FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 226, 10 January 1885, Page 12

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

11 The Great Mogul," an English version of "Le Grand Mogul," by M. Andran, was produced at the Comedy Theatre in November. Mr Herman Merivale's burlesque of " Called Back " at the Gaiety is pronounced devoid of humour, which is not atoned for by polished verse or easy rhythm. Mr Frederick Fergus, better known, perhaps, as " Hugh Conway," is making, it is said, £150 a week in royalties on the play " Called Back," and the publication of the novel itself. Up to the present time upwards of 215,000 copies of thebook have been sold. An American journal states that there are more than 250 theatrical, minstrel, operatic, and musical companies on the road over there. Of the 250 troupes that have been organised thisyear, 165 are theatrical companies, 32 are concert companies, 25 variety, 20 operatic, and 10 are devoted to burnt cork. As Irish audiences will not listen to Mi* Gilbert's verses pnding "He is an Englishman," MrDOyly Carte's artists have changed the nationality. There is something exquisitely Hibernian in the spectacle of a British sailor singing,. " Despite of all temptations, to belong to other nations, I remain an Irishman." A story is told of an English actor, who. afterplaying one part for a very long time, forgot his lines one night. "It's very strange," said thestage manager, when the actor came off, "that you are not perfect in that part by this time. You have been playing it for two hundred nights." "Well," said the actor, "do you expect mo to remember it for ever ?" The celebrated American actor, Frank Chanfrau met with an awful death. He was just about to begin dinner at an hotel. He had with a party of friends been discussing the calamity which had befallen John McCullough, and had just, remarked with a sigh, "Ah, well, boys, my turn will come next," when lie fell down stricken with paralysis. He died during the night, three hours before his wife could arrive to take a last farewell. At a recent representation of "Romeo and Juliet" at the Corinthian Academy of Music,. Rochester (U.S.A.), according to the Topical Timqs, great, care was taken by the musicians to play appropriate music at the end of each act. For instance, at the end of the third act Romeo slays Tybalt. His lifeless body is dragged from the stage, and the curtain falls. The orchestra immediately begins to play " I'll meet you when the sun goes down," and follows it up with '" We never speak as we pass by." The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News,, of October 18, is not very complimentary to the dramatised version of " Called Back," jointly converted from the novelette in a " play in three acts and a prologue." by Hugh Conway (Mr Fergus, the author of the novelette), and Mr Comyns Carr, produced at the Prince's. The critic gives his impressions as follow : — The said impressions have mainly taken the form of puzzles, for which I am unable to find satisfactory solutions. The language is my first difficulty. Why in the second act should Mr Beerbohm Tree, as Paolo Macari, address MrKyrle Belle w, as Gilber Vaughan, in the • third' person singular and with the qualification of " monsieur ?" The only solution I can arrive afc is that it is a needless and out-of-place attempt to emphasise the fact that the conversation is being, earned on in French. For suppose it English,, and it becomes plain that no foreigner speaking with the ease and fluency exhibited' by Macari would be guilty of such an initial blunder in that tongue asflfche use of the third person. So, too, in the second scene of the same act. The governor of the Siberian prison must also be supposed to address Gilbert in French, since hisspeech, too, bristles with '■ monsieur," and his own subordinates in Russian. Why not literally translate the inflexions of the latter tongue aswell as those of the former? Another stock puzzle is the Italian accent of Mr J. Fern index, as , Doctor Ceneri, which appears at intervals quite independently of the laugnage he is supposed to be conversing in. A further enigma is by what Miracle of medical science Gilbert Vaughan could by any possibility have been able to lay aside glasses after undergoing an operation for cataract. My next is how such a horrible cub as Mr Frank Rodney represents Anthony--March to be did not have his blatant voicesilenced long before. And tho last I will propound is why Macari could not have been quietiy disposed of off the stage, even granting thfc need for the appearance of Petroff and his. utterance of the "tag" " Modena ? :>