There was a capital house on Wednesday departed from legitimate business and for last when the Willard Opera Company
the second tine played a modern farcical comedy, and all concerned in it, must be heartily' congratulated on. keeping their large audience in a continual state of laughter throughout the pice he entertainment commenced with a concert, but the management evidently considered' that portion of it unimportant, as the songs given were not mentioned in the bill. Mr. Zeplin opened proceedings with the overture to William Tell, Mr, Fearnley followed with In old Madrid, and_then Miss Bessie Royal sang Vanily and Mr. Wentworth The Scout. Miss A, St. John next gave Love me which was so well received by the audience that Annie Lawrie was feelingly given as an encore piece. Mr. Walshe was successful in his rendering of The Deuth of Nelson, but broke down in the encore piece he attempted, Alice, where art thou? and had to leave it'untinished.. Miss Cissie Denver concluded the concert, and proved she was the favourite of the audience, as she was not only warmly greeted when she appeared, but was loudly applauded for her son Out ow the deep, which she sang exceedingly well. Asan encore she gave Robin Adair with much taste, After a short interval the curtain rose on the first act of Dr. Bill, a farcical comed; in three acts, adapted' from the French of Albert Cutré by Hamilton Alde, and which was originally played in London, at the Avenue Theatre early this year, with great success, The plot is briefly that a De. William Brown, who used to be a gay young fellow about town, and who, under the name of Dr. Bill, was the favourite medical attendant of actresses and ballet girls, has recently married and ttled down, and being possessed of a sufficient income, is determined to give up all practice and devote himself to domestic joys. But his father-in-law is " restless individual, who will not tolerate euse and ud by various devices seeks to make his son-in-law actively follow hie profession. Acertain Mrs. Horton—formerly an actress at the Frivolity but since married to a jealous Superintendent of Polico—sends for De. Brown, not knowing his entity with her former friend Dr. Bill, and actually calls at the Doctor's house to ensure his attendance, where she sues Mrs. Brown, but not the Doctor. Owing to the worrying of his father-in-law the Doctor consents to visit the patient, but in this he is forestalled by an idiotic masher named George Webster, who is supposed to be in love with Mrs. Brown's sister Jenny, but who lost his heart at the sight of Mrs. Horton when he met her at the Doctor's house. Webster personates the Doctor, prescribes an outrageous mixture for the patient and' carries on an absurd flirtation with her. Of course all the characters appear one after another at Mrs. Horton's, and are hidden away in various rooms for various inexplicable reasons, whereby some most comical situations and incidents eventuate. In the third act all mistakes are explained and general justice dune, as usual. The complications in the first act are made more absurd by the visit, at the last
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.