"TO-NIGHT'S THE NIGHT"

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 1, 1 January 1917, Page 2

"TO-NIGHT'S THE NIGHT"

MODEB.N MUSICAL COMEDY SEASON. Of the success of the New Musical Comedy Company in Wellington there is now no doubt. On Saturday night the Grand Opera House was again crowded to the last seat, and it almost broke the management':; heart to turn so much good money away because of the want of more room. "To-night's the Night" is quite up-to-date mi.isical comedy, the difference ' between which and vaudeville is very slight indeed, and is becoming slighter. The same irrelevance of the ditty to the play, the same liberal latitude to individual perfoi-mers, the same—or nearly the same—jokes and jokelets (in new guise sometimes), almost the same thing, with the funambulist, performing pelican, trick cyclist, or ventriloquist left out. But—who knows?—they may find admittance in time; for the craving of the amusement-loving public for variety and still more variety is apparently beyond satisfying. Lights, colour, movement, music, and, above all, briskness in everything, never allowing eye and ear of the audience a moment's rest—that is tho formula. "To-night's the Night" has already proved one of the most profitable investments of a theatrical sort that any management has yet embarked upon —provided always that it is well done. That is tho secret—the well doing; the sparing of no expense in mounting; the enlistment of the best of talent, regardless of salary; the playing down to the taste of the larger and especially the younger public, and no moral, no problem, no purpose, no nonsense of the uplift sort, no other object but to amuse the people on the other side of the footlights. They may well be trusted to hang on every word and look and every splash of colour of the people on the stage, appreciating the fundamental realities underlying the farcical exaggerations. "To-night's the Night" furnishes' a banquet of colour and lively action and the latest in slight but " catchy " music. The cast is unusual in its numbers of what may be truthfully called stars of the first magnitude in this particular kind of firmament. There are Miss Maud Fane, one of the brightest and most popular musical comedy stars ; Miss Marie Eaton, vivacity personified, clad in the most gorgeous of frocks and accessories; Miss Dorothy Brunton, who treats her part (any part) as if it were some heady, exhilarating draught, and makes her audience share and enjoy the cup; Miss Connie Eddis, who can be trusted to make the toughest, most hard-wearing laughter material out of the filmiest of fibres. Did she but let herself go, where would she bring up? Miss Eddis only wants the opportunity, and then . So, too, there was again the wonderful dancing of Miss Madge Elliott in a regular whirl of a pas sen! The men in the cast, too, arc; all exceptions. They give the impressibn that they are well able to furnish, if required, finished comedy—subtle, restrained, truly artistic. Mr. Charles Workman seems to appeal to some in his audiences in this wise: " You can see, old man, can't you, that although this may be my line, and I do it very well (so they say), yet I was meant for higher things. Eh? Oh, yes! ' This is the life.' This is what is wanted. Can't get away from it—look at the house." The gay, prevaricating, blundering, henpecked husband of traditional convention suits him well, and he .knows to a nicety how to play the deceiver so that his taradiddles wouldn't deceive a searching K.C., let alone a domineering wife. Messrs. Fred Maguire, H. Wootton, Field Fisher, William Greene, all played and sa-ng just as in musical comedy they ought to do, and Mr. Claude Bantock was quite admirable as a head waiter. Miss Ethel Morrison, as the domineering wife above referred to, was excellent. It is not stretching- the truth to say that " Tonight's the Night" was put on in a. manner worthy of the best houses in London or elsewhere. The dresses were remarkable for their variety, design, colour, and materials. They alone,must, have cost a lot of money. The scenery was exceedingly pretty. The first scene is an elaborate interior giving on to the Upper Thames, Maidenhead way —a- particularly fine piece of work of its land. Black and white is the note struck in the "upholstery and hangings, and with good effect. The last scene, described as a fiat in Mount-street, is an equally ornate piece of work. Fitting in somehow was a clever step-dance turn by Miss Gwennie Withers and Jack Hooker. Mr. Harry B. Burton, musical director, rightly interpreted the spirit of the comedy with his orchestra. '' To-night's the Night" will be repeated this evening.