"THE MUSIC GOES ROUND."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 113, 14 May 1936, Page 5

"THE MUSIC GOES ROUND."

ST. JAMES' ATTRACTION. Hollywood's fabulous wealth was unstintingly poured, into tlie production o£ Columbia's new musical extravaganza, "The Music Goes Round," which boasts a cast of seven foremost entertainers and features Farley and Riley, composers of the sensational "Music Goes 'Round and Around." Harry Riehman, greatest or the singing stars, heads the array of talent gathered from stage, screen, radio and operatic stage, and coming to St. Jamas Theatre to-morrow. Opposite Riehman will be seen the lovely, vivacious Rochelle Hudson, fresh from her recent dramatic triumph in "Show Them No Mercy." Walter Connolly will be 6een as the anvil-voiced showboat captain, a characterisation that is essentially Connollyesque. The other principals include Lionel Stander, of the buzzsaw personality that has become an overnight sensation in Hollywood; Michael Bartlett, the golden-toned tenor who shared Grace Moore's fame in "Love Me For Ever," singing the title song, and, of course, Farley and Riley, the new Nc>v York favourites, who will be seen in a spectacular musical sequence featuring the famous Onyx Club band and their 'round and 'round music. The Bayou Belles, fairest of Hollywood's loveliest, Les Hite's glorified music, and the rhythmic antics of the famous Blackbirds, Dixie's own, add to the extravagant entertainment. The giant east of 4000 includes some 700 persons seen in the Mississippi levee scenes; 1500 others used in a single street scene, and another 1000 employed in a sequence showing the interior of a great Broadway theatre. Dancing girls, scores of negro entertainers, two full orchestras, negro rouseabouts, dockhands and showboat audience and incidental- character hits bring the full-manned cast to its imposing total. As for the story, there is a promise of 6ome sort of breaking awry from the old idea that where there is music there need not be much else. A musical comedy star is 6tranded in a tinv Southern town and he brings a little, old-fashioned showboat troupe to New York. The fun begins in earnest to the tune of specially written .melodies and, of course, the famous or is 'it notorious?—song.