Dramatic and Musical

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 112, 23 August 1902, Page 7

Dramatic and Musical

By Footlight.

DIX'S Gaiety Company, with its fresh contingent of old friends and new faces, presents a kaleidoscopic picture of a fresh and s arkling nature this week. What the big crow d of Theatre Royal habitues are giving their best attention to at present is the bright and beauteous "turn" of Arthur Nelstone and Mis Elsie Forest. Elsie is chio, sweet, slender, and refined as pretty as a picture, and as graceful as a fawn. With the indiarubber limbs of Nelstone as a background, the combination of whimsical taJent and grotesque dancing is worthy of several visits. Every little witticism of either is cnsn and wholesome, while, if there is anyone around who can dance like Arthur, bring him forth. James Harvey and Timothy How aid, as the 'Two Rascals," do not pall. They are equally at home 'up-sade down or right-side up, and can sing a song dance a flip, da feats of legerdemain 01 imitate anybody m stageland. They fill their ten minutes up to the last second. Miss Molhe Bentley, the contralto singer and general favourite on Tuesday night suffered with a particularly sever© cold. She went "off" protestingly at the first song. The crowd cruelly persisted in her return. She sang, "Good Old Buller" and ''John ' Bull, Junior" "as well as -she could, and the audience helped her. She <*ot a tremendous leceptian. ( * *' * Fred. Rivenhall, whose sparkling teeth show up whitely (m a burnt-cork background, is really rather funny. His "Set '«ni alight". was as absurd as any other comic song, but it fetched the audience. Mr. George Dean, sterling comedian and singer as he is, is back again in command, of the stage His character song, "'A Stroke of the Pen " is a convincing vocal sketch worth a visit to the Gaiety. * * * Stella Ranger's sweet voice warbles nightly as of yore, and her star-eyed sister Florrie sings ditties that affect different folks differently. Tom Howard and Madge Morris are likewise on the bill, doing their best, which is refreshings Finally, the American Vitagraph is giving its pictures with good effect, some of the subjects being choice and' piquant. There were no vacant ohairs in the dress-circle on Tuesday night, and, peering down into the depths, I saw nothing but heads Whereat' PeTrcy smiles '

Gilbert and Sullivan's sueetlv-satm-cal opera "Patience," gnen with the requisite finish by the Pollards at the Opera House this week, is delightfully 'refreshing to those who appreciate hin-h-class work. From the moment when the ''Twenty Love-sick Maidens" let their bilious hero, Bunthorne, know that they are the only girl for him-, to the moment when all the musio and humoui is exhausted. Pollards' people handle their materiaJ with fine lesults Mr. D. O'Connor, as Archibald Grosvenor, the lovo-sick swain, who moons around artistically, is eminently at home in his part. He is a*> naturally unnatural as the character demands. His duet "Prithee Pretty Maiden," with "'Patience," (Miss Connie Buttel) was finely sung. .Mr Percy as the animated fraud Bunthorne, has a hard part to play, and plays it well It is hard lines for W S. to repose to the extent he is obliged to in ' Patience," but he manages somehow. * * - Mr. J Ralston, as the Colonel of the Gilbertian dragoons, is lesponsible for the giddy patter song "If you want a receipt " etc Maybe, with piactice his

tongue w ill become loose enough to eject the tumultuous satire with more 'distinctness He was an imposing dragoon. HaiiA Quealv as an excessively upright major, with a lobster complexion and a fieice moustache, eiaculatcd his words and sang his part with laughter-making effect, and, as a novice in the aesthetic, was as weak about the knees as Gilbert intended. ■* * * The Duke of Dunstable, with the bored expression and the general inability to think very hard, was admirably pourtrayed by Mr. Chas. Carter uhose sweet voice broke the inanity several times. The Lady Jane of Miss Alice Edgar was a splendid piece of comedy. Miss Edgar nlays this unthankful nart with a fine conception of what is required of her, and many of the touches of comedy wexe highly artistic. •+ -» * Miss Connie Buttel sang sweetly as Patience, and made a hit in "I cannot tell what this love may be" and "A love .that will endure." She easily carried off first honours, and amply justifies her place as leading lady. All the well-known solos and choruses with which this bright opera scintillates were given, with great success. and it is unnecessary to say that the mounting was up to the Pollards' highest standard. (Continued on page 17 )

Messrs. Wakeman and Co., hotel brokers, Taupo Quay, Wanganui, report having recently disposed of the following hotel interests . — Mr. J. Hand's interest in the Wangaehu Hotel, Wangaehu, to Mr. W. H. Anderson, late of Waveriey ; Mr. J. Northovea-'s interest in tihe Railway Hotel, Marion, to Mr. W. Clarke, late of the Pukekohe Hotel, Auckland, -, Also the freehold of the said hotel from Mr. S. Gibbons, of Marton, to the same buyer ; Mr. B. T. Bennetts interest in, the Albion Hotel" Wanganui, to Mr. W. Tinline, late of Marton; Eketahuna Hotel, Eketahuna, a lease of the said hotel from Mr. T Parsons' to Mr. P. O'Neil, late of Wanganui , Mr. J. Butler's interest in the Ro^al Hotel, Bunnythorpe, to Mr H Mace late of New Plymouth; Mr. J)'. Sullivan's interest in the Commercial Hotel, Hawera, to Mr. J. Hook, late of Waveriey. Also a lease of the Mauriceville Hotel, Mauric&ville from Messrs Hoffein Bros, to Mr. P. Mcllvride, late of Wanganui.