POLLARD OPERA COMPANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 6, 9 January 1899, Page 5

POLLARD OPERA COMPANY.

'Djin-Djin' was repeated on Saturday night for the last time to a crowded house and was as usual received with hearty applause, and almost incessant laughter It will be many a day before such a gorgeous spectacle is seen upon a local stage. 'THE FRENCH MAID' TO-NIGHT. Theatre-goers have been indebted to Mr Pollard's energy in the past for many excellent performances and up-to-date novelties. It speaks volumes as to his opinion of New Zealanders as play-goers when we find expensive attractions that are still in the zenith of their fame in the Old Country brought to our doors, and mounted and dressed on the same scale of completeness and magnificence as in the large Australian cities. His latest novelty is the world-famed musical comedy 'The French Maid,' which will be presented to-night for the firsttime in Auckland. This piece is universally regarded as being the best' constructed and most melodious of all latter day musical comedies. It has a well defined plot, and is a cleverly arranged mixture of the best points of comic opera, burlesque and farce, welded into a harmonious whole and backed up by charming scenery and gorgeous drespes. The piece is/in two acts. The first takes place in the courtyard of the Hotel Anglais, Boulogne, and the second in the gardens of the Casino, Boulogne. It is in this act where several of the most amusing sifuations in the piece are worked out. The cast is a long one, and includes the full strength of the company. Miss Gertie Campion will be seen in the name part, n pert femme de cbambre, whose pronencss to flirtation and making of wholesale appointments with gentlemen, is the cause of all the trouble. The Misses Maud and May Beattv have important parts, and Mr Percy is said to be hnnnily cast as the British admiral. Sir Hercules Hawser. Mr Fitts has a eondenial character as Lieut. Harry Fife, for which part there are several charming musical numbers. Mr Alf. Stephens will be seen as Jack' Brown, a rollicking British sailor, while Harry Ouealv has the part of the piece in the English waiter Charley Brown. The piece was purchased from Messrs Williamson and Musgrove in its entirety, so that scenery, wardrobe and effects used to-nitrht are exae+ly the same as used in the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, and Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney.