TIVOLI THEATRE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVIII, Issue 1043, 3 March 1910, Page 17

TIVOLI THEATRE.

PHIL WALSH DRAMATIC COMPANY. After a most successful run with 'The Kangaroo Girl” the Phil Walsh company introduced to Aucklanders, on Monday evening, “The Drunkard’s Daughter,” a dramatic concoction founded on Robertson’s well-known work ‘Caste.” That the small but select little company is finding favour is evidenced by the increasing audiences which attend nightly. In “The Drunkard’s Daughter” the Hon. G'eo. D’Alroy (Mr. Stuart Mcßae) surprises all his acquaintances by marrying the daughter of a pronounced drunkard, as she is considered to be below the Hon. bentlemen in station. D’Alroy is ordered to the war, and during his absence news is brought home to the effect that he was killed in a skirmish. However this eventually proves to be incorrect, and as the saying goes, “all ends happily.” As Eccles, the drunken father, Mr. Walsh was never seen to better advantage, and his acting at times was excellent. As the daughter, afterwards the wife of Hon. D’Alroy, Miss Eva Paigne gave entire satisfaction and held the sympathy of the audience from beginning to end. Mr. Stuart Mcßae (Hon. D’Alroy), Mr. Percy Mitchell (Captain Hawtree) and George Gardiner (Sam Gerridge) each filled their respective roles with credit and the last-named made a great hit with his songs. Miss Fanny Paigne, as Polly Eccles was a sparkling and bright young lady, and her appearance on the stage was always eagerly looked for. As the dignified Marquise De St. Maur Miss Elenor Wade successfully filled the role. The performance was frequently applauded, and it certainly merited it. To-night the company will produce the American drama “Ravenstar,” and the same piece will be shown on Friday and Saturday evenings. DEATH OF MICHAEL NOLAN. Patrons at the Tivoli will (says the Sydney “Referee”) be sorry to hear that Michael Nolan, who had a successful season here in 1898, and who revisited Australia under the Rickards’ management in 1907, has passed away. After two years of illness poor Nolan died last month near London. The singing comedian was barely forty when lung and heart disease prevented him from working—a sore trial, indeed, for a man so popular as he was. In the zenith of his powers as a stage Irishman Michael Nolan wore with dignity the mantle of Pat Feeney. His voice was tuneful; he sang always with real feeling and no little culture; and his Hibernian characters sustained the best tradiaions of the race for humor and pathos. Born at Tipperary forty-two years since, the deceased became a chorister

in the Bradford Catholic Cathedral at the age of ten. Master Nolan sang mostly Irish ballads, afterwards going through the various grades of Irish business. As a boy he constantly wrote songs for . himself and others, and to this fact he considered much of his success was due. His first great hit will be easily remembered —“Little Annie Rooney is my Sweetheart.” “Dada’s Baby Boy,” “Whistle and ’Wait for Katie,” “That’s a Mick." ‘ W here was Hooligan,” and other <mormcu.&ly successful songs follow->d irom the same pen, and with i much the same result. In comedy Mr. Nolan’s first real triumph was “The Brick Came Down.” written by the late Tom Browne, and this character immediately stamped the versatility of the singer. Always trying to be strictly original, and keeping in a path entirely his own, his creation, “Play us an old come-all-ye,” was an acquisition to his previous record. Mr. Nolan and his wife (Miss Agnes Hazel) sailed for South Africa in September, 1897, and there again he added to his high reparation; but a greater success awaited him on his arrival in Australia, where he had a successful season of six months with Mr. Harry Rickards in 1898. He again visited Australia in 1907, once more renewing most pleasant impressions, and adding largely to the number of his admirers. Says the London “Daily Chronicle”: “The dead singer was always ready to do a kind action. One bitter winter’s day, when the snow was a foot deep, he was ‘discovered’ by a friend as he was taking a bottle of wine and some other delicacies to a poor sick pro-’ fessional.”