"VENUS, LTD."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 196, 21 August 1933, Page 3

"VENUS, LTD."

BLONDE BEAUTY DE LUXE.

A WHIRLWIND OF FRIVOLITY,

In "Venus, Ltd.," at llis Majesty's Theatre on (Saturday night, Auckland, or as much of it as could possibly bo accommodated in thu house at one sitting, thoroughly enjoyed a return to first-class music hall laro as supplied in more populous centres by the vaudeville world in reply to the challenge of tue "talkies." l-raiiKly designed to gratify all manner o£ tastes, it flings a wide net, borrowing freely from musical comedy, revue, and even at times comic opera to build up a house of continuous laughter on a music hall base. A whirl of revelry for tmee hours, without a serious thought, the show on Saturday night "went over big," and the concourse of patrons had an added pleasing chuckle at the end, when the last curtain fell, to find the leading nimblewitted entertainers, facing them over bouquets and steamers, hopelessly stumped and without a ready mot with which to return the compliment of appreciation.

Many and varied are the features of the entertainment. Paradoxically, in one sense of the word and in the light of the general trend of the dialogue and atmosphere, it has a moral; maybe because of this moral, as a further paradox, comes before the tale. ''Exit gloom at any cost" is the slogan of the anti-gloom club, so they borrow the fare, take a rocket (and the audience) to Venus, and in its rarefied air launch themselves into an orgy of scandalous merriment amid a setting of blonde Venuses, with an occasional dusky Juno and I'hoebe for contrast. To many this Veiius-cum-Juno-l'hoebe setting will appeal as one of the chief inspirations of the occasion, for obviously a r°al Paris has assembled the beauty show, with a critical regard for features, form and colouring, as well as for talent, while the dress-designer has combined parsimony 111 material with a flair for startling effects. The beauties are not garbed to blush unseen, but in ballet, tableaux and ensemble they adorn the show throughout, pervasive as a strange disturbing incense of fragrance, and more effective in crowning the spectacle than many rich draperies and arabesques.

Having strangely snatched a brand newmotor car from the air, probably from a parking station on the adjacent Jupiter, Charles Norman arrives on the beauty- | smitten planet, and joins his fellow clubmen in their levels, which thenceforward take on a. distinctly club flavour in interludes of intimate domestic and futuristic sex sketches, with comedy the prevailing note between incursions to the domains of dancing music and other frivolities. Charles Norman is constantly in the comedy, with droll mannerisms, quips and mots. With Chic Arnold in a millinery burlesque ho convidsed the audience, and the same pair staged a screaming turn of nonsense as "gentlemen wags," and another on their arrival among the Venuses, while Norman's versatility was displayed by a grotesque dance number, much above the usual standard, and his fooling, in conjunction with Jennie Benson, in an operatic sketch. In lightning sketch items Jennie Benson and Renie Riano collaborated to make more- fun, before Miss Benson won an immediate encore when she demonstrated the quality which has made her famous as a comedienne in a song interlude that had to be trebled before the house was satisfied to let her go. Then Eenie Riano suddenly flashed from the soubrette assistant to the solo artist in a sketch, "Do I Dance Now?" a ludicrosity with a grotesque dancing climax that set her high among the night's favourites. Colin Crane, a robust baritone, was the chief figure in a song scena. "Fancy Free," one of the spectacular acts of the show girls, and in the nigger characterisation song, "Old Man River," which evoked a decided encore, the artist obliging . with "Mighty Lak a Rose." Beautiful as was the "Fancy Free" setting, the colourful "Terrace in Spain" and "Fleur D'Amour" scenas, with Thelma Scott as the singer, produced even more magnificent whole-stage ensembles, with the audience getting the full effect I of the very fine chorus, and also of the show girls' beauty of face and form when they stepped out as living flowers. To revert to the dancing, exceptional as was that of Riano and Norman, and also of the ballet in their crocodilff, butterfly and many other steps, yet many other atti-active forms of kicking their heels were shown by the' company. Owen Laurence and partner (L'Etoile), a lissome lass, specialised in a fierce Apache brawl, and in an acrobatic and statuesque composition characterised by a thrilling "drop" effect; petit and chic, Audrey Lewis, Charles King and Billy Kershaw appeared in a series of song and dance scenas of the quickstep dance-hall variety; and Maie Baird, Archie Thompson and Harry Simmons brought the house down with a complete novelty, an acrobatic dance burlesque in which clever comedy chimed with talented footwork. The orchestration throughout also was a feature, helpful ever but artistically restrained, always teaming in with chorus, ballet and soloist and avoiding ostentation —sufficient evidence of master hands behind the scenes in a production which sets a new stage frivolity standard for ; Auckland.