DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 800, 29 October 1915, Page 10

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

By Footlight. ¥andeville. THE vaudeville bill at His Majesty's this week is very musically inclined. Of the long list.of per-formers-who contribute to a bright and ■entertaining programme, each and ©very one of them has a' song of some sort to offer. Judging by the demand for encores, the audience doesn't seem to mind one bit. Even Balancing Stevens, with "his trained table) and chairs," has a ditty to sing by way of Introduction. This' performer has the audience in fits of laughter with his quiet humour. It is an artful trick by which he gives the impression that he is; improvising neat little verses appropriate to certain of those sitting in front. His balancing feats are simple, but none the less clever on that account. Pollard and Jackson carry off principal musical honours with their operatic solos and duets. Miss Eugenie Boland is a, contralto with a robust -.voice, which' she exercises in ballads such as "Angus - Macdonald," . "The Little Grey Home in the West," etc., to the manifest satisfaction of her auditors. The Musical Ibsons, _with their banjo, saxophone, flute trios, duets, etc., are rather better than the average instrumentalists that appear periodically,; and well deserve their share of the applause. Miss Louie Duggan, soprano, Leonard . Nelson, the .favourite of the "gods," and others aTe appearing on the same bill. * .•' * * * "When it Strikes Home." There, is a whole, novel.,, compressed* into this '"photo-play, which easily keeps the King's filled this week, Its incidents are strongly melodramatic, and the leading parts are sustained by , actors and actresses of undoubted ability. . No one will be disappointed who goes to see it. The story is that of a New York millionaire's son, who is tempted to a theatrical party, and then, in a spirit of drunken frolic, ■winds up the night's carouse by marrying a vaudeville star. This, too, although he is engaged to and in love with a girl in his own set. Money procures the annulment of the freak marriage at once, in spite of the bride's opposition, and the gilded youth is free to wed the girl of his choice.'" No child is born to the fashionable" pair, but in tune they, adopt an infant which is # left in the wife's charge during a rail journey. .■*.*. * «• . This youngster grows up into manhood, and the film-drama then occupies itself with his love story. A rival in love and in his profession of medicine, gets him blackballed from the swell medical club of New York by throwing discredit upon his parentage. In this crisis a nurse employed in his medical establishment confesses that she is his mothei and the discarded first wife of his adopted father, -who is now a widower and also his real father. The vaudeville star, under the test of trial and adversity, had proved to. be real gold— not dross-—and the story ends in the inevitable reunion.' The supporting, films ' are various and all "> good. On Monday

next another" thriller is promised. Its title, "The Escape," sounds decidedly fetching. , \ ***■■* Musical Comedy.

With "High Jinks" the Williamson English Musical Comedy Company carried on its season at the Grand Opera House this week, and when this reaches print, their medium of frivolity, "The Girl in the Film," is endings the successful run. The Williamson firm has given us better all-round value than usual in. this company, where nearly all the principals- can claim to be well .in the forefront in their own cla'ss of business. Not at all hampered by exigencies of plot, they gave us of their best in vocalism, dancing and patter. "High Jinks'' set a fine standard in .mounting and stage, grouping. A shapelier lot of "supers" it. would be hard to collect. One was often led away from attention to the current item to watch the; graceful evolutions of the chorus, and it was very noticeable that there were never any vacant chairs in the front row of , the. stalls. Miss Minnie Hooper, who arranged the dances, ancT Mr. Fred Young, the stage manager, deserve compliments, which are herewith awarded! in full measure. * * * * The Wellington Orchestral Society's eighth concert of the season takes place at His Majesty's Theatre on Sunday night next. A specially attractive programme has been prepared, including such gems as "Finlandia," by a triumphal march by Greig, and that pretty haunting melody "Loin du Bal" ("Far from the! Ball"). * *.*■#".. The, Elton Black Revue Company will' be the- piece de resistance at His Ma--jesty's next week. At present they are appearing with marked success down: •"south. Their first production will be "Catch On," and included in the company are Elton Black, who will appear as principal comedian in the role of Pib-^ . bley Posh, Harry and - Quealey,; Kate Howard, and Pearl Livingstone, comediennes, Peter Brooks, tenor, Clif-, ford O'Keefe and Billy Moloney, and ; last, but not least, the Keystone Com-, edy Quartette and the Flapper Brigade.'