AN ARTIST IN VAUDEVILLE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1948, 3 January 1914, Page 6

AN ARTIST IN VAUDEVILLE.

As Miss Josephine Davis tripped daintily on to thy stag 9 at tlio Tivoli Theatre (Sydney), for a moment 1 saw the shado of Nella Web!) rise to confront my .mind's eye (says a writer in last week's Sydney ' Sunday Times"), but as the strains of Miss Povis's beautiful -voice rose clear and distinct, liko the tinklo of a silver bell, tho phantom-fad-ed quickly away I realised that- l! a greater than Nella Webb was here." ■ I find it difficult to set forth in celd, hard print all the charm, all the grace, of this winsome little lady with tho tin.v, twinkling feet, and the. sveot, fresli voice. Old cut-and-dried phrases are ringing in my head, a veritable arrayof dancing superlatives; but' their us® seems almost a sacrilege in face of tho exquisite art of this_ latest vaudeville importation. ' Thero is something ' too intangible, too seductively fragile, abo'it the whole thing to allow tlio coarsening hand of mere haphazard praise to touch it. It was like nothing so much as the scent of old lavender, kept in a dainty piece of flav/less j Dresden china. Miss Davis sings. And sho moves. And sho smiles. And sho waves lier hands. For vliat matter, so have a hundred other yiudeville performers I liavo s?:n; but in tlio course of my existence I have never seen anyone do these things a3 gracefully,- a? wholly artistically, as sho does; and the audience scorned to agree with mo, for they iecalled her again and again. Jliss Davis sang a number of character songs, covering several widelydiverging types,_ and. sang them all .with consummate artistrv. Her voice was of fi'no, pure quality. Her enunciation was rerfoctlv distinct. Her movements-wero tho embodiment o! graoe. These were tho qualities which helped to support her dainty personality, and to make her workof tho best-—if not the vcrv host. — vaudeville number ever presented in this country.-