AMUSEMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 871, 9 November 1888, Page 13

AMUSEMENTS.

[lnformation from members of the theatrical profession respecting their professional doings in this and the neighboring colonics is invited. Communications to be addressed to the Editor of this 00100111.1

The Theatre

THE HICKS-SAYEK MINSTRELS. The extent to which this company had been “billed,” and the reputation which preceded them attracted a very large audience to the Theatre Royal Tuesday night, the occasion of their opening performance. Those who went to the performance must be hard to please if they were not well satisfied, for the entertainment the company give is one of the best of its class, and the most novel, that has been seen in Wellington. The curtain rises on a very prettily.set stage, the bandsmen in gaily-oolourcd uniforms being stationed in a handsome rotunda, while in front are seats for the participants in the io variable “ chair business.” The various performers come in one by one, and are duly introduced by Mr Harvey Thomas, the last but not at all the least being Mr Micks himself, who had quite a reception. An overture by the orchestra and the company opens the ball, and then the fun proceeds. The six corner men are all quaint customers, full of a sly, insinuating humour, and gifted withal with enormous mouths. Mr Charles Pope and : Mr Irving Sayles are humourists of the first water. Their songs, together with that of Mr Charles Washington, were heartily encored. The "business,” however, is entirely new, for the choruses are beautifully even and harmonious, and the antics of the corner men are in quite a new style. The more sober part is excellently supplied by Messrs W. Johnson, Downs, W. King, and Speed, in whom the management have four exceptionally good singers. Mr John* son has a marvellous bass voice—a voice that reaches away down, and still further down till people almost hold their breath while the singer is preparing for that last deep one —truly “ahundred fathoms deep.” Mr Downs possesses an excellent robust tenor, and Mr KiDg a very sweet, but lighter voice. This part of the entertainment was brought to a olose with a new and exceedingly funny .male, in which Messrs Pope and Washington kept the audience well amused. A feature of the second part was the Zouave drill, in which eight or nine members of the Company went' through a variety of movements with wonderful precision. Mr Wallace King was recalled for his excellent singing of "My sweetheart when a boy,” and r similar compliment was paid to Mr J. Evans, the clog dancer, who has some new and rather surprising

steps. The quintet, Messrs King, Downs, Johnson, Thomas and Speed, sang several selections in beautiful style, their voices blending beautifully. Messrs Pope, Saylos, Washington, and Johnson kept the audience laughing for' a few minutes, and were deservedly recalled. The Connor Bros., in addi ion to the novelty attaching to coloured aorobats, are remarkably clever, and perform their feat.s with rare neatness. A farce, “The Blackville Duet,' concluded an excellent entertainment.

The first performance of the minstrels was a decided success, and we feel certain that they will have a good season here. Their entertainment is new and amusing from beginning to end, and there is nothing in the least approaching vulgarity. The choruses and the singing, independent of the.humour of six corner men, are quite a treat, and it is seldom one hears anything so sweet as “Way down, the Suwanee River,’’ as the qnintet sang it.

Hicks’ Minstrels had a larger audience on Wednesday than for the first performance, and numbers of people-had to he refused ad. mission. The entertainment was highly enjoyed by the audience, and encores were frequent and imperative. The singing, as before, was quite the feature of the pro gramme, Mr Wallace King and the quintet boing \ery well received. Tho acrobatic feats of the Connor Brothers were remarkably well performed, and evoked quite a storm of applause.

THEATRICAL NOTES. The Lynch Bellringers are in the vicinity of Melbourne, where they are having a very good time. Williamson, Garner and Musgrove’s operatic revivals at Melbourne have started very promisingly. The first opera was * Olivette,’ in which Misses Nellie Stewart and Fanny Liddiard, Messrs Howard Vernon, Royoe, and Knight Aston, were playing the principal parts. Three or four years ago we saw •Olivette’ herej with ‘La Mascotte,’ ‘Patience,’ ‘Tambour Major,’ and other little pieces of that kind to keep the Bhow going. Now, alas ! we never see an opera. At least, hardly ever. The last was 4 Pinafore ’ by the Mohaivk Minstrels ! Mr Martin Simonsen’s Italian Opera Company were playing at the 1 pera House in Melbourne when the mail left. Business only fair. Away back in the' Antideluviau period, when, according to Mr Ignatius Donnelly the centre of civilisation was on an island now sunk far beneath the sea, Miss Eloise Juno was a bonny actress —a braw lass, look ye. Ever since then she has been playing Scotch parts in Scotoh pieces and now she has disappeared ! An Australian paper

wants to .know where she is, and why she is not playing Scotch parts. Truly, why ? Although getting a trifle too mastive for hard work, Miss Juno is still ahead of a great many of them in such pieces as ‘ Bonnie Fishwife’ and ‘ Jeannie Deans.’

Hugo’s Minstrels will be in New Zealand shortly.

‘ The Young and ;Original Baronioa Company’ are announced to perform in Waverley to-night. The performance is on the lines of that given by the Lynch bellringers.

Professor Anderson is working his passage this way. He was to have opened at Napier last night, and will be here soon after the Hicks Minstrels have flitted.

The All-Stars opened in Auckland last Monday night.

A Scotch company gave a performance of ‘ Cramond Bing ’ and *My Heart’s in the Highlands,’ at Abbott’s Opera House, Auckland, last week. Mr Max Alexander was stage manager.

Tho Faust Family have returned to Sydney, and are appearing at the New Haymarket Music Hall.

Also in Sydney is Carrie Swain, playing ‘ The Miner’s Daughter.' Alf Wyburd, who is now in the skating rink business, had a big benefit in Sydney the other day. Miss von Finklestein and the genial R’.S.S. were to start on Dunedin last night.

The veteran C. B. Hicks arrived here with his talented Americans last Monday, and was received at the wharf by a large number of influential citizens, the handsome Agrati, and other eminent personages. They didn’t show that night because a lot of them bad the jim jams, which were contracted on the voyage; but the next afternoon they turned out in great force and blew the roofs off their mouths with instruments of brass. Subse qnently they showed. On the whole the company is a good one, and they give a first class minstrel show of a new style. The corner men don’t do a great deal of business, and none of them are to be compared with Horace Bent, Hugo, Cogill, andother artificial Ethiopians so far as humour is concerned. But in singing and choruses, in stage dressing and management they are on top. Mr Downs and Mr King are very - fine tenor singers, and as to the bass, Mr Will Johnson, however that man gets down to the last deep note will ever remain an unsolved mystery. But he gets there just the same. The Zouve drill is wonderfully done, and the Connor Bros, are the best in the line we’ve had here—better than the Woodward Brothers. A feature of the performance is the quaintness of some of the songs, which have about them a delightful camp meeting swing. Let ns be thankful, dear brethren, that these people, talented in many respeots, far above the Caucasian, were lifted by England out of slavery. We are a great people, we are. Britannia rules the waves !

Harry Rickards is in Queensland, with a strong company.

Autolycus,