“SPARE MOMENTS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 514, 17 November 1928, Page 15

“SPARE MOMENTS”

“LITTLE HERMIE” AGAIN FRIVOLITY AT FULLERS In “Spare Moments,” which certainly fills in. a spare evening most pleasantly, the Whirl of Mirth Revue Company gives a racy show of frivolity and music. “Little Hermie” Ward (or Shultz) has, after a long absence from Auckland, won back all his old friends and gathered a host of new one’s. A comedian of original ways, he knows the mode of direct approach to an a.udience and the result is . that his scenes bring bursts of applause. He is backed up by a talented company of entertainers, including Vernon Sellars and Colleen Hope, the voices of the company, Charles Sherman, Curley Sherwood, Patsy Hill, Frank Moran, Gus Dawson, Jean Keith, Kathleen Ward and the “Girls,” and the Symphony Six. “Spare Moments” is billed as a “choice collection of titbits” and collectively they make a fair enough feast of fun, melody and dancing. Presentable Vernon Sellars puts the crankinghandle to the show with a prologue, “The Showman,” and the whole company makes a good “opening impression” with “Some Show.” “Down By the Old Oak Tree” iff a comedy number introducing “Little Hermie” for the first time to three sober songsters. George Ward proves his versatility in four or five sketches, appearing as a policeman in “Life, as “the husband” in a ludicrous ‘ One Word Drama,” a general in “Shoulder Arms, and as a digger. All of these potted plays go with a click, the best being “Yvonne,” in which George Ward, A 1 Maurice, Frank Moran, Colleen Hope and Chas. L.. Sherman stage a scene outside the “Chat Noir” estaminet, when life and beer are very uncertain things. “Little Hermie descends into pathos effectively at times. “The Spy” is a thrilling war drama with “Little Hermie” as a pyjamaeoated Brigadier and a hasty way of disposing of people who traffic with the P enemy. In “The Servant Problem. Curlev Sherwood, Patsy Hill and Colleen Hope stage an amusing tale ot d °De e il l ßarnes and Peggy Sharpe^mg are by Alme Valdor and the girls, “An Old-time bong by Vernon Sellars, “My Girl’s Mother” by Gus Da'.vson and girls, and The Toy ln oms'Dawson and Jean Keith dance a “Waltz Parisienne” effectively, and also step through a minuet to the music ° ! The lt Chlrle^tSn a 'symphonic Six_ are P— pl I Sr^e rS la?ist tl mel C o°dies S 'perfect time and provide several solos of merit.