MULDOON’S PICNIC COMPANY.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 20 December 1901, Page 2

MULDOON’S PICNIC COMPANY.

Mr F. M. Clark and his company will appear in the Opera House on December the 20th and 27th and will produce the famous musical comedy entitled Muldoon’s Picnic, in which there is not a dull moment. The vagaries of Michael Muldoon and his intimate friend Denis Muloahey are as good „as a tonic. Mr Clark is an able comedian, and as leading character sustains his part well. Miss Connie Dsveraux makes a charming Ella Muldoon, and her acting and singing are spoken of with high praise. Tiny Lilly Danvers, as Muldoon’s little daughter, makes herself a great favorite with the audiences, and her sweet voice is a treat to hear. The first act concludes where the good minister is invited in by the irrestible Timmy O'Brien, fond of a practical joke, to perform the ceremony. Ructions ensue, and the situations cause rounds of applause, In the second act the Muldoon family start off for their picnic, drawn in a tip cart by their famous donkey of unknown pedigree, Jerry the Wise, and the fun is made even more fast and furious than in the first act. The numerous songs, dances and specialities add much more to tbe.cnterainment. Mr Clark was the organiser of the celebrated Silk Stocking Vaudeville Entertainment, the original forerunner of the vaudeville entertainment as at present constituted, and the first show to do away with the old minstrel circle and substitute the mixed variety part now in vogue. The entertainment ran in the old Victoria Hall Melbourne, for five years without a break, and during its span of life the majority of the colonial variety artists who have made names for themselves in the vaudeville field were brought out by Mr Clark—-to wit, among others: Billie Widburn, the Bovis Boys, Florrie Ford, Song-writer Walter Kean, (now a prominent member of the "Nibs’’ Society in London), and Alma Grey. While the “Silk Stocking’’ were running Mr Clarke made several trips to America and Europe in search of talent, and it was he who brought out the famous All Star Troupe. The administration of these companies occupied Mr Clarke for some years, and he then opened the Opera House in Melbourne with a big variety entertainment called “Kosciusko,’’ This was the first time the theatre proper had been attacked by the variety artist, and dismal prophecies were hurled at the enterprising manager. These, however, were doomed to unfulfilmont, for Frank ran the show for two years before turning over the lease of the house to Rickards. this is the fiist time that such a company has visited this township, there should be a bumper house.