DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 131, 3 January 1903, Page 7

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

By Footlight.

DLX'S "Dick Whittington and His Cat" is a success. The pantomime that is filling the Theatre Royal to the curtain in the dress circle, and to the wails everywhere else, faintly resembles old friend Dick of our infancy. The good old panto., however, is rejuvenated, polished up, locahsed, and made a thing of mirth and merriment surpassing the mirth of any other thing of it® kind Welkneton has chuckled over. Th© wealth of local allusions, as the plot thick ans, and Dick is getting milestones nearer to the mayoral ermine, ticklec the vast crowd of holiday makers in the exact spot intended, the spectacles are gorgeous, and the vaudeville items qu.te up to the "Royal reputation. t # Mies Sadie Casino is a convincing "Dick," of fine proportions, and whether she is applying for a job, or resting on a moßßy canvas bank, waiting for the bells to tell him to go and be made Lord Mayor, she is a success. Her eat "Lottie Casino," is a large feline, with a waxed moustache, a«d a coat' of very pronounced "tabby" design, and it makes one feel half a century younger to hear the hilarious, childish laughter reverberate through the atmosphere as he "deals it out" to the enemies or Dick. # One of the finest parts in the pantomime is that of "Idle Jack," and I rank Clark makes a brilliant success of it. 1 believe that Frank would never look his fellow-man in the eye if he made a hash of his "business " and, havinp watched him weekly for many moons, I can say ho ever improves on his old form. Ine bold bad King Rat (Mr. Ernest Fitte) fills his grey skin in. every crevice. Mr. Fitts enjoys himself thoroughly, and his voice which he has) occasion to use frequently, is heard to great advantage. \* Emperor of Morocco Ernest is fierce enough to supply nightmare in large doses to naughty little boys who have eaten too much nuddme. » * * Delightfully winning is Olive Lent on, Dick's girl. Olive gets a chance to dance and sing and act, and in all three ehe scoreß. Other humorousi and oathetac pairts v. hich enhance th© hilarity and add to the success', are taken by people you know well and favourably. Go and see them. The 'Statue" ballet is a tJung of beauty, and the pioces or living marble who perform the difficult evolutions, under the cold glare of the limelight, may be congratulated on tine success of a distinct ly novel feature of a. novel show The little Smith girls, for whom the fortunes of Dick wait while they dance and sing, are uncommonly clever dancers, and dance they did to the order of the audience until the breathless youngsters smilingly quitted for w ant oi wind. Steve Adson, as 'the Mighty Sand-ho," was revealed on a pedestal made from a cement barrel, and his muscles were marvellous — also his feats. He toyed with a bar-bell weighing 20001bs, and v4ien he had toyed sufficiently a wee mite of eight, summers carried it off. He caricatured the mannerisms of the much muscled one with extraordinary faithfulness, tripping aibout v.'it.h the exaggerated agility shown bv the great one. The 'Tetone Cake Walk," and the harlequinade, were up-to-date specimens of these particular brands of amusements If you are not too old, and too crabbed to "laugh, go along and cram into the Royal. You will feel glad you went. * * * Mr. George Dean is providing some excellent holiday fare for the patrons of the Choral Hall. The 'Brook" has been running for the benefit of as many people as can get into the house nightly and they have supolied the ripple cf laughter, a ripple that frequently sw ells to a mountain torrent of ecstatic hilarity. Like its namesake, the "Brook does not wait. It rolls on through song and story, dan.cc and diversion, naivete and narrative and is a novel form of entertainment. I doubt me much if Mr. Dean could have fathered a better idea. The "Brook" produces bubbles of merriment and loosens stony hearts. ♦ * * The Der.n Compam is composed of people whose long experiences of their especial lines of business has not made them "stale." There is a crispness

