S.I. To Miss Two Touring Shows

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31974, 29 April 1969, Page 8

S.I. To Miss Two Touring Shows

J. C. Williamson Theatres. Ltd, which recently opened the New Zealand season of its touring production of the popular musical, “Fiddler on the Roof," is to have five shows in New Zealand this year—but only three will reach the South Island. One of the attractions which will not come south is a jazz group, the Jacques Loussier Trio. Loussier, a pianist who made his reputation with recordings of his jazz interpretations of themes from the music of J. S. Bach, is to visit New Zealand briefly at the end of the month on his wav to a tour of Australia. With Pierre Michelot (bass) and Christian Garros (drums). Loussier will give concerts in the Auckland Town Hall on May 27 and June 1. and a Wellington concert on May

30. in June, Igor Moiseyev, who brought his Russian Folk Dance Company to New Zealand last year, will return with his new Russian Classical Ballet Company—but, like Loussier, he will visit only Auckland and Wellington. A musical production which will almost certainly be one of the most popular of the year will open in Auckland on July 12. This is the new Australian version of the "Black and White Minstrel Show. | which has set records in all the Australian States. Devised and directed in Australia by George Inns, who; produced the first “Black and White Minstrel Show" at Earl's Court in 1957, it has;

a large company headed by the George Minstrel Singers. Other performers include the Scottish comedian. Denny Willis, the English comedian. Joan Laurie, and a ventriloquist, Ken Wood. After its Auckland season the show will move to Wellington and then to Christchurch.

The fifth attraction, due in late July and early August, is a children’s choir from Japan, the Little Singers of Tokyo. This group of 25 Japanese boys and girls will sing folk, spiritual and sacred songs in both Japanese and English, and a feature of the presentation will be their Japanese costumes. The choir’s tour will begin in Hamilton on July 26, and its stops will include two in Canterbury—in Timaru on August 7 and Christchurch on August 8 and August 9.