is unchanged, and the action (which with difficulty is made to last foran hour and a-half) continues, but the management judiciously mitigates the agony with a couple of intervals. In the first act Jack Doogan, the inevitable j "crunk" hero, steals a ring and puts it in somebody else's pocket; and for the rest of the evening lie keeps on stealing [things and placing them in the pockets of various people. The fact that he does not place everything he steals in the [same person's pocket is the only spice of variety there is. These numerous confiscatory exercises are interrupted by slabs of patter, supplied by the conjurer and his assistants, and the turn is foisted on a long-suffering public as "a farce in thres act*!*"