DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 914, 18 January 1918, Page 10

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

Ey Footliglit.

You're In Love." JO. WILLIAMSON, Ltd.'s Musie cal Comedy Company will make its bow at- the Grand Opera House, to-morrow (Saturday) evening in "You're in Love," wliich comes with the recommendation of a recoid run in Sydney. Tuneful and bright, "You're in. Love" is described as "the gladsome springtime attraction. Two of the many features of the performance are an eccentric and sensational acrobatic dance by Mr. Jack Hooker Mr. Tom Preston, and Miss Gwen Withers and Miss Maud Fane's sleep-walking scene, when as a somnambulist modernised in blush-pinli silk pyjamas, she safely climbs on to and reaches the end of a large boom. Sitting there the popular comedienne is swung in a semi-circular sweep over the heads of the front row stalls, while all the time she is singing a tuneful song entitled "I'm Only The boom is worked up and down at different angles, dodging the Johnnies in the audience, who, in Australia-, jumped out of their seats to secure one of her slippers. .. Six performances will be given of "You're in Love." * * * * His Majesty's. Probably one of the finest acts o£ the comedy-sketch order seen here for many moons is that which is being presented at His Majesty's this week by the American dramatic artists, Ted McLean and Genevieve Lee. The playlet, which is entitled "Leave Well Enough Alone," is from the pen of Mr. McLean, who is the possessor of no small name as an actor-author in the United States. Miss Lee acts with charm and distinction as the wife, and Mr. McLean plays one of the finest light-'comedy characters yet seen in local vaudeville. His interpretation of the bogus dipsomaniac who shows bis "little black-eyed playmate a little speed," arouses the audiences to the highest pitches of enthusiasm. The Trio Classique is another star offering on the current bill. This act is composed of two members of the wellknown Kennedy family, Laurie (a master of both the 'cello and the cornet), and Lance (a flautist of undoubted ability). They are assisted by a very able young lady accompanist. The remainder of the programme is in complete accordance with the "Excellence of the two- star "turns." * * * * So successful has the big Fuller Pantomime been at the Sydney Opera House that the management has insti-

Third son of King George V , now a cadet of the Eton Officers' Training Corpß.

visits Paris, where her children have been in exile since the German occupation of the Roumanian Capital. She is here shown in Paris with her youngest child, Princess Ileana.

tilted a series of daily matinees, in lieu of the single weekly matinee. * * * *■

Mr, Jolm Lemmone (the Sydney flautist) has received a letter from Madame Melba, in which she states that her unfortunate accident while singing in grand opera, happened at Fort Worth, Texas, where she was appearing with the Chicago Opera Company. During the Vision scene in "Faust," where Mephistopheles shows Marguerite to the rejuvenated Dr. Faust, the heavy lighting gear, which surrounded' the staging on which the diva was sitting, collapsed. Madame Melba was terribly bruised, and very narrowly escaped serious injury. In fact, she was informed that had her head been three inches further forward she would probably have been killed instantly. The distinguished singer had quite recovered at the time of writing.

In the Kathlene MacDonell production of "Peter Pan" at the Criterion, Sydney, has been appearing Melbourne Ward, the younger son of Mr. Hugh J. Ward. He plays Nana, the dognurse, in the first act, and the lion in the second. "Thus," remarks a Sydney paper, "he may be said to have made his entrance into the profession on all fours."