OPERA HOUSE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1472, 11 July 1918, Page 34

OPERA HOUSE.

Miss Winifred La France was the special magnet that drew vaudeville patrons to the Opera House on Monday night, her reputation as a novel entertainer having preceded her. Miss La France, who was recently principal boy in the J. and N. Tait pantomime “Aladdin,” has a magnetic personality that never fails to get across the footlights, and she straightway got on terms in her song “What Was There Was. Good,” a ditty popularised by Barry Lupino in “Aladdin.” She made her entry in a quaint tunic costume of sapphire blue silk buttoned up to the neck and bunched with panniers of blue and white feathers, topped with a curious Chinese hat edged with gold fringe. For her next number she changed into a futuristic black and white costume, and in the meanwhile the audience were diverted with the screening of amusing show signs and advertisements gathered by the artist when travelling in China and Japan. These incidentals were just the preface to her big transformation act “The Siren of the Deep,” depicting such scenes as “Frolic of the Mermaids,” “Deep Sea Monster,” “.Neptune’s Throne,” “The Submarine Garden,” etc., in a series of artistically coloured “cloths” beautifully designed in scroll work. As a finale Miss La France appeared as the central figure in a set of dissolving pictures, the effect being most picturesque. The lighting was a feature of the act, and at the conclusion the artist was greeted with tremendous applause. The remainder of the first part of the entertainment was provided by F. 0.8. and his partner in song and dance, Bellora in imitations, Frank, Lank and Alice in juggling pleasantries, and Vaude and Verne in breezy patter. The Haverley Company were seen in their sixth farce, “Murphy at the Cabaret,” Mr. Haverley and Mr. J. P. O’Neil, as usual, creating a regular riot with their antics as Murphy and Casey. New ballets by the Kewpies, and songs by Mr. Reg. Moore, Miss Merle Stewart, Miss Claire Lloyd and Mr. Billy Maloney kept the revue going in brisk style, while additional features were a dance speciality by Miss Eunice Hemming and an apache dance cleverly performed by Misses Ethel Sheppard and Lena Ryan.

Miss Maud Courtney and Mr. C. open at the Opera House on Monday.

The Auckland Dramatic and Vaudeville Employees’ Association, headed by Mr. W. Bauer, raised over £3OOO for the furnishing of the Princess Mary Hospital for Children, which was officially opened on Saturday by Her Excellency, the Countess of Liverpool. A special word of thanks was given by Mr. W. Wallace, chairman of the Hospital Board, in the course of his address.

Mr. Cyril Maude was entertained at lunch by the Bohemian Club, San Francisco, and publicly thanked for the great propaganda work he has done in America.

Ffrangcon-Davies, the popular baritone singer, who has died at Hampstead, was an East End curate, the Rev. David Davies, before he went on the stage as a member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. A man of serious disposition he never forgot that he had once been a parson, says an English paper, and to the end he found recreation and consolation in the reading of theological and philosophical works. When D’Oyly Carte built his gorgeous Royal English Opera House, now the Palace Theatre, Ffrangcon-Davies was one of his stars, but “Ivanhoe” came to an untimely end, so the baritone forsook the stage for oratorio and the concert platform. His success as an oratorio vocalist was so great that for many years no musical festival was complete without him.

The opium “joint” depicted in “The Man Who Came Back,” in which Muriel Starr is appearing at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, is a correct representation of a notorious opium den that actually exists in Shanghai. The producer, Mr. E. W. Morrison, was given the details by a man who called at the Theatre Royal and volunteered the information, hearing that a Chinese opium joint was to be one of the scenes in the play. The place was thus described: —“The big room was dirty, grimy, and dark —so lighted and shadowed that only the dead centre was in a yellow circular radiance of light. All else was in darkness. About the walls there were bunks. They were so arranged that only the faces could be dimly seen when they rose or lay with their heads resting upon their upturned hands. Even then they were not recognisable. All the bunks had lighted opium lamps, and on the centre table a similar lamp burned. If the stealthy owner of this ‘joint’ would only talk, he could tell some tales.” This scene is one of the most dramatic in “The Man Who Came Back.”

Mr. Scott Colville will act as touring manager for Capelli’s New Zealand tour.

Mr. Leo D. Chateau (Mr. E. J. Carroll’s representative) announces the return of “Where Are My Children” to the Globe on July 27. and the opening of “The Deemster” at the Lyric on August 3.

One of the sensations of “The Bing Boys are Here,” the big Williamson revue, is Miss Minnie Love’s feather costume. Amongst other material, it contains no fewer than 150 ostrich feathers, the value of which is nearly £2OO.

F. 0.8. and his partner (Mr Frank Oakden Brookes and Miss Edna Seaton), who figure pleasingly on the bill at the Opera House, were recently through New Zealand with the George Willoughby Company,- playing juvenile leads in “What Happened to Jones” and “Why Smith Left Home.”

Wallace Brownlow, one of the finest acting baritones the Australian stage has known, is now appearing on the Fuller circuit.

In the cast of “The Bing Boys are Here,” now playing in Auckland, is Jennie Opie, a mezzo-soprano wellknown here in Pollard days. Miss Opie was engaged by Tom Pollard, with Wm. Pauli (baritone) and Florence and Beatrice Perry, to strengthen his company for the first production in New Zealand of “The Geisha.”

Madame Clara Butt has already raised £42,000 for various war funds, and she is now setting herself another task for the raising of funds by arranging to give a series of performances in the Queen’s Hall, London, of Mr. Louis N. Parker’s “Pageant of Freedom.”

On April 1 an order came into force in London stating that all theatres, picture shows, dance halls, etc., had to be closed by 10.30.