DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 915, 25 January 1918, Page 10

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

By FootligJat.

His Majesty's. BEAT business at His Majesty's week. No wonder, for the programme is one that the Fullers could travel the world with. It is truly a fine assemblage of vaudeville talent. The Trio Classique (the Kennedys) on piano, cornet, and 'cello are by themselves worth all the money. Hear them in the "Miserere" scene and be convinced. "The Five Lewins," who are. billed as "the Oriental Quintette," are five little dancing girls (steps in a ladder) whom the audience will hardly let off the stage. Ted Maclean and pretty Genevieve Lee collaborate in a real comedy-act, which lifts the house off its feet. Ted is some author as well as actor. Kelly and Drake are American dancing rag-timers, who take . the bun every time, and Walsh _ and Walsh, as dancing acrobats, are in a class by themselves. The male Walsh must be made of india-rubber. The De Booviers are graceful and artistic in their statuesque posings, and Helmar (the up-to-date Sandow) a.ssisted by Reo, presents a strong-man act right up to the knocker. Look out for another budget of fresh attractions tomorrow (Saturday). 4S * # * " You're in Love." The popular taste for musical comedy of a piquant, appetising flavour is amply demonstrated by the nightly siege on the box office at the Grand Opera, House. There is no denying it, theatregoers delight in the haunting melodies, the infectious., gladness of the rhythmic movements of the shortskirted dancers, and the saucy sallies and the delicate little situations from which the fragile musical comedy plot is woven. And it is for these reasons that -the multitude have been flocking to "You're in Love" by the J. C. Williamson, Ltd.'s New' Musical Comedy Company. "Footlight" prescribes the performance as a tip-top holiday tonic, a remedy for dyspepsia and a sure cure for the blues. «* ■» a o Mainly responsible for the success of "You're in Love" are its prettiness and charm—and Miss. Maud Fane. No sweeter or more charming; prima donna has captivated New Zealand audiences for many a day than Miss Fane. As Georgiana, who is married to her lover by legal contract and to the terms of which she is strictly kept by her man-hating old- aunt, she wins all hearts by her natural and unaffected acting and the sweet melody of her voice. Why, in her song, "I'm Only Dreaming," in which, clad in fetching pink pyjamas, she is swung out over the auditorium on the end of a. ship's boom, she has the giddy old baldheads in the stalls even kissing her toes in fond adulation. * * „ * xMiss Connie Ediss, as Mrs. Payton, Georgiana' s thrice-married ' and very

experienced aunt, has opportunity to display her marked talent for broad comedy. Her one song, "Keep Off the Grass," however, is marred by the rasping falsetto in which she pitches her voice. Other broad comedy roles that tickle the audience's funny-bone are those of Alfred Frith (as the RevAloysius Wix, who neither drinks nor smokes but plays an excellent game of tiddlywinks). Field Fisher (who gives a clever study of a boatswain of conventional type), and Jack Hooker and Tom Preston (whose clever eccentric dancing is encored three or four times over), Fred Maguire (a resonant and pleasing baritone), and Madge Elliott, who reveals her shapely limbs most artistically in her two dance items. The staging, „mounting, and lighting are highly successful, and the playing of the orchestra not the least feature of the performance. «■ » -B a "Canary Cottage," the second piece in the Company's repertoire, will take uj> the running to-morrow (Saturday) evening. Reports from elsewhere of the success of "Canary Cottage" rival those of "You're in Love." The season ends next week with a. revival of "So Long Letty." ®** . # Dorothy Brunton has made her debut in America in "Follow the Girl," at Philadelphia. Dorothy was the Girl, of course. * * . # * Edward Landor, here with "The Glad Eye Company," enlisted in Sydney for active service, and went into camp on January 3.

SERIOUS AND FRIVOLOUS.

