DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 194, 19 March 1904, Page 14

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

By Footlight.

THE Holloway Dramatic Company are helping us through the Lenten season very comfortably. They are reconciling the public to paucity of war news and no more test cricket matches. And on their part they are doing their level best to satisfy the aching void for sensation. "The Two Little Vagabonds" kept right in the public eye for an entire week, causing much shedding of feminine tears and sending out great droves of men between the acts to see that perennial dog. There was good business the whole time so that money isn't anything like so tight as the bill collector or the muffin merchant, or the undertaker might lead you to imagine. » * * On Monday night, "Why Woman Sins" went up on the boards. It is crammed full of crime and vivid sensation. And yet some people are not satisfied. One wild-eyed man walked out of the dress circle after the second act with a yearning expression spread over bis features. The usher thought he had lost something and asked him what was up. "It's this here .play, he said ; "you call it 'Why Woman Sins.' Well, I've waited two solid acts and they haven't started to sin yet.* . However, the man is a glutton for sin and sensation whom this play won t load right up to the gunwales. The very willing villain is a captain in the Navy, who is determined by hook or by crook to marry the woman beloved by ai brother lieutenant. He is for ever on their tracks, and forgery, murder, drugrcnng, abduction, and burying them alive in dungeon cells are some of the exploits in which he indulges at their expense. Great praise is due the management for the very elaborate and realistic manner in which the play is mounted. And the acting is quite worthy of the expense that has been gone to in the mounting. * ♦ * Miss Beatrice Holloway is almost too girlish for the part of the much-tried heroine. But her ability is undeniable. Her impersonation is a clever study, and is carried out with, fine natural feeling. Mr. Vivian Edwards plays up to her with admirable spirit in the part of the hero and lover, Lieut. Harry Maxwell, R.N., and scores points right along the line. » * ♦ Mr. Charles Holloway made his first appearance this season, and gave a first-class character portrait in the role of a plausible old ne'er-do-well called Jim Rainbird, the willing agent of most of Capt. Carlton's villainy. In make-up, speech, and action, it was drawn straight from life, and won a good deal of the applause that was going. Mr. Stanford deserves a warm pat on the back for his Capt. Carlton. It is cleverly done.

An old favourite also appeared in the person of Miss Alice Peorwyn (Mrs. Chas. Holloway), who is just as petite, as sprightly, and as versatile as ever she was. In the part of Nancy Nibble, a gay young 'Arriet, who has a soldier, a sailor, and a bobby continually ponpine the question to her and cant make up her mind which to take, she makes a very decided "hit." So does Mr J P. O'Neil as the aforesaid policeman, and the fun grows fast and furious tthen he is on the job. * » ♦ Sam Spavens, the military gent, who wins 'Arriet after all, receives tull justice, from Mr. Frank Hawthorne, and he brings down the house every time with his assurance that the fellow who holds the wool for his best girl before marriage is generally held by his own wool after marriage. Miss Trby Marshall as a music-hall artist, Mir G. Ca^s as her good-natured hubby and Miss Ida Gresham as Ida V alette, the adventuress, all appeared to advantage. * * * "The Shaughraun" is to go up tonight (Thursday), in honour of St Pats Day, with J. P. O'Neill in his great part as Conn. # # Fuller's Entertainers frolicked to a large newly-painted house on Saturday and subsequently. The pure-white dress circle looked at the new drop, the enlarged stage, and the neat body ot {he theatre, and had a good time it smiles count. The smell of the new paint will wear off, of course, and the gleaming white, which is the prevailing tint in the altered and newly-decorated house will tone down with the aid ot successive sitters. Fuller's are maintaining their old reputation. Ine management desires patrons to report to it any offensive performance or remark, in order to keep the entertainment wholesome. If some of the artists would delete a little of the wealth ot anatomical allusions and suggestive happening, it may be that the white dress circle would be still further used. * ♦ * Fred Bluett, always a cheery soul, is the prevaiing star of the Fuller firmament, and in his many-costumed songs md sketches suits the palate of his hearers. Fred is capable of extracting a large laugh from the severest person. Miss Ida Berridge, a slim little creature in scarlet and gilt, used her smile and voice with witching effect. Her little roundelay, in which she advises youths whose love affairs are progressing slowly to "Try, Try Again, amused people vastly. Miss Clare, the substantial blonde lady, m the old gold princesse gown, is responsible for selected songs and a dashing dance. * * * The tunefully-voiced Walter Melrose pathetically rendered "So Runs the World Away," and other touching things, and the Drisooll boys did some of their hilarious song and dance items. Rather ai clever fellow is Dick Davis whose imitations of various people and things are good. The Bertoto children, wee mites with black hair, pine their little lays with an excellent notion of how the thing should be done, and Mr. Tom Robins, with the bass voice, explores the lower register in search of sounds. The whole is brightened up by the piano contributions of Mr. Arthur Albinson, and concludes with the screamer, "The Lawyer's Clerk." * • • Wirths' Circus tent hasn't been blown down yet, and Wirth Bros, are beginning ibo think that the windy city isn't sucli a bad show town after all. The blare of the brass band has attracted big crowds to see the Paeel muscles and the Howard marvels. The "Times" tells the people of the thrilling

quality of Pagel's wrestle with a "male" lion. They will doubtless be glad to hear that the animal he carries up the ladder is a female mare. There isn't any doubt about Pagel's strength. If he went in for a vigorous course of training, he'd possibly knock out anything in the muscle line up to date. • ♦ ♦ Mr. Phil Wirth's horse, Major, is worth going to see. This educated equine is an M.A. of the University of Gee Gee (U.S.A.). The big entire horse, Maximis, and his little playmate Minimis, are late attractions. The Pedro Brothers, new comers, do a smart acrobatic act, and the siz-horse picture act given by Miss Edith Cook, is the sweetest thing in equestrianism seen for quite a while. Then, of course, the redoubtable M. Rogalle, wild-animal trainer, is a hero to the boys who watch him harnt^ up his tigers. Although the Wirth. tent is the largest yet seen in New Zealand, its accommodation has been somet'mes insufficient for the great crowds of people who have been anxious to enter it. * ♦ » The San Francisco "Dramatic Review" describes Patti's voice as worn out and departed, and the tour as a fiasco. When she is "sufficiently decayed," as they say m "The Mikado," she will tour the colonies. A phenomenal vocalist — from America, of course — has just turned up in London. Miss. Edith Helena, it is said, sings easily F sharp in altissimo, the highest note a woman has ever sung. Miss Helena sings compositions embellished with wonderful trills and cadenzas an octave higher than they are scored. In "The Last Rose of Summer," for example, the singer introduces a cadenza with a sustained F above the high C. Cyril Tyler, heard here some seven years ago as a boy soprano, has developed a fine tenor voice, and is at present singing in the big American vaudeville houses with great success. _ Tyler's voice has developed into a beautiful and perfect tenor of big range. • • ♦ Thus the Sydney "Newsletter"- — '■The Napoleon of Australia and the Wellington of New Zealand had a long chat during the week re the touring of vaudeville stars in New Zealand. It was decided, bearing the fact in mind that one well-known and enterprising New Zealand manager had buraed his fingers very severely with the importation of big stars, that for the present New Zealand was not ripe for such catering. The New Zealand Wellington confesses to a great admiration for the spirited policy of the Napoleon of Australia." * * * "Hiawatha" is the latest London song-craze. It has been introduced into "A Country Girl."