OPHIR REES REVUE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25364, 11 December 1947, Page 3

OPHIR REES REVUE

“FOLLOW ME AROUND”

“Follow Me Around,” the second Ophir Rees production, yrhich opened at the Theatre Royal last evening, is an ordinary vaudeville show following a time-worn pattern. A little of its humour is funny, and several of the special acts are extremely good. The rest of the production is only fair, and even’ skilled presentation, swift change of scene, and colourful frocking, do not conceal the dustiness of the jokes* or the deficiencies of singers and chorus. Bobby Le Brun, principal comedian of “Follow Me Around,” has his moments. He can keep an audience laughing when he appears as a simple country lad or buys the theatre, and tells orchestra and chorus what to do. But he gets his laughs easily with jokes that have been moving around for a long time. Some still belong to the smoke concert. For comedy the bright and breezy performance of Shirley Donald, and her songs of the Wren, the tram conductress, and the working girl, were much to be preferred. e „ The best acts m “Follow Me Around” are those in which acrobats, a trick cyclist, and a juggler show their skill. Sanderson juggles clubs, tennis balls, and large and small wooden balls with amazing dexterity. Banner Forbutt rides a small but conventional bicycle backwards and forwards, and up in the air, and ends his act by drinking a glass of beer while sitting on the saddle of a monocycle 12ft above the stage. The Three Marcellas—two men and a girl—show both agility and a neat sense of comedy in their tumbling, and the Kermond Brothers’ acrobatics are performed with an air of nonchalance which does not disguise their brilliance. Vivian, using only nis hanas and a few properties, projects a series of amusing shadowgraphs on a screen, and a special ballet, “The Stork is outstanding for its staging, dancing, and comic ending.