Dramatic and Musical

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 201, 7 May 1904, Page 16

Dramatic and Musical

" Tr Countiy Gill" is enabling Mr. i\ J. C. Williamson to break all comic opeia recoids in Wellington. Ju:>t fancy, a stiaight-out lun of ten nights and a matinee foi a single piece m t<he Hknpiie City. Did you ever hear the like of it ° The truth is that this "Country Gnl" grows on you, and has such a fascinating way with her that one visit inevitably lead.s to anotiher, and you aie loth t-o say ' Goodbye." This is not mere empty platitude or flapdoodle-. I have noticed the same people going again and again, and maaiv of them confess they have enjoyed the second visitt better than the first. » * * Miss Florence. Young, of course, carries off the vocal hooiouis. Her voice is delightfully frebh, full, and sweet, and she has managed somehow to steer clear of the prevailing influenza. Mr. Haigh Jackson has 1 improved the most. The coM which handicapped him at the opening of the sea&on has worked off, and he 1 has been, able to use his fine baritone organ to great advantage. In every number he scores his points with ease and confidence. Miss Celia Ghiloni continues to* win hearty plaudits and flattering encores with her charming song, "Under the Deodars." * • » The funny business is fanly cut up between Geo. Lauri amd Claude Bantook. Lauri makes a lot of his business for himself, and the broad and frolicsome humour of it lifts the audience right off their feet. Bantock scores more heavily in the music, and his "Rajah of Bhong" wins its double encore with the regularity of clockwork. Miss Evelyn Scott is highly successful as Nan, the rather hoydenish rustic belle, and Miss Maude Chetwynd's Madam Sophie, the little dressmaker who gets among "the upper ten," is a capital impeirsonation. Mr. Maurice Dudley puts a lot of very effective work into his Granfer Mummery arid Mr. Arthur Hunter is decidedly good as Sir Joseph Verity. • • • The scenary is very fine indeed. In the first set a Devonshire landscape, wonderfully bright, alluring, and picturesque. The ball-room scene in the second set is quite brilliant, and, with the striking and tasteful costumes of the Directoirie period and the graceful dances, for which it forms an appropriate setting, makes a spectacle that feasts the eye. M. Leon Caron has a strong and capable orchestra under his

baton. There is to be a matinee ionionioff (Satuiday) foi the special behoof ot country visitor and the littl^ folks, and at iiight the Countiy Gin" v ill make her final appeal since. She is to be succeeded oai Monday ni^ht by "My Lady Molly," which is the loiiiit work of Mr. R. Jessop and Mr. Sidney Jones. It is said to be comic open a, while A Country Girl" is described as a musical play. "It is no exaggeration to say of it," lemarksthe Dunedin "Times," that f1 om start to hiush but especially so in the second act it is one beautiful glow of harmonious oolounnsr, and full of animation wit, and humour, and pretty conceit with) all the added wealth that the n-ost tuneful and melodious of music m lyric chorus and orchestration cam bestow- «My Lady Molly" gains not a little of its picturesqueness from the middle eighteenth century period, to which the spectator is carried back. • • • Messirs Cooper and Macdarmott, by special request have consented to give a popular matinee to-morrow (Saturday) afternoon, of their fine biograph The Russo-Japanese war will be again to the fore, and the ventriloquist will put Ins fieures through their happiest performances'. Under WaJtei's management, Fuller's tntei tamers are nightly pumping fun and Jollity mto crowds of citizens, who iem to like the treatment amazingly Arthui Albmson's "Boomerang March Jvertuie staits the show at a lively pace, and if you haven't dislocated your aw over Will Watkins comedy sketch, ''Ire You Insured," the -Wjj sends you home with the conviction that you haven't got a liver, and that the laudi cure is the best thine out. Miss Addie Wright pirouettes very P'rettiW and her serio-comic song You Must Have a Girl," strikes a responsive chord in every male heart, if one may 3™g e by the applause. Miss Daisy Chaid also fetches them with hei serio-oomicß, and breaks them up mto small pieces with her whistling specialties. Teddy Kalman in his ludicrous nagger ng-out, warbles after the stage-negro fashion, "Put My Umfciella Up," and James Williams gets down to the bed of the ocean very tunefully with his song "Asleep in the Eeer, " wfcdle Miss Kate Mailer's fine voice lings sweetly in her sentimental ballads. # » The Lentons axe a whole team in themselves, and the dog under the waggon as well. Kitty is a dainty sonbrette, who submits smilingly to double and triple encores every night. Her "Melinda" is in the height of fashion iust now. Frank and Ronnie, of the same family, combine a very skilful acrobatic display with any amount of fun, and their "turn" is the best on a very varied programme. Will Watkins, however, still holds the champion belt of comicality. and his plantation _ duet, along with Kate Maher. "Dip me in the Golden Sea," is a dead "hit" every time. The Stagpooles are also still on the iob. Other attractions are on the way Amongst them Victor, the illusionist, ,loe Rocks comedian: Will Dyson, Fiorne Swift and Connie Denton.