"A NIGHT OUT."

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 307, 28 December 1922, Page 7

"A NIGHT OUT."

CHAMPAGNE MUSICAL COMEDY. A night out when every moment was a delight, with not a single regret left over for the morning, was the experience of the Auckland holiday crowd that packed His Majesty's Theatre last evening, and in "A Night Out" enjoyed one of those rare champagne performances that go over smoothly and induce an instantaneous sparkling and infectious effervescense of spirit that invests everything with bubbling laughter and coleur de rose. The play was a triumph for Mr. W. S. Percy and Mise Maud , Fane, for he waa the spirit of comedy : and she the delightful medium of music, with her well-remembered roguish touch, throughout three hours of mueical comedy which held the audience for every minute with hardly a disappointment, and while these principals made good on the high reputations they had won in former years, they were assisted by an all-round balance in every feature of the performance that the Williamson management has seldom equalled. Opening to a gay chorus in a beautiful setting, the play sparkled from the outset, and it held to a sustained plot with natural comedy of situation that rarely became uproarioue. with the dancing and incidental music artistically fitted in, it went to the end with a most enjoyable swing. The humour of the situations resulted from a hen-pecked husband in a rebellious mood meeting a ffirl who is piqued by her flance s devotion to business, and planning to make him jealous by taking a stolen outing to a restaurant of doubtful repute, and there encountering various unexpected friends, whose friendliness is persistent and embarrassing to the point of hysterical exasperation. It brings a series of hideand seek situations that show Mr. Percy at hie best as an actorcomedian/ As l.c skated with artistic flourishes over the tlwn ice of social convention and domestic compatabillty, getting away with the most outrafeou. fictions, and jumped nervously from peak to peak of whimsical climaxes with nimble wit and foot, he had the house helpless with laughter. Miss Fane had the part of his fellow Ananias in the night adventure, and her fine talent as a soubrette was as great a factor as her dainty personality and charming voice in keeping her in the picture of fun and music. Their duet "Just Married was an artistic incident of the musical pro, gramme, and in "Am t We Got Hn she. also showed her talent for whimsicality, but the gem of the musical numbers was her singing of the ballad " \valon." Chief among the Nemises on the track of the night-outers was an importunate friend afflicted With a trunk, four daughters and a foot that twitched at the sight of a pretty girl, and this ten-eyed combination of complications met the fugitives at every turn of the stairs. Mr. Cyril Kelleway wae the curiously afflicted person, and he made of it a quaint character which was strangely reminiscent of the embarrassingly ffiendly lost-kitten type of person who is always turning up at awkward moments. Mise Madge Elliott, as an adventurous French maid, who inveigles her master's nephew into a night at the restaurant, and Mr. Cyril Richard in tlie role of a callow student, who is being vamped, contributed capably to the fun. a< did Mr. Field Fisher in the part of a peeping waiter. Miss Floie Allen and Messrs. Ronald Hojrue and Harry Wootten had parts which enabled them to strengthen up the eolo portion of the musical programme. Tlie piece waS well produced as to setting-, and the choruses and 'ballet were features throughout. Some fine solo dancing was done by Miss Elliott. Miss Gwenn'.e Withers, Mr. Richard and Mr. Jack Hooker, and Apache dance by Miss Withere and Mr. Hooker being one of the chief items of this section of the •production. "A Xijjht Out" will be repeated each evening, and at special matinees on Saturday and Monday.