"G. AND S." IN NEW YORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 1 (Supplement)

"G. AND S." IN NEW YORK.

A season of Gilbert and Sullivan opera will be opened by the D'Oyly Carte Company at the Martin Beck Theatre, N'ew York, on August 20. They will stay there for several months and then take the road for a long tour to Boston. Philadelphia, Chicago and other cities. They will not return until May. Before 1034, when they made their first bow to New York (says the "Manchester Guardian"), it had not occurred to any American manager, that the D'Oyly Carte Company, sole possessors of the full and still unpublished Sullivan scores and the Gilbert traditions of staging and action, could give their audiences quite a- version of the operas. Mr. Martin Beck persuaded tlie company to play for a month in 1934 in his theatre. They filled it in exceptionally hot weather for 1"> weeks and the same success awaited them on tour. Mr. Martvn Green, who now plays the parts made famous by Grossmith and Sir Henry L.vtton. said recently that American audience reacted differently to various points and songs, especially to the humour. For instance, he recalled how when Mr. Derek Oldham, as XankiPoo. remarked how he started on his travels "disguised as a second trombone, the line, wli'rh only draws a smile in Kngland. was greeted with shouts of laughter. .Gilbert's, rather cruel humour about elderly women was not liked.