Dramatic and Musical

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 116, 20 September 1902, Page 7

Dramatic and Musical

DIX'S Gaiety Company, which occupied the Theatre RoyaJ foi Monday of this week, preliminary to the descent of the Rickaids Compam , did some of its best work on that night and the oreceding Saturday. Of couise, the finest item, of the programme was the re-a'^earance (prehminaiy to her disappearance) of Miss Lizzie Kuk, whose charming comedy and yocal ability have been so appreciated during her long season in. New Zealand She was forced to sin'; all the quaint and clever soners in which she is so much admired. Awkwaid Moments" and the "Goody-goody" girl song shine out as the gems Pope and Savles, also sinning on the Dixian horizon before finally dipping out of sights put a combined weip-ht of thirty-one stone into the breach, and brought down the house in the timehonoured way. They lea,ve a blank that no mere "white trash" can hope to fill. Sayles, as ever, made the rafters line and the boards crack, with his tumultuous tomfooloiv and Pope the rotund rovsterer, hit the audience in its most ticklish place. As the manaeement says they are "always black but evergreen " * * * Harvey and Morns have used up a wealth of gag" and original business during a short active career of clever work, and on Monday night the versaltle first-named in some of his \eiv smartest work. Always bright and piquant is the dainty Madge Moms who is a balladist a& well as a comedienne, and who is welcome in such a tuneful item as, the- "Circus Girl " MiFrank Leon, lam led to believe, has danced his celebrated clog dance on the Gaiety boards for the last time. The hardworking Frank has caused many feet hitherto used only for pedestrian purposes to try their "hand" at ter^sichorean work, and the number of coming "champions of the world" who are following in his footsteps is, I hear phenomenal. Miss Pearl Lovell, as "Tommy," should popularise the Army, and always manages to get a chorus out of the audience, while the substantial Molly Bentley with "Good Old Buller " and iin^o items of the kind stirs up the appreciative sentiment of the crowd to her view of things patriotic With Tom Saunders, and the American Vitagranh as makeweights the crowd on Monday night dwindled away home with an evident determination to compare the show with the coming Rickards Company, for I noticed that the audiences on both nights were largely composed of the same people * * * Mr. Harry Rickards's Company of New Zealand, American, and Continental vaudeville artistes, was well heralded, and the herald who said it was a good show spoke truth. Standing out as a "gem. of purest ray serene, " in a tiara of much beauty , is the musical entertainment of the Jackson Family. The Jacksons number four — two ladies and two gentlemen — and they play instruments comnrising piano, banjo, flute, piccolo, mandolin, dulcimer drum, and cello. Very excellent were the "Scottish Selections," in which the Jackson ladies appeared in correct costume, and roused the audience to a pitch of enthusiasm with their splendid music. The whole "turn" is one of high finish, and great artistic merit. • -» - Derenda and Breen have a truly remarkable facility in dug juggling. Do not imagine this "turn" is club swinging under an exalted name. They juggle with clubs in pairs or fours until one does not know when one leaves off and the other begins. In one act, where each stands on a pedestal, with a distance of four yards between, the silverplated clubs look like a fast-flowing stream of moon-silvered w ater. The comic element is introduced by Derenda wiu, great cleverness, his "mistakes" hem~ the acme of the art of jugeling. It is quite impossible to follow the movements of the clubs while this clever pair is at work, nor is it possible to tell the shape of the familiar objects. * ♦ * Barney Fagan and Henrietta Byron put on a clever burletta they call "The Rehearsal," which is picturesque and pleasing. Barney uses a wealth of ancient and modern jokes, but the antiquit^ of most of them is hardly noticed

bo entertaining are his. methods. Henrietta is extremely noisy, and to be cleverly noisy is very high art indeed. Both sing and dance with great skill, and the fair Henrietta wears 1 many styli&h costumes in a very few minutes. It i& a. turn essentially full of life. * * * Mr. J. W. Winton, the ventriloquist with his dolls, of which the irrepressible McGinty is the most interesting, is a \ery clever young man from Yorkshire, or thereaway, and his proteges, black or white, Irish or Turk, have the Northern "burr." The gentleman with the electrical lighted nose, who makes a succession of rude remarks, is almost as funny as McGinty, but that Irish character easily takes first place as the irrepressible. -<• * * Miss Nora C'air-Glvnn, the sweet

