Pollard's Opera Company.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12067, 9 September 1902, Page 2

Pollard's Opera Company.

"THZE MESSENGER BOY.'"—TONIGHT.

"Tho Messenger Boy," fresh from his Southern triumphs, will be introduced to our notice' for the first time this evening, and it is safe to predict that long before the curtain rises standing room only will be the order, as tho fame of the 'Boy' has long reached us, md numbers are anxious to make his acquaintance and account for his marvellous success elsewhere. There must te something g o cd in a musical comedy that can run lor 1 6 performances in Wellington to excellent business, for on a population basis it would to equal to something like 1100 nights in Loadon. The maisic of "The Messenger Poy," which is by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton, is of a bright and catchy nature throughout and full o f swing, and the concerted jiieces are admirable. Tho lyrics are clever ; but what makes the comedy go is that it is genuinely funny f.nd full of comic dialogue and situations of hilarious absurdity, all framed in tho most appropriate of settings. There aro no less lhan 18 distinct characters in "The Messenger Boy." Although the characters of Tommy Bang (Mr W. S. Percy), Mrs Bang (Miss Alice Edgar), Captain Pott (Mr FT. Quealyj, Rosa (Miss Gertie Campion), and Nora (Miss Connie Buttel), stand out more - prominently than the others, it is as much the evenness and excellent manner in which the less important parts are tilled that accounts '"or the success of the "Boy," everything going with a swini? from the rise to the fall of the ciurtain. "Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride," a comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, will be staged to-morrow evening, and should pro\e a strong source of attraction. "The French Maid" will be revived on Thursday with Miss Gertie Campion as Suzette, a part which won her so much popularity on a former occosion.-