THE STAGE IN SYDNEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE STAGE IN SYDNEY.

PLAYS AND PLAYERS. (By A Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 27. Sitting in front at "The Wrecker" is the next best thing to being in the wreck—as far as the thrills go. If ever a train did its worst as an ear-splitter, a tongue of flame rushing through the atmosphere, and an avenging angel, it is the train—or the collection of trains—in "The Wrecker." This play features noise, and yet when the real moments of thrill come there is no noise. The pistol which shoots Sir Jervais, the railway magnate, for instance, is a silent one. There are lots of daggers and mysterious hands moving about in the air, but no screams. It is left to the audience to do that. "The Wrecker" of its class, is a good piece. It says it's a thriller and it thrills. But it never revolts, which too many of the jerry-built shockers of the stage to-day do. The plot is imj probable, but not an offence to intellijgence. It has bright patches and lots of amusing characters, all very well I done. The third act is the best. This takes place in a signal box on a lonely moor and is played in semi-darkness. It is an exact replica of a signal box, with the same sort of bells ringing and the realistic sound of the points being changed from time to time, and when the train finally flashes past its windows it is almost impossible to believe that it isn't the genuine article. I was so enthralled at the spectacle that it didn't even occur to me till long afterwards that it is probably ,an effect of a cinema machine installed at the rear of the gallery.

The cast of "The Wrecker" is subsidary to the effects. For instance, the train has a a stage manager all to itself, and there are more stage hands than actors employed in the theatre for this piece. Clayton Greene plays the nice young man who means to get the Wrecker and who trusts to his old football luck at winning the toss to toss for it which lever he shall pull to save the train at the critical moment. He plays him very charmingly; having to depend a good deal on his own straightforward personality to get the part over, rather to any opportunities for acting the part supplies. Opposite him, as a polished villain, is Charles Stone, who gives an adequate interpretation of a cad who can coax women into believing him. He has, cither naturally or by the aid of grease paint, a villain's nose, and this is a help. Frank Morrison gives a lovely/performance as an old train driver who believes that there are rogue engines. One of them got his right arm when he tried to boss her. He is equipped with one of those characters that the audience love to see come on the stage. Another good character part is the irritable old fellow who ia_making a new time-table and is always being interrupted, so that his temper gets the better of his manners. This is in tbe hands of Arthur Young, a young man playing an old man, and doing it admirably. Smaller male parts are well filled; George Willoughby in one of them, and Victor Fitzherbert makes an ideal detective. The company is a little weak on the side of tbe ladies. Perhaps Miss Nellie Dennis, who isn't meant to, and who isn't even the girl who was brought out for the part, runs away with the honours. She plays a cute office girl, with a smart tongue and a neat pair of legs, which she isn't shy of showing. Nellie Dennis comes from Auckland. She was the understudy in Melbourne and she fits into the cast as though she were melted into it.

"New Brooms," at the Palace, is a pleasant little comedy, not very real, not very humorous and not very sentimental. I If the playwright or the producer could\ be persuaded to cut out' half the first j act and start after the explanations have taken place—they appear to take hours, but it might work out at 20 minutes— i it would be a better play. It is a I

talkie piece with a slow movement, and doesn't actually get going till well on in the second act. But it is clean and innocuous, rather too padded with long philosophical speeches and sermons, and is actuated by a motive that would appeal to Americans more than it does Australians—the motive of making money. A bright-spoken son of a grumpy father is prepared to teach his parent how to be successful in business— the business of broom selling—and his parent is so outraged that anyone can teach him anything, that he says: "Why, go ahead. Run the factory. I'll quit for a year." The son does his amiable worst and the result is deplorable. At the end the father takes hold of the reins once more and you are given to understand that the amiable son will watch his step and follow after. It is the kind of play that young folks are rather inclined to be intolerant of. but old folks love—it flatters the old dears up so. "Lido Lady" comes on on Saturday at the St. James', with Elsie Prince giving a male impersonation, among other things in her cheeky part. Jimmy Godden and Charlton Morton will have good parts —Englishmen in bathing suits and gay towelling gowns, we anticipate. Two newcomers are here from England to take prominent parts. One is Billy Leonard, well known as a comedian of the dude class in England, and with a long line of successes to his credit, and Yvette Aiming, who has understudied the best people in musical comedy in London and done some leading work on her own account. "Clowns in Clover"' is in rehearsal at the Empire and should open on March 6. Jennie Benson will do the leading work, and Vera Spaull and Elsie Parkes will be her feminine support, with a new dancer from U.S.A. William Kent is coming from the same country for the comedy role, and locally the management are gathering in Len. Rich, Claude Holland, Jack Cannot and Molly Fisher.

"Hit the Deck" is still hitting the public up for 11/8 a seat, having now transferred to Her Majesty's. Anne Croft is dancing now, her ankle beir.g better. The Fallow twins have been brought over from the Tivoli to give their dual dances. Both on and off the stage they are a charming pair and as like ae two hairpins—and by the way, they use hairpins, both having long plaits wound round their pretty ears. "The Patsy" again announces her last nights, but there is a hint that when she is finished at the Criterion she may move to another theatre in this town. This, it would appear, will depend on either the success or failure of the company at tlie Palace in their next play, "White Collars." Just as set in Melbourne is "Desert Song," which is due here at Easter, but may try breaking "Rose Marie" records before stirring out of its present habitat. "The Flying Squad," which is said to be Edgar Wallace's very worst play, is down for production by Leon Gordon and will bring him back to Sydney before he resails for America or England. When that happens New Zealand is likely to get that first-class actor, Charles Hallard, starring in "Interference," with somebody else in the Gordon part.