Mr. Julian Eltinge opened his season in Shanghai at the Olympic Theatre on Monday, and we do not think we exaggerate when we say that he gives the finest show that has been seen in Shanghai for several months. The audience, which completely filled the house, certainly thought so, and that is an excellent criterion-
Seeing and hearing the company was like being at Home again-Whichever anybody likes to call it—the old vaudeville modernized, or revue with some of the padding taken out—it' was a sheer delight. The old fascination of girls dancing across the stage, the beauty chorus, the amazing dexterity of the rope walkers, the cleverness of the man at the piano, the minuet revived from the courtly days of old, and all the other phases of the programme—these were matters to charm and delight. What is more, everything was of the highest class, nothing provincial about the performance any way. Mr. Eitinge, whose speciality feminine impersonation, strikes a note in the performance which is in vivid contrast to all the rest We need simply mention his "Siren Vampire." It is not a beautiful role-—-it could hardly ba that—it is very nearly creepy, and that he introduces the necessary amount of that feeling and no more is proof of his wonderful art. He appeared in four of these characterizations, each time cssaying with success a different role.
It is impossible here to do more than applaud the programme generally, and we cannot go into individual performances. It has said that the dances are really pretty, technique never overshadowing grace and artistry, as is so often the case. The rest of the programme is clever, beyond all question, and deserves—continance of last night's success. The artistes are Misses Phyllis Gordon, Marjorie Carville, Pauline Price, Brendell, Herbert, Littlejohn Bonnell, Lee, Marie Sylvana and Grace Herbert, and besides Mr Eltinge, Messrs. Bert Ford, Beers and Carl Neumeister. The jazz orchestra is wonderful.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.