MR HARRY RICKARDS’ COMPANY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 694, 25 June 1903, Page 11

MR HARRY RICKARDS’ COMPANY.

Vaudeville of the right sort, and in the right doses, is always welcome, and coming now if will, prove a pleasant change from the otherwise wholesome and excellent diet of drama and comedy, to which we have confined ourselves for some time past. Therefore, Mr Rickards’ show, which opens at the Opera House on Saturday, will, I do not doubt, have a prosperous run. Mr Rickards’ never sends out a bad company, and the Southern critics appear to think that he has sent nothing better than this—not even. Cinquevalli or Sandow. At the front of the combination' are Hill and Silvainey, the sensational cyclists, who do things with the wheel that seem to belong to the world of magic. “ Silvainey ” is Mrs Hill, and she shares fhe glories and triumphs of her husband, as well as his dangers, like a most exemplary wife. If gives one the shivers to read a description of their feats, and a sight of them promises such an eerie experience that the Opera House will be too small to hold the nervous crowd waiting to be “ shocked.” But the show is pot all “ thrills ” ; there is provision for shakes —shakes of laughter, and plenty of artists to make the fun. Messrs Seeley and West are guaranteed good, and Miss Gracie Emmett and her American comedy company have been specially lent by the United States Government in return for- Colonial sympathy during the Cuban War. Then there is the ever bright and welcome Mr Wallace • Brownlow, the baritone, besides other singers and dancers, and (welcome addition) a conjuror ! Not a “ prestidigitateur ” or a “ wizard,” but just a good old honest conjuror.