The Kelly and v.slib\ Yaudewlle Company, at the Opcia House is a clever combination Some of these entei - tamers have been with us before but the show is so good general h that it will stand seeing several times The billiard-bounders, Kelly and Ashb> themselves, do everything but play billiards on their green baize gymnasium, and shed a succession of waistcoats that would easily start an ole clo" man on the road to prosperity The acrobatics are extremely clever, the continuous bouncing feat and somersault senes being the "daddy" of the performance. * • * The "Chinese Laundn " business of Morns and Wilson must not be taken as a sample of the thing that goes on in the Mongolian shops of Wellington. The "blanchems" do not iron to any extent, but they do everything m the acrobatic line that a launder would not have time for. When you see the grinning celestials stationary and bowing you feel glad that they are still alive to tell the tale, and able to operate if need be on your soiled collar. * * • Then, there is Cunning, the magician, who is the polished gentleman with the excessively correct English, and all the concomitants for making omelettes out of the atmosphere, or money by calhnp- it. He has been in Wellington before, but he has come back to angle some more half-crowns. It is so easy Don't play cards w ith Cunning. I believe he cheats At least, he does so on the stage. * * * Miss Dorothy and her picannmnies got laughter out of the audience with coon songs. The coons were effective llustrations." Beryl Gilmann is known fairly well, and sang in her usual sweet style. Mr Percy James also, as well known as the Post Office clock, "society entertained" with artistic effect. Seeing that the various acrobats had had a rest, they all got to work in a tailpiece called "Over the Garden Wall " which was wildly hilarious, and sent the audience away with a big opinion of the Kelly and Ashby Company. • • • The Wellington Orchestral Society o-ave one of its delightful concerts on Tuesday night in the Choral Hall The

Australian contralto, has an excellent voice and uses it nicely. Her enunciation js not distinct, but she was encored in each half of the nrogramme. Miss Jennie Opie, the handsome and statuesque, scored successfully in all her songs. Particularly pleasing was she in "We'd better bide a wee," and certainly Jier lllustrat' songs were clever, "Coon Ccon, Coon," especially so * * » The American Bioscope caused applause — the only whole-hearted applause X remember being accorded to a picture machine for eighteen months. A stag hunt, taking you from the "meet" to the "kill" in mid-nver, was exceptionally fine. A shadow that looked like a gigantic golf club, thrown across the screen, interfered with the song pictures.

building was hardh laige enough to H'<it the of music who thionged it, diid the efforts of the oichestra weae enthusiastically received That inspiriting overture, 'Mtriy Wives of \Vmdsoi" (Nicolai) was a treat in music, and the forty -seven players under the baton of Mr. Robert Parker are to be congratulated on its perfection. # • * Madame K\ elvn Carlton sang Gounod's "Mv Belo\ ed Spake" with "soul " but did not accept the invitation of the audience to again appear. Mr. A. H.

Hamerton played a 'oello obligato to this hue sqng. Schumann's Concerto in A minor (Op o4)was a very fine feature or a fine concert. * * * . Miss Dora Judson's ability as a pianlste and accompanist were demontrated very hilly. No items on the programme received so Teat an ovation as the charming numbers "The Morris Dance" "Shepherds' Dance," and "Torch Dance. They stand out as gems in the entertainment, as also does a tarantiUe tor clarionet and flute given during the second part of the programme. An excellent song was, "I Thought of mua y Madame Eveleen Carlton. Ihe Society is to be highly congratullated in having made this their second concert of the season, so eminent a success. * * # Miss Cane Davie has transferred her people and her nroperties from the Opera House to the Federal Hall, where she threatens to arouse the deepest feeling of our nature with a new and sensational drama to-morrow (Saturday). As the dramatic company is composed of 'vaudeville stars " the combination of sensation and humour should be a blend that will fill the theatre.