“MIXED GRILLS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 15

“MIXED GRILLS”

ST. JAMES’S BILL OF FARE SERVED WITH A FLOURISH “Mixed Grills,” good, meaty fare, attractive, appetising and sustaining, done to a turn, and served with a flourish. This is the week’s menu at St. James, hours eight until eleven, “Little Hermie” being chef or, perhaps, head waiter. Playing to a good house, George Ward's “Whirl of Mirth” Revue Company began another week of its popular season at Auckland’s “theatre perfectj” last evening and proved that it lias been keeping the best things fairly deep in the box. Strong in all departments, the company lias been happy, this week, in the selection of sketches, scenas, song and dance numbers, to make a satisfying whole. From where he gathers in a few pound notes for having the funniest lace in the show, “Little Hermie” (George Ward) keeps the crowd laughing. His silent prompting of Curiey Sherwood and Chas. L. Sherman in a tragic love scene* of the days of Victoria is good, and his portrayal of a ship-board misfortune, a triumph of realism, albeit a trifle too realistic. “Never Interfere” is probably the best piece. The efforts of a beneficent gentleman and his wife to help an old friend who has by misfortune end in a shocking double tragedy. In “Crystal Gazing,” Vernon Sellars, as the turbaned “Seer of the East,” sells the magic knowledge of the “Maid of the Orient” (Curley Sherwood) with great success, each of his clients giving up some garment, voluntarily or otherwise, as tribute for the demonstration. But Little Hermie breaks up the show with a triumphant reversal of the process. There are some effective song scenas. In something Chinese, Colleen Ward sings sweetly of “Shanghai Dream Girl” to a somnolent ballet, which suddenly comes to sprightly life, and Gus Dawson and Jean Keith trip out as a pair of agile Orientals, higli-step-plng and ecstatic. To the chant of Vernon Sellar’s pleasing baritone, the sad story of “Midnight Rose” is shown through a curtain, darkly. Patsy Hill leads the pleasing ballet out to dance and sing of “Mary Ann,” and she also tunes up in several other numbers. One of the best things of the evening is Glis Dawson’s “Scarecrow” song and dance effort. He puts life into a crucified man of rags and finishes in a waltz with the female of the species. “That’s My Weakness” is a good jazz number by Dell Barnes and Peggy Sharp. Crowned with shimmering silver wigs, Kathleen Ward and Jean Keith prove that two girls and a piano can give a most enjoyable quarter of an hour, the entertainment including a ballad about the “old home town.” and somethiner classic by Miss Ward. Frank Moran, who has. been showing his length in a number of sketches, sings “Invictus.” really “out of the night,” as a prelude to a parson sketch, of good parts. Whether it is jazzing through “Red Lips Blues.” or getting the slow melancholv out of one of the older lovesick ballads. the Charleston Symphonic Six proves it knows its music. A fine cornet solo by Frank W ilson, a* — inti icate melody on the saxophone by the expert Bede Lewis, Les Clements s patter on the piano keys, and Sid Clark’s dance with his fiddle, are some of the extras of the band's entertainment. The six do a very great deal toward the success of the show.