BACK FROM ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 300, 19 September 1928, Page 11

BACK FROM ENGLAND

RETURN OF MR. WALTER FULLER Mr Walter Fuller, of theatrical note, returned to Wellington on Monday, after over three years’ residence in London, where he represented the Fuller firm, and was responsible for the engagement of many artists who have become popular in Australia and New Zealand. In the course of a talk with a “Dominion” representative, Mr. Fuller said that the London stage was in anything but a flourishing condition, and save in certain well-known houses, where the attractions were “cast-iron,” the results of the last two or three seasons bad been anything but encouraging, and the record of failures in dramatic and comedy productions made bad reading. Vaudeville as a theatrical entertainment had gone to the wall since he was last in England, and was only retained in a few theatres. Revues were still popular in the West End. Some of these were most elaborate productions, notably “The Show Boat,” at Drury Lane, a musical show that brought back scenes on the Mississippi, with negro choruses, etc. One of the great musical treats of last season was the grand opera at Covent Garden, for which a large number of fine artists were engaged. The repertoire this year included the V agnerinn “Ring,” with complete German casts, who were a revelation in this, the highest form of musical art. After getting used to such music, the Italian repertoire seemed thin and insipid, and such a work as “Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saens) appeared to be tame and unsatisfying. . Mr. Fuller came out via Suez on the Orania. the passage through the Red Sea being marked by torrid heat that was the reverse of pleasant. Mrs. Fuller and Misses Jean and June Fuller arrived from Sydney jesterday. and are to resume residence m Oriental Buy’ ■ .