COLOURFUL AMERICAN REVUE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 191, 10 May 1937, Page 5

COLOURFUL AMERICAN REVUE

Opening of Marcus Show RICH SPECTACLE AND CLEVER TURNS So pointedly was the Marcus Show heralded as a sort of apotheosis or feminine beauty that its real strength remained hidden by banners of advance publicity. It was left for the audience in Wellington's New Opera House on Saturday night to discover that this firstclass revue company contains some of the cleverest people in their various lines of business who have stepped on a New Zea land stage. They make the show. Without them there would be eye-filling spectaeie and colour; there would be brilliant. scenic and ensemble effect; there would be an almost barbaric'richness of costuming and a captivating parade of youthful beauty; but there would not be the meat of entertainment that brings complete success to the Marcus Show.

"La Vie I’aree” was an introduction, and a very pleasant one, to American stage production methods. Every turn, every item, was blended by fast, smooth presentation against glittering, changing backgrounds. So speedy was the continuity that there were occasions when a new act was launched before the previous performers had taken their bow. There was hardly time to praise, so abruptly was applause, cheeked by the appearance of fresh fare, but Saturday night's audience, after accepting this hustle for a while, held up the show in time-honoured fashion while it expressed itself in storms of hand-clapping. Among the individual acts to which must go the laurels, the Tossing Belfords, six acrobats of extraordinary skill, leave vivid memory. The members of the team were seen in swift, dramatic action on a number of occasions, but. they combined as a straight acrobatic turn in the finale, presenting a brilliant routine of tumbling and balancing, A second remarkable group consisted of the male tap-dancers and eccentric dancers. I .eon Sillier, an exceptionally neat tap and soft-shoe dancer and light comedian to boot, went from success to success, especially in his Dancing Academy, in which he led a nimblefooted ballet through the intricacies of fast tap-and-shuffle. George Schreck, introduced as "Nuts, and more of ’em,” appeared all too briefly in an uproarious dancing burlesque turn, one moment pure clowning, the next clever mimicry. Al Ricker, an attenuated eccentric dancer with a body of india rubber, displayed yet another brand of dancing comedy. Two solo musicians, Fid Gordon, who played his violin in a dozen awkward attitudes, with the lingers of one hand, and by plucking the strings with his teeth; also Les Seehrist, who played his piano-accor-dion smoothly and attractively, and Sofia Alvarez, who twice sang Mexican songs in national costumes ami settings, were three who contributed good vaudeville turns of a more or less familiar calibre.

Charon D Vries deserves a high place in the list of comedy entertainers if only because she revels in doing what most women avoid at all costs —namely, making herself ridiculous by complete gaucherie. Her burlesque of an impassioned singer, accompanied by contortions that made a mock of a trim figure, was broad comedy of fruity vintage. The principal male comedian of the show is Ben McAtee, who works on quietly-orthodox lines, getting most of his laughs out of fairly sophisticated patter. Sparkey Kaye, who drew heavier laughter ou Saturday night with his fast knockabout comedy, is more in keeping with Marcus novelty. In the sketch. “Dear Doctor,” and as a lunatic tyro of the .boxtng-ring, he buffooned gorgeously. Furthermore, lie paved the way for Wellington’s introduction to American “stooge” comedy, hitherto sampled only in the cinema, in which three or four knockabout comedians, posing as half-wits, combine in an act that mingles slapstick with subtlety. 'The Marcus Show stooges may or may not be at the top of their class, but nothing more laugh-ter-provoking was offered on Saturday night—which is saying a great deal. Others who had their share of the comedy were Dorothy Coudy, who effectively partnered the cheerful Mr. McAtee, Bobby Dyer, and Harold Boyd. So prodigal is the staging of the Marcus Show that where in the average run of revues there are perhaps two elaborate ensembles, each bv way of a finale, here there are at least six, all presented with shimmering completeness of design, colour and mounting. The most effective full-stage presentations in “La Vie Paree” are Palais D'Argent, in which Ha Cha San. a particularly shapely dancer, poses and performs with athletic grace clad in a coating of silver paint amid a setting of revue grandeur, and Birdland, in which an entire ballet takes to the air’and performs rhythmic trapeze work above a changing scene o£ showgirls and dancers. Throughout this and other scenes, solo and team dancers such as Sylvia Lee. Masson, the Sisters Hinton, and the Bernays, add their attractive quotas. The singing of the Marcus Show is not its strong point. Apart from Scnorita Alvarez, no one in the company has a voice that can reach far enough over the footlights to be in any way satisfying, and for the remainder of the season loudspeakers (which were out of action on Saturday) will no doubt carry the many bright songs past the brisk and lilting barrage thrown up by the efficient band. “La Vie I’aree” will be presented by the .Marcus Company again this evening.