about the songs, a 'catchy" quality about the music a briskness in the mo\ements, and a general all round joyousaiess tkat makes one think of Christmas puddings, mistletoe, and nice girls. Then, too, the company can doff the mantle 1 of gaietj , and pour forth itsi soul in sacred song, <is was evidenced by the very excellent sacred concert it gave on Christmas night. Of course, it had Mr. John Fuller to help it along:, and the siiver-temior is worth hearing even it there is not a, long list of other talented people to send you home feeling good. The festive season lias not done the Ohoiai Hall Company any harm, and it has done its patrons good. The company is there still, and has not yet got to the end of its holiday programme. The William Anderson Dramatic Compaory lias been pulling the heartstrings of big crowds of patrons at the Opera. House, with that "perfectly lovely" melodrama, The Night Birds of London." You are not left long in doubt as to what it. is all about' for murder starts bright and early, a dear old man with money gets stabbed before you aire half -way through, a gas expiosion gets 1 rid of a villain or so, one of the said villains, being previously percnamentlv blinded bv a mad wife per medium of vitriol. * * * It preaches a sermon does this melodrama. It tells you that if Eric Joyce (Mr. Harry Phmmer), the hero, had not started in to among a set of atrocious villains, at the Night Birds' Club hadn't taken to drink, hadn't hit, and apparently killed, a> man who was, in lealitv killed bv a, blow from an up-to-date Bill Sykes, he would not have waded through four acts of hard luck, tattered pants, failing snow, and all the 1 good old melodramatic trouble that so besets the pure in. heart on the boards. * ♦ • There are about half-a-dozen villains who want to get the fortune that Eric's father would leave him if he had been good. Of course, when he does not murder a man, the said father. Colonel Joyce- (Mr. Walter Dalgliesh), disinherits him, and he becomes an outcast, and gets mud on his trousers. Also, he leaves his wife and child. The villains 1 , the arch one of whom is a smoothtongued nephew do all sorts of devilish things, the nephew murdering the old man in an exceedingly natural manner. This is one of the most realistic tableaux in the whole show and Mr H W. Driver shows genius' in it He has remarkable facial control, and makes a ver*' excellent hand with a knife * -* * Meanwhile Eric's wife wanders in the snow, her footsteps doeged by a formei husband, who was ''killed" before the play started in a railway accident. He is a forger, a bigamist and a burelaa and when his first wife gets out of the asylum, and fixes him up with vitriol everybody feels glad. Mr. C E. Stanford as this ■particular villain Runert Lee, is a cool, designing scoundrel, without a peer among his fellows, and he makes one feel that murder is better siport than horseracing, and collarincthe Colonel's jewels, in a silk hat, and with an extraordinary amount of row T is ,1 better line than attending church service. * * The son of Eric Joyce stands in the wa\ of that villainous nephew, and the said villain having had the child removed by a. perfectly beautiful type of low ruffian, Bill Vospers (Mr George Chalmers), he arranges a nice little suffocation for him with gas Mr. George Vosper gives a most faathful re>presentation of a low Cockney scoundrel of the deepest dye, his actions, speech, and appearance being excellent. Then, his co-mate and fellow-villain, Sam Jacobs a sort of Fagnn, of the Jewish persuasion, is one of the most crawlsome of his class and Mr. Edward Du^ean makes the character live » • ♦ Mr. Frank Hawthorne, as Bertae Ferrars. a distant relative to a peer, who marries a singing girl, wears an eyeglass, sells baked potatoes, plays a banjo, and ''comes down" as aristocrats are allowed to do in melodrama. Of course, Bertie is hard on the track of the vxUauris and ultimately when the gas blows up and a police lnspectoi comes along from nowhere to see about it, is instrumental m giving Eric back his wife, his son amd his birthright. Eric is played very stronely by Mr Harry Phmmer Especially is he good when a wanderer and outcast he unknown by his wife begs a rose' from her. The wife having been separated fiom him for some mpnths, of course, does not know him Heroines are so stupid. Mass Helene Burdette>, as chief female villain takes first honours among the ladies. She is after the money, of course I expect she dies of a broken heart at Monte Carlo. They generally do. The company is not a one man show, or even a six-man show The evenness of excellence of the people is

