‘WHITE HORSE INN’

Evening Star, Issue 22276, 29 February 1936, Page 23

‘WHITE HORSE INN ’

J. C. WILLIAMSON'S FINEST PRODUCTION The following was written by the critic of the Wellington 1 Evening Post ’ regarding the opening gala night there of J. C. Williamson Ltd.’s ‘ White Horse Inn,’ which is to be staged hero at His Majesty’s Theatre on Saturday, March 14, beginning with a gala performance. “It would tax the memory to recall the Grand Opera House so full and so happy as on Saturday night, the first night of J. C. Williamson Ltd.’s ‘White Horse Inn.’ The mind went back to the glamorous first nights of the long ago; and when Mr Alfred Frith made his neat little speech at the fall of the curtain, he struck the right and the popular note when he said that the overflowing and applauding house was a reminder that there are still vast audiences that have a warm spot in their hearts for the legitimate stage. The big audience and the performers on the stage (in themselves a small army) literally took to each other. Ribbon streamers were thrown in profusion from stage to audience and from audience to stage, and across this network of pink ribbon Mr Frith delivered his speech of thanks for a bumper first night, best possible guarantee of a brilliant season. Within the limits of a Press notice it would he impossible to adequately describe ‘ White Horse Inn.’ Nearly everything attractive that is known to human nature is found in this melodious, colourful, brilliantly-illuminated procession of living pictures. It would be easier to list the things not in ‘ White Horse Inn ’ than the enormous number of novelties and embellishments it contains. The highest pitch of ballet brilliance is reached as a matter of course, hut in addition there are touches of all kinds—droll and human —to act as foils to female lure; for instance, a caricature of a man with a game leg and a fierce moustache hobs up and down in this scene of ballet beauty; green-clad Tyrol foresters pass in and out; men of exaggerated nether proportions and men aggressively hirsute dapple the pictures with comedy; and high over all the austere Tyrolese peaks look down with a benificence worthy of the Hapsburgs themselves. A team of children add charm to the revels, and the farm goats take an intelligent part in the proceedings, but the intelligence of the cows is simply uncanny. These creatures are in turn resentful, sympathetic, tearful, and also distinctly shockable in their moral perceptions—what the producer has accomplished with them must be seen to be believed. When a little girl led on the first goat, people were were prepared to see a menagerie as well as a beauty show, but the cowshed ballots far exceeded anticipation, and set the seal of the bucolic reputation of ‘ White Horse Inn.’ ”

The dazzling cowshed was, however, only one of the novelties. Until this eye-filling production came the number of evolutions by which ballet girls can resemble billowy undulations, falling grain, waving grass, railway trains, etc., was fairly limited. ‘ White Horse Inn ’ must have about doubled them, and doubled the brilliance of the dressing, lighting, and colour effects. Hitherto it had never been demonstrated how a ballet girl • can wear her heart below the waistline, but the producer has solved this problem with just one delicate touch] the audience does not see him doing it, but enjoys the hearty effect. A wonderful lake steamer cornea on and off the stage, and in the finish comes that greatest novelty of all—the revolving stage. When some of the choicest offerings of Tyrolese dancing and stage-picture are mounted on' this device, they appear to float across the vision and sink into the distance, and thus ‘ White Horse Inn’ becomes in very essence “the passing show ’’ of this modernistic age —the heir of the old flesh-and-blood performances of pre-war era, magnificently up to date with all that mechanisation and lighting can add to the beauty of female form and fantastic tableau. To accomplish all this, the Grand Opera House stage encroaches on the auditorium boxes. So much for ballet, magic, animal magic, colour pictures, novelties, but an outstanding feature of ‘ White Horse Inn ’ is its music. Through the medium of'the gramophone and radio the lilting melodies have been made familiar the world over. It says much for the artists that its soloist members do more than full justice to the music. Had this been, otherwise the remarkable successes with which the present company is meeting might not be possible, for the music of ‘ White Horse Inn ’ is one of the strongest of its many outstanding features. Also ‘ White Horse Inn ’ unfolds a delightful story, the interest of which is sustained right to the final fall of the curtain.

Applications for preferential booking will be received up to and including next Saturday, March 7, and firstnighters are requested to collect thenseats before that date. Box plans for ordinary booking will be opened at the D.I.C. on Tuesday, March 10.