Dramatic And Musical

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 5, 4 August 1900, Page 17

Dramatic And Musical

By Footlight.

DIX'S Gaiety Company is still doing most excellent business in Wellington, crowded houses being the invariable rule, and standing room being the best accommodation for some time before the curtain rises. The charming Oriental- scene, '.with its gay and picturesque grouping, is still used as a setting for the first part, though the programme is entirely new, and comprises a series of most attractive numbers. The clever little Downards, the Staunton Sisters, Miss Flo Wilton, and Messrs Collins, Hugo, Hall and Howard, all contribute items in the first part. But, as heretofore, James Bain, the inimitable comedian, is the great draw. " Ada's Serenade," and Getting it by Degrees," are his two latest songs. Every one of his turns catches on immensely, the audience is kept in roars of laughter, and he is recalled time after time. Little Ethel also appears in her marvellous contortionist act, which is one of the most remarkable of the kind ever seen in this colony. Other special attractions are shortly expected from Sydney, so that it is quite evident that Mr Dix is showing no lack of enterprize, but is, on the contrary, determined to maintain the popularity of his excellent variety show. * It looks very much like permanence at John Fuller and Sons Waxworks when the thii-ty-second programme is announced, and, more especially so, when that programme is fully up to the standard of the best of those that have preceded it. One of the new departures is the return of Mr John Fuller himself, who sings " Doreen " charmingly, and whose encore was the most imperative one heard in the Choral Hall for some time past. " Fun in a Bar-room " is the title of a highly amusing sketch presented by the Leslie Brothers, and which was full of musical whimsicalities, and kept the audience in a high state of merriment. Misses Thorne and Dell are still great favourites, their turns being invariably encored, while Dave Clark, Sid Luella, Eose Andrew, Mabel Maie, and others contribute to the programme. The Fuller entertainments are now running successfully in every part of the colony. * * • Pollards have closed their _ Dunedin season. * * * The Broughs are doing big business at the Melbourne Princess's with " The Manoeuvres of Jane." * # # One of the best vocalists that have appeared with the Gaiety Company, says the Auckland Herald, is Mr Arthur Hahn, the clever basso, whose fine singing nightly evokes great applause. * • • Mr George Wirth is in Sydney to make arrangements for a visit from Wirth's circus after eight years' absence. It is to open at Townsville in August, Sydney October, and Melbourne during the Cup week. New Zealand follows later. * * * Mr John Fuller, junior, who is the youngest manager in the colony, has everything in nice order at the Agricultural Hall, Auckland, where John Fuller and Sons' Waxworks and Vaudeville Company has established itself. During the week full houses have greeted the new entertainment.

It is now Metcalfe-Smith — don't forget, Metcalfe with a 'yphen. Both private and press letters from South Africa show an amount of devotion to Lord " Bobs" all through the army which borders upon worship. Miss " Lun" Watson, who resigned a school-teaehership last week, has been the heart and soul of more than one of Wellington's dramatic organisations, and will be greatly missed on the local amateur stage. In forsaking the gaieties of metropolitan life to take up the more or less humdrum routine of the wife of a backblocks station owner — away in the wilds, hours' journey from the nearest railwaystation — Miss Watson is showing more pluck than the average city girl possesses. There are hundreds who will wish her luck and happiness.