'MATSA' VAUDEVILLE COMPANY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XXIV, 12 June 1897, Page 769

'MATSA' VAUDEVILLE COMPANY.

Messrs Williamson and Musgrove’s ‘Matsa’ Vaudeville Company opened to a crowded house att he Opera House, Auckland, on Monday last, when the entertainment presented more than justified the anticipations formed with regard to it. The programme consisted of a happy combination of farce, song, dance, music, and novelty items. Miss Alice Leamar is always sure of a welcome in New Zealand, and she received a vociferous reception upon her first appearance in the opening farce, ‘Fun in the Kitchen.’ The fun of this piece turned upon Penelope’s (Miss Leamar’s) experiences with her numerous admirers—the butcher, baker, milkman, a soldier, and a policeman. In the end Penelope finds that her uninformed lovers are attracted more by the kitchen cupboard than by herself, and she marries ‘ Chalks. ’ Among the comicalities introduced in the progress of the farce is a duet and dance, ‘ The Art of Love,’ by Mr John Coleman and Miss Leamar, and bone specialities by Mr Frank Lawton. In the second part Mr Lawton’s ‘ Canary Polk,* a whistling performance, and Mr Coleman’s ‘ Scarecrow Dance ’ brought down the house. The mandoline dance by the Delvines and Winterton Sisters justified the description allotted to this item by the compiler of the programme, who sets it down as ‘an interesting, eccentric, instrumental, Terpsichorean quintette.’ It was all that, and a marvel in high-kicking besides. The ‘ Satanic Gambols ’ by the Delevines in the second part were a marvellous and uncanny exhibition of gymnastics. ‘ Little Gulliver ’is a Lilliputian performer of considerable originality, and Mr Leone Clark, the ‘ Cat King,’ shows what can be done with performing animals and birds. Mr Ernest Fitts, who possesses a good baritone voice, contributed two solos, ‘I Love But Thee,’ and ‘ Thou Art My Life.’ Taken all in all, the ' Matsa ’ Company is a good laughter-producingcombination, and as it keeps the house in roars for nearly three hours, it may be expected to ‘ catch on.’