DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 818, 3 March 1916, Page 10

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

By Footiight.

Vaudeville. THIS week's bill at His Majesty's is freshened by the addition of some , new English turns-, two or three of them of more than average merit. Numbered amongst the newcomers is Hilda Felstad, who entertains her audience a la Marguerite Cooper. She possesses a contralto voice rich and musical in quality, has a charming and unassuming manner and a good stock of jokes, and can also tickle the words in entertaining fashion. Belle and Betty also well deserve their share of the applause for their clever and original dance item. They are much above the ordinary run and their dressing and quick and novel changes in full view of the audience catch the fancy of the fair sex in front particularly. Fred Maguire, a light baritone, sings "Sergeant of the Line" and other ditties acceptably enough. Miss Lydia Carne, who imitates other artists, scores with her impersonation of Daisy Jerome singing "Pull for the Shore." Several artists also make welcome reappearances. Miss Alice Pierce, the clever English impressionist, with a gift for tense acting, is seen in such variable impressions as those of Miss Evie Green, Sir Herbert Tree, and Miss Ethel Levy, the American ragtime queen. The audience, however, prefers her in a little sketch in which she impersonates an Italian woman in a murder trial scene. The Neapolitans are a pair of delightful song-birds who warble alternately duets and solos. Best of all, their items are not of the hackneyed order. Paris Green" tickles _ the audience with his smart American patter, and Les Legartes and Laveen and Cross repeat their clever acrobatic stunts. Last but not least, judging by the applause, are Brown and Sorlie, who entertain as did Pope and Sayles a dozen years or so ago. Some important changes are announced for next week. » « ' » « Hilda Felgtad, the talented musical entertainer appearing at His Majesty's this week, makes a good hit at the expense of two bald-headed members of the orchestra, whose shining top-pieces are quite a landmark at His Majesty's . and also at the old Theatre Royal before that. Miss Felstad observes : "All good musicians, you know, have lovely hair,", and with that she looks down upon Conductor Frank Crowther (at the piano) and cornettist Len King (on his right), both of whom are very thin on the thatch. Of course, the audience enjoys the joke hugely. * *. # *• The Pantomime Season. "Old Mother Hubbard," the second production in the Stanley Mackay Co.'s repertoire, put in her appearance along with Ponto, her dog, at the Grand Opera House last- -Saturday evening. She is a very entertaining old dame, and with a refreshingly good supply of jokes to crack, has- had no difficulty in keeping Grand Opera House audiences in a particularly blithe humour. The singing of Mr. Will Rayner is again a feature of the performance, and his rendering of "The Deathless Army" and "Mother of Men" is alone worth the money. •» « •» «■ "Peter Pan" is revived every Christmas in New York, as in England. Maud Adams, who created the role of Peter in Barrie's delightful fairy tale,reappeared in the production last Christmas, and so reat was the desire to see the play once again, despite i£s annual repetition, that eleven performances had to be given in the one week. If such a success in New York, why not in Australia and New Zealand? It would be far preferable to the alleged pantomime that we are treated to each year. This last revival of "Peter Pan" in New York was its tenth anniversary. "The best of Peter's continued success is that when the phantasy was first produced in New York in 1905 the American press critics reviewed it in condescending fashion, one going so far as to say that it was a pity to see Miss Adams wasting her talent on such drivel 1 * * *• * When Gaby Deslys arrived in New York a few weeks ago her luggage coiirsisted of forty-seven trunks, packed to the lids with creations too marvellous for Mere Man to understand. The

trunks and their contents were insured for £6000 against submarine risks, etc., in crossing the Atlantic, and now that they are safely landed they are kept in a strong-room, with a double-locked door. The contents of these forty-seven trunks, you must understand, are only a decimal fraction of Gaby's entire wardrobe. Probably there wasn't shipping space for her to take the whole lot with her. And, of course, as. Gaby doesn't really wear much at the one time you will appreciate the enormous number of changes of dress there must be in those forty-seven trunks. In fact, to wear them "all she would probably have to stay in the States a century or two. * * * •* Muriel "Starr, who is on her way back to America, has only said au revoir to Australia. Before ieaving, she signed up with J.C.W. firm to return later in the year. # * «• & Irving Berlin, the American ragtime composer, declares that if he were assigned the task of writing an American opera he would not follow the style of the masters, whose melodies, he- admits, can. never be surpassed. Instead, he says, he would write a syncopated opera, which, if it failed, would at least possess the merit of novelty. "That," he remarks, "is what I really want to do eventually—write ' a syncopated operetta ." So, look out! •*-*** Athol Tier, the elongated comedian round these parts a couple of years ago with the Pink Dandies, is on the Tivoli's circuit in Australia. Since he peered over the New Zealand landscape the has performed in South Africa and the Old Country.