"ROSE MARIE"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 7

"ROSE MARIE"

GRAND OPERA HOUSE SUCCESS I Although the music is excellent, aud although the artists are individually and collectively good iii "Hose Marie," this musical romance of the Canadian Rockies is first and foremost a producer's success Ihe dance-acrobacy of the day has been adapted to wonderfully original dancimr evolutions, and the whole ballet, a syn' chronised piece of mechanism as well as a colour scheme, talks to the audience in a. wonderful manner, reaching its highest expression in the "Totem Pole" feature To describe how this ballet coils and uncoils itself, and falls and rises, like a great serpent, is really beyond the power of words It has to be seen to be realised; and those who have been watching for years the progress of the inventiveness that finds new stage-rhthym in movements of hands and legs and in squads of swaying bodies and who believed that this inventiveness had reached its limit, will admit at once that the dance-specialists and producers who evolved "Rose Marie" features took a big step forward, eclipsing the best dance-acrobaey standards of the past Under the shadow of the totem poles, with the snow-capped and pine-forested Kocky Mountains in the background, the spirits o£ the Indian braves assemble- for the dance, and thus is created a fanciful. situation that gives weird movement and bizarre colouring a particular opportunity, which the producer by no means misses. In a crescent-shaped formation, the phalanx of braves begins to collapse from one end, and it is done bo rhythmically that the picture is "not as of a falling of figures one by one but the subsiding of a beautiful erect fabric into an equally beautiful one prone upon the floor Nothing written of these features of Rose Marie has been over-stated. The music has already had such a vogue per gramophone and otherwise, that it is fairly well known. The choruses are very fine, and in chime with the general richness of the spectacle. The love-story is just about what one would expect in a musical romance of the Rocky Mountains with its stalwart hero, "Jim Kenyon" (why not Canyon?") seeking self-govern-ment as well as a bride, and with a very mellifluous little heroine in "Rose Marie L,a I' amme, ■ whose French-Canadianism provides another orthodox touch Not quite so orthodox—in fact, almost original -is the Indian girl "Wanda," on whose murder of her half-breed husband the story pivots "Jim" the hero is of course blamed, and equally of course "Rose Mane, after the usual vacillation, ends up in his strong innocent arms. In the well-known duet, "Indian Love Call," Miss Harriet Bennett ("Rose Marie") and Mr Reginald Dandy ("Jim") made a decided impression on the crowded audience, and ?3 r 1?:^, 188 .Rennet in "Pretty Things" (delightful with chorus and ballet) "Lak Jeem, 'and "Door of My Dreams" (bridal setting). Miss Bennet is a pleasing and capable actress, vocally well equipped, and £■• ,Pt ndy> all that a Western hero should be. Nevertheless, it will hardly be denied that no individual on the stage made a greater impression than Miss btephame Deste as the dark, sinuous, and snake-like Indian girl. It is a part with great fascination, and Miss Deste is the actress to make the most of it. Wonderful as the totem pole dance is in itself her figure in front yet dominated it, and helped to preserve in it the barbaric Indian element which she was out to personify. As an acrobatic dancer she also won much individual applause. On the comedy side Mr. Frederic Bentley as "Hard-Boiled Herman, Miss Yvonne Bonvard as "Lady Jane, and Mr. James Hughes as "Sergeant Malone," stand out. The audience "M possible doubt as to the success ■of Mr. Bentley, a small and snappy comedian who revels in his work with the happiest results. Other participants are Mr. George Bryant as "Black Eagle" (the murdered drunken husband of "Wanda"), Mr. Noel Allan as the scheming "Edward Hawley, Mr. Lou Vernon as "Emile La Flamme," and Miss Mabel Lambeth as "Ethel Brander." The brilliance of the picture, the beauty of the music, and the uncanny precision of the ballet assure a long season for "Rose Marie," whose reception by the full house last evening was all that could be desired.