only equalled by the excellence of their material. The staging is very effective, and the cabs, fire engines, motor oars, and other properties don't get in the way, or break holes in the scenery. Following "The Night Birds," some of the most dramatic plays recently brought to the colony will harrow your feelings deliciously. If you want your feelings starred, you ought to see them. # * Sandow and Pagel have not exactly a monopoly of strength. There is a young girl appearing in London just at pre Iseiut, named Katie Roberts, who is billed as Vuloana, and does Siome exceptionally difficult hftino- feats, among which are toying 1 with a 1201b bar-bell, and holding ai big man out at. arm's leno^h. Vuloana is thei daughter of a clergyman, and has had adventures. A pick-pocket tried to "work" the inoffensive-looking girl's pockets once. She gripped' him, and shook him like a rat, recovered her purse, and handed him over to two policemen ouie of whom he nearly killed, and the other of whom he disabled. The girl chased the escapee and herself dragged him to the watch-house. Vuloana is single. She will get a wellbehaved husband I should imagine. ( Continued on page 23. )

Madame Sara Bernhaidt, the gieat "French" tragedienne, is not French. She> was boa-n in Hamburg. » * ♦ Miss Fenii, the devoted maid of Madame Melba, who has tiavelled with the diva all over the world, died recently at Woodend (Victoria). Madaine was prevented by engagements from being piesent at the fun era]. • • * Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Drew, who charmed Wellington recently with "When Two Hearts are' Won," have played the excellent comedietta over two thousand times, and all ovei the English-speaking world. • * * Australian critics freely say that the advent of Melba has been the greatest advertisement Dolores ever had. Not until the great Australian public had heard the diva did they fully appreciate the* beauties of the French singer's" voice. Cinouevalli, before his rumoured retirement, is going to juggle "out West" for ai but. He has a company of his own, with which he is doing Coolgardie and other W T estern places that are not so cool as they appear to be in cold print. Amy Castles will have to look out for her laurels. Dolly, a sister of "the" Castles, threatens to outrival her. She goes to England with the gifted firstnamed, and, after igniting the Thames, will endeavour to induce spontaneous combustion of the Yarra. • » • Madame L~dia, Titus and her husband, Piano Professor Titus, are in New York. The last-named spectacled and aristocratic musician is said to have developed very pronounced embonpoint. He used to be ai champion cycle snrinter once. He takes a brougham for exercise now-ardays. • • • Bland Holt is showing the "Breaking of the Drought" at Sydney Lyceum. One feature is a real downpour, during which a crowd of gaunt youmgsteis m "gunny bags" disport in the rain, for the supposed first time in their life. Horses frisk across the stlage, and bullocks, with "mad-tails," cavort in an excess of ■ecstaey. The sleelpless Bland ' » * • Allan Shaw, who was to have come along with the World's Entertainers durine their good show here, could not. He was too ill. Now, he is better, and is still the "Coon King." The World's Entertainers have been pitched for a long time at Durban, South Africa, and the Natal capital outrivals most things in the way of show towns on the Empire ma PMr. Chas. Sweet, the musacal burglar, round here with the World's 1 Entertainers, lost a finger on a New Zealand railway. Now he has lost his life. He was reported dead. Then, he w r as heard of as being in China. lam not sure that' he has been dead since, but the latest is that he is thriving in the life he leads, and is "banginr the dominoes" for the same World's Entertainers in Durban A p,iea,t novelty has lately been mtioduced into America in the shane of Fiatelli Riccoboro's wonderful "Goodnight Horse " The animal comes on the stage in a full-dress suit, and proceeds to disrobe, pulling off his boots, removing h.s coat, trousers shirt, collar, and cuffs and then go-n<r to a big brass bedstead, turns down the cover, blows out the candle and gets mtobed. Tins act has created a great sensation throughout Europe and America. • * * Mi. Denis O'Sulhvan is an liishman who has been playing The Shaughlaun" in San Fiancisco. He also according to paoers thereaway plajed the "giddy ox" by burlesquing an In&h wake." Denis reckoned without his Irish audience and an uproar ensued that might have been bad for Denis but foi the police 'Tis said that four Irish girls, of the well-known big, sthrong lump of an agricultural Irish lass" gave a "thrap" a bad qu. liter of an hour with hatpins) when he tried to quell them.