All Acts Good In “Roaring 20’s”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30535, 2 September 1964, Page 20

All Acts Good In “Roaring 20’s”

Harry Wren can usually be retied on to present a fastmoving entertaining variety show, and “The Roaring 20’s” which opened at the Majestic Theatre last evening is well up to his best standard.

All of the acts are* good, and some are extremely good. Some of the faces—notably those of the English ringer, Tony Weston, and the tapdance pair, the Mackay

brothers—have been seen here before, but they lose nothing by that. The secret of the show’s success with the first-night audience could well be the familiar quick-fire presentation, colourful costuming, good backdrops and the welldrilled chorus.

Probably the most polished performance is that of the acrobatic team, the Feller brothers and Dodo, who practically achieve anti-gravity on the tight wire. The red-headed Dodo revolves the hula hoop while ambling along the wire, and the two young men skip, balance on their hands and even turn cartwheels. With supreme confidence in each other and their own balance, they perform acrobatic feats

i which would be spectacular on the ground, let alone «ft off the ground. Just as much confidence is shown by Zari as the “slaver” : Kazbeck cracks his whip around her wrist, her waist and her throat and whirls her around only fractions of an inch above the floor of the stage. Another exotic touch is lent by Romaine, a beauty queen who comes from Ceylon with bells on her fingers and a sapphire in her navel. The chorus line is enlivened by one doll-like Oriental face. The flapper era is the theme of the show, remembered in such songs as “Varsity Drag,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” and “Blackbottom,” and in the shifts, feathers and beads of the times. There is some amusing farce, some good old-fashioned Australian humour from Terry Scanlan, and a lifelike impersonation of “Snoz” Durante by Keith Petersen. “The Roaring 20’s" is a show which rarely drags its feet, and produces a wellbalanced evening’s entertainment This Review is re-published by arrangement