EXPERT SKATERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 17, 20 January 1940, Page 8

EXPERT SKATERS

SKILL AND FUN ON ICE

Wellington, not during the full hundred years of its existence but for a considerable part of that time, has frequently been indebted to the J. C. Williamson theatrical companies for spectacular stage shows, but it is doubtful whether ever before there has been produced anything to equal "Switzerland," the ice show and ice ballet which opened its season at the Opera House last night. "Switzerland" provides something absolutely novel in the way of entertainment. It is a spectacle which is beautiful in the extreme, thrilling, and humorous, and, although the show is icy in its nature throughout; the reception accorded it last night by a large and thoroughly satisfied audience was anything but chilling. From the moment the curtain rose on the gleaming ice rink into which the stage had been transformed, the enthusiasm of the audience knew no bounds. The ice rink is in front of a Swiss chalet, with Alpine scenery behind. Champion skaters and skaterinas twirl and whirl, grace and speed being combined with harmonious rhythm. Th# ballet, in beautiful and appropriate costumes, waltz and dance in a variety of numbers, with subdued orchestral music accompanying the swish of the silver blades on the ice. Beautiful, captivating, and exhilarating as the ballets were, they were -but a background for the performance of a host of stars. Megan Taylor, a world champion still in her teens, was one of the brightest of these stars, her grace and skill evoking storms of applause. To say that she was the poetry of motion personified is to give but faint praise to her act. Her father, Phil Taylor, also a champion, indulged in more "stunts" than his beautiful daughter: he even skated on stilts, jumped over tables and shrinking assistants, and dodged obstacles at top speed—all with uncanny skill. He had a clever partner in Elsie Heathcote. The MacKinnon Sisters, of Canada, contributed a thrilling adagio dance, and Rita Bramley, Diana Grafton, Ronald Priestley, Graham Hobbs, and several others added to the programme their quota of star skating turns. The evening's humour was supplied by Eddie Marcel, an outstanding comedian and no mean skater (in spite of his repeated indications to the contrary). He acted as M.C. of the whole show, and he chattered and burlesqued, besides skating over thin ice and falling most entertainingly on the real stuff. His biggest hit was when he introduced Egbert, his educated horse. It was all excellent fun, and so was the cabaret interlude during which Connie Graham and Hal Scott amusingly burlesqued prima donnas and film actresses, and the realism of the former's "Tomcat's Midnight Love Song," if it penetrated outside the theatre walls, must assuredly have caused a furore amongst all the felines in the back alleys and neighbouring warehouses. Unorthodox, but none the less entertaining music from a violin, a piano, accordion, and the quaintest of all baby grand pianos was extracted by Tommy Russell and Ernest Marconi, and they were other high lights of this interlude between the two main parts of the programme. "Switzerland" will be repeated again this evening and every night, next week, with a special matinee on Monday. ■