Pollard's Opera Company

Bush Advocate, Volume XIV, Issue 157, 30 September 1902, Page 2

Pollard's Opera Company

" THE MESSENGER BOY." "The Messenger Boy," fresh from his Southern triumphs, will be introduced to our notice for the first time to-morrow evening, and it is safe to predict that long bofore the curtain rises standing roam only will be the ogior, »« the fame of the ' Boy 'has 1ob«j reached us, and numbers an anxious to. make his acquaintance and account for his marvellous success elsewhere. There must be something good in a musical comedy that can run for 16 performances in Wellington to excellent busiaess, for on a population basis it would be equal to something like 1100 nights in Lon« don. The music of " The Messenger Boy," which is by Ivan C»ryll and Lionel Monckton, is of a bright and catchy nature throughout and full of swing, and the concerted pieces are admirable. The lyrics are, clover ; but what makes the comedy go is that it is genuinely funny and full of comic dialogue and situations of hilarious absurdity, all framed in tho most appropriate of settings, There aie no less than 18 distinct characters in " The Messenger Boy." Although the characters of Tommy Bang (Mr "W. S. Percy), Mrs Bang (Miss Alice Etlsjar), Captain Pott (Mr H. Quealy), Ross: (Miss Gertie Campion), and Nora (Mis Connie But - tel), stand out more prominently than others, it is as much the evenness and excellent manner in which the less important parts are filled that accounts for the success of the " Boy," everything going with a swing from the rise to the full of the cut tain.