HIS MAJESTY’S

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 58, 31 May 1927, Page 15

HIS MAJESTY’S

“PADDY, THE NEXT BEST THING” When Miss Nellie Bramley decided which piece she would present to Auckland audiences on her reappearance, after an absence of some years, she made a wise and popular choice in “Paddy, the Next Best Thing.” None of her plays gives her a better opportunity for displaying her talent, and the audience is inclined to agree that Miss Bramley is the best thing. In this play she makes a great deal of her opportunities and keeps the audience in a continual simper. Most of the play is on the lighter side, but there are a few dramatic situations where furtive handkerchiefs are common among the audience. Paddy, the apple of her father’s eye, and a broth of a girl as well as an absolute tomboy, should have been a boy. At least her father wanted her as one, but he was inclined to think that he could not have bettered her. She made up for any disappointment, and in doing so delighted her audience last evening. Obviously she enjoyed the show as much as . her audience. The play commenced with a series of complicated love affairs, followed with the father’s death, then saw Paddy and her sister in the city, Paddy being quite out of her element, and finally per medium of a very entertaining railway journey saw the family re-united at the old home. Paddy was serious for one of the few times in her life. There is a good supporting company. Mr. Robert Adair, as the general, and Paddy’s father, presents his character very well indeed, and among tli€* others are Mr. George Hewlett, as the English lover, who first thought Paddy the last thing, but had occasion to decide she was the best; Miss Mabel Gower, as a set-off to Miss Bramley’s tom-boyish-ness and one of the complications in the piece; Mr. William Raymond as the family retainer, and Mr. J. Galway as the jealous lover of Paddy’s sister (Miss Millie Carlton). This piece will run until Friday night, and on Saturday the company will produce “Fair and Warmer,” following which they will continue with “A Little Bit of Bluff,” “Peg of My Heart,” and “Camille,” which is quite an attractive programme.