HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1573, 17 June 1920, Page 34

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE.

J. AND N. TAIT’S COMPANY. “Daddies,” with, its delightful vein of comedy and humanness, was withdrawn on Tuesday night after being witnessed by large audiences at every presentation. The plight of the newly-made daddies, so capitally assumed by Messrs. Herbert Ranson, George Bryant, Charles Lawrence, and Harold Moran, was keenly enjoyed, and little Elvie Powrie, who regenerated the crabbed old bachelor, made a special hit with her natural .acting. Miss Ernita Lascelles, by her clever handling of comedy and the one emotional situation, gave a taste of what she could do in a play that offered fuller opportunities. In “The Little Damozel.” which will be presented for the remainder of the season, she has scope to exercise her dramatic qualities. In New York the play ran two seasons. and it is still being played throughout America by several companies, who have found it to be a veritable gold-spinner. “The Little Damozel” is the romance of a young harpiste, Julie Alardy, who finds that the course of true love runs anything but smoothly, however blameless she is for adverse conditions. Julie’s musical duties include playing in a restaurant, where she is wooed and won by the elderly and wealthy Captain Partington. Meeting someone else, this unscrupulous person decides to break with Julie, and to do it decently, as he thinks, promises an attractive young waster, Recklaw Poole, a handsome cheque if he can win her hand and marry Julie. Poole succeeds and the marriage turns out quite a happy one, until Poole finds that Partington has become engaged to his former fiancee, Sybil Carew, which causes no end of a stir in the emotions of everyone concerned. There are two or three blazing scenes before the dramatic fire is put out, but they give Miss Ernita Lascelles and Mr. Herbert Ranson a great chance to show their powers in emotional acting.