Leonard Nelson, and Nellie Black, both well known on the Fuller Circuit, were, at latest, appearing in Kobe, Japan. Sir Herbert Tree, the famous actormanager—his middle German name of Beerbohm seems tec have been dropped since the war "begun—has left £44,000 to his wife and three daughters, and a legacy of £100 to his cook, Mrs. Browning. Sir Herbert prided himself that he could always take his friends home to a lunch or dinner that was the most exqixisite of its kind, and Mrs. Browning is as great an artist in her line as Sir Herbert was in his. It is not every rich man who has the decency to remember his cook. * * * * There is good money in play-acting —provided one happens to be a popular favourite. At all events, one actress highly popu'lar with Australasian audiences, to' wit Miss Minnie Love, has saved enough to place away £3000 in the Australian War Loan. Miss Love has two brothers in the trenches, a. sister a Red Cross nurse, an uncle munition making, and her mother is organising secretary to the Soldiers' Comforts League in Bristol, England. In investing her savings in ' the War Loan, Miss Love sustains the family reputation for patriotism. * " ■* * * Edward Landor, who. plays the duke's son in "Seven Days' Leave" at Fullers' Sydney Opera House, tells a good recruiting story regarding a somewhat inebriated gentleman who wanted to enlist. The officers in

charge told him politely to'.' conie along: a little later, but lie insisted on being: examined. "P-p-p-pos'tively mus' enlist to-day," lie hiccouped. At length,, when he became a nuisance they threw him out into the street. Picking himself up and recovering his hat he gazed reproachfully in the direction of therecruiting officers. "Now," he said, "J-j-just for that we'll probably los© the war." * * * # Madame Cope-Dowsing, the accomplished professor of piano, voice production and singing, elocution, and: dramatic art, notifies elsewhere that she has resumed tuition, and intending pupils may call upon her at her studio, 94, Willis-street. * * * # Lillian Teece, "The Personality Girl," at present appearing at Fullers' local house, has a fin©' voice of the Melba calibre. She was born in Toowomba, Queensland, but entered upon a stage career in America when quitea. child. In the States, she acquired the art of frookiiig at which she is remarkably proficient. She also decorates her own frocks with hand painting, an ornamentation which is havinggreat rogue on the other side of the Pacific. * * * * Nellie Melba's own version of her accident recently in America is ratheramusing. While appearing, at Fort Worth, Texas, the diva was struck by a. falling piece of scenery that broke a bone m her wrist. "I came to," she explains, "to hear someone say that there was 17,000 dollars (£3400) in the house. And so, after fainting inglofi°US!y ' I got up and sang, in 'Faust.' "' -tTo's^l^oo^oufS 118 tO liSk IOSinE A friend in the "profesh.," writing to "Footlight" from New York by thelast mail, mentions that there is an' effort being made in America to reviseactors' wages—at the expense of the mummer. Of course, the cut, it wassupposed, was to start at the bottom and the poor supers ,etc, were to fee the first to suger. But even the "stars" it was threatened, were-to have their salaries also pruned. The theatre managers, in making the reductions, declared that needs must. Salaries were soaring heavenwards and the shows wouldn't stand the racket. If the mummers didn't like it, well there was nothing for it but for - the shows toclose down. * *■*.'#■■ A new Australian eomic opera, entitled "The Rajah of Shivapore," composed by Alfred Hill, with book, and lyrics by David Souter, was staged at the Playhouse, Sydney, on December 15th. The.- scene is set in India, and the play revolves around the misfortunes of one Chandler, a templekeeper, who, in order to stake his fortunes on the knees of the Goddess of Chance, has pawned the golden image of the god. Alice Bennetto , played the leading role of Aimee, the templekeeper's daughter. « * * e Touring Manager J. L. Oathro drops "Footlight" a line from Auckland to intimate that Jack Waller's "Look Who's Here" Company will play a return season in Wellington in two or three weeks' time. Hβ says that the Company's tour has been nothing less than a. triumphal march through -the Dominion. The Company are now busy rehearsing some new programmes and they promise for their return something that will even eclipse their initial performance.