"LOOK WHO'S HERE"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 129, 18 February 1918, Page 6

"LOOK WHO'S HERE"

A WELCOME REAPPEARANCE,

Mr. Jack Waller's "Look Who's Here" Company opened a return season in tho Grand Opera House on Saturday night. Tho theatre natur(illy was filled in all parts, for Wellington people have retained'a vivid recollection of the gay and clever entertainment.that the company presonted here a few months ago, and the only persons disappointed were those unable to secure seats. The combination of talent that Mr. Waller leads is an unusually strong one, and the way in which that talent is grouped and organised for effective display is simply delightful. The staging is brilliant, the music is satisfyingly good, the humour is clean, bright and unfailing, and tho whole, entertainment is swift, brisk, and clever. The company needs no lengthy introduction to Wellington theatre-goers at this stage of its New Zealand tour. Saturday night's programme contained some eighteen numbers, long and short, merry and musical, dramatic and vaudeville, and there was not a poor one or a dull one among them. The members of the company are something more than a collection of talented performers. They are a team, directed by a mind that brims over with unexpected notions. The items included tho court scene, with Mr. Jack Waller as the barrister and other members of the company as plaintiff, defendant and jury in a comic breaoh-of-promise case; a Hungarian band burlesque, by Mr. Waller, Mr. Wylio Watson, and Mr. P. W. Dennett; a hilarious sports burlesque, by tho company; a wild scene in a vocal and tcrpsichorean restaurant; a recruiting incident, by Mr. Howard Hall and Mr. Wylio Watson; and some episodes of seasickness and love-making aboard the ship Pianola. Mr. Gregory Ivaiioff, the most accomplished violinist Wellington has heard in this type of entertainment, played a Fantasia on "Faust" (Wiomnvski), nnd with Mr. Wylio Watson ('cello) and Mr. F. W. Dennett (piano) gave «n arrangement of "haunting melodies." Mr. Dennett, whoso work on tho piano is well up to concert standard, played thu linalo of Mendelssohn's Concert, Op. 25. Another musical number, interpreted by four pianos, violin, 'cello and hells, wns the Tschaikowsky overture, "1812," with a clinninlic prologue liy Mr. Waller as Napoleon. Miss Dnrofhy Whilii and Messrs. Dick and Los Whito did some clever thirififi tunefully. Thou there were two of Mr. Waller's potted dramas, tho most amusing productions of their kind soon hero fnr many n .lona; dry. A tragedy with thive. oudin»s, dramatic, pathetid and dnmoitic, had the audience roddiu.; with laughlm , . Tho. Purple Rand assisted nuist. capnbly with the music, and provided 0110 or two items on its own account. Thu ciimpany will appear nightly at l-lic Grand Op4ra lUiu.se, and it is auunuiicfd that there, will l)ii nhnngfls of programme.