BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8529, 7 September 1907, Page 3

BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS.

Tod Galloway, round here last with Montgomery's Entertainers, is now appearing in .Brisbane. Miss Tittell Brune has arranged to leave Sydney on her prolonged holiday trip to the Old World on September 28 th next.

Wonderland, at Bondi, Sydney, will be re-opened this month. MiAnderson refused an offer of a syndicate for a ten years' lease.

William Collier has made a big hit in New York with "Caught in the Rain." The 200 th performance was just coming when the mail left.

The leading minstrel organisation in America, the largest and best, namely, John W. Vogei's Minstrel Show, one hundred strong, is coming over to take England by storm, and they should create a general liking for minstrel shows over there, as they have got the goods and know how to deliver them.

Ellen Terry, in an interview in London, said thai she was delighted with her American tour, and told a story how many young girls had applied to her for assistance to get upon the stage. She said: "Every woman under thirty believes she is an actiess—and every actress believes she is under thirty."

Claude Whaite, recently representing the Brough-Fletming Combination, is now with Florence Baines at the Palace Theatre, Sydney. He reports business first-class, and predicts a highly successful Australian season for the clever and versatile Florence. A number of the company's posters and programmes are to from Mr Whaite.

Mr J. C. Williamson's New Musical Comedy Company is in the early stage of its tour of Australasia, and has just completed two very successiul visits to Bendigo and Ballarat, respectively. At the latter town "The Three Little Maids" was pro■daced by this company for the first time in Australia, with Mr Myles Ciifton, of Oroya Brown fame, in the part of Lord Cheyne, in which .he added new laurels to his Australian reputation.

Mr Andrew MacCunn, who has for soma time past been connected with tha Royal Comic Opera Company as its musical conductor, will shortly take his departure on a holiday trip to England. His place will ba filled by Mr Howard Carr, who has been ■engaged in London by Mr J. C. Williamson [for that purpose. Mr Carr is a nephew of Mr Howard Talbot, whose name is associated with some very excellent musical comedy work .known to Australasians. Mr Carr himself is a composer and a conductor with a wide-spread experience and should prove in evfry way a worthy successor to the retiringjConduefcor.

"I bringing you a clean, wholesome, healthy, domestic drama," said Mr Hamilton, when speaking to a Southern reportor of "Home, Sweet Home." "There is not a murder or suicide in the whole four acts. Think of it! It ii ladies' drama—one that appeals most strikingly to the fair sex, and my experience is that when your play fetches' women, one can safely rely on the men following suit. I shall be very much surprised if 'Home, Sweet Home' does , not make a signal success throughout its coming New Zealand tour."

Of the present Pollard company Mr Joe Stoyle can elate his connection with the Pollards to 1881. When t.he Lilioutians came to Dunedin, appearing at the Queen's Theatre, he was a boy, and forsook the tailoring business for juvenile opera. For a quarter of a century he has been connected with all Mr Tom Pollard's ventures. The only other adult member of the now reorganised company wh t had previously served under the Pollard management is Mr Charles Albert, who will be recollected for his marvellous impersonation of The Insert in "Paul Jones" (1891.) Paris is to have another National Opora House, which will be a people's theatre. M. Briand, Minister of Public Instruction and the Fine Arts, is the founder of the new theatre. It will provide the people of Paris with grand opera and light opera at cheap rates, and serve as a training school for singers who aspire to appear at the grand opera. M. Coquelin's playhouse, the Gaiety, will be the home of the new National Theatre which will receive State subsidy, and probably also a reduction of rent from the municipality of Paris, which owns the building.

Mr Andrew Mack finished a highly successful career at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, on Thursday, August 29th. The last five nights of the season were devoted to revivals of "Tom Moore," "The Way to Kenmare," and "Arrah-Na-Pogue." The first-named play was reproduced in response to numerous requests from Mr Mack's admirers while "Arrah-Na-Pogue" was selected as the medium in which the popular comedian said good-bye to Melbourne. On Saturday, August 31st, Mr Mack onened his Sydney season in "Tom Moore," and during his stay in Sydney "Eileen Asthore" will be produced for the first time in Australia.

The Royal Comic Opera Company concluded their Sydney season with a revival of the ever popular "Bel.e of New York," in which the whole company acquitted themselves in a highly creditable manner. They opened their Melbourne season at Her Majesty's Theatre on August 31st, with a six nights' run of "'The Spring Chicken," to be folJowed on the 7th September by "The Dairymaids," which will be produced for the first time in Australia, and for the production of which the cast of the Royal Comic Opera Company has been considerably strengthened.

Mr Williamson's Pantomime Company," after concluding a highly successful season in Queensland, is now on its way to New Zealand, writes Mr George Tallis under date August 30th, Auckland being the town in which it will inaugurate its tour of the colony. It will be well on in November before the "Mother Goose Company conclude their New Zealand visit, when they will return to Melbourne to prepare for the next Christmas pantomime.