"PRIMROSE."

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18676, 27 April 1926, Page 12

"PRIMROSE."

A MAGNIFICENT PRODUCTION. "Primrose," the very latest J. C; Williamson musical comedy production, will be presented at the Theatre Royal on Saturday evening next, for the first time in Christchurch. "Primrose" will introduce Miss Margery Hicklin, a distinguished London comedienne, who will play Joan. It will, moreover, have the advantage of being interpreted by the full strength of the J. 0. Williamson New English Musical Oomedy Company. A welcome reappearance will be made by George Gee; also prominent in a long cast are Dorothy Lena and Jack -Cannot. Of "Primrose" the critic of the Melbourne "Argus" writes:—The new craft had a very successful launching on Saturday night, and it deserved it—not so much because of the soundness of its. timbers as of the luxuriousness of its appointments. The story of "Primrose"—a man engaged to one girl and in love with another, his official fiancee'in 1 love with someone else; a situation, wrongly construed, (causing temporary topsy-turveydom all round, and everything finishes exactly as it should for the principals and for the audience, which never likes the enjoyment of its supper and its night's rest disturbed by any ruining of its sentimental feelings, towards its favourites on the stage, whatever its indifference may be to the realities of everyday .life.' There iB plenty of comedy in "Primrose," dispensed in the main by Mr George Gee as tho amazing Toby Meopham, and there-are-many musical numbers. The staging all through is splendid, and some of the effepts are really astounding, particularly that which follows Miss Margery Hicklin's singing of "Blue Hoosier Blues," when in full view of the audience, the chorus suddenly changes from the staid Quaker-like folk of a hundred years ago into a company of jazzing negroes, with colour and costume complete, and then, apparently by a sudden manipulation of the lighting, into delicately-dressed beaux and belles of the Victorian period. The production throughout bears the mark of a master hand. The box plans open to-morrow, Wednesday, morning, at The Bristol.