BACK-STAGE

Evening Star, Issue 22682, 23 June 1937, Page 11

BACK-STAGE

HUB Of MARCUS SHOW LESSEN IN SYNCHRONISATION As Americans, and as countrymen of George Jean Nathan, the liveliest • critic of the legitimate stage, the people of the Marcus Show will appreciate that even the great Nathan might learn a thing or two if he were to view a ■performance back-stage. Certainly, any Dunedin audience, could it -he transported cn masse, would be as hugely entertained viewing the spectacle from that angle as from the more conventional angle in front.” How does the company achieve what could almost be termed the perpetual motion effect—the bewildering continuity of action from first to last curtain? In a word, by honest Ame- ' rican “ hustle,” and that without any manifestation of hurry. Behind the wings is a world all its own. And the chief actors are not the stage performers but the comparatively prosaic characters who afe not .V seen. There is a lady just beyond the sight of the audience whose chief diversion is to glance up from her knitting and laugh again at antics she must have seen hundreds of times, or admire the skilful manipulation of shapely feet as the ballet pirouettes round the stage., Then there is Joe Kearns, who has been associated with Mr Marcus in various companies # for 11 years in his role as chief electrician. On him rests the spectacular success of the show, apart from the glitter of flimsy dresses and glorious scenic backgrounds. Above on the platforms several pairs of eyes from each side of the stage turn in his direction as with upraised arm he waits for the cue that brings with it the quick manipulation of. switches controlling batteries of lights of every colour of the rainbow, and guite possibly more. His is an exacting “ profession,” but he never makes a mistake or mixes up the hundreds of wires that trail sinuously round the back of the stage settings. Then there are the scene shifters. So schooled are they in their job that everything is literally whisked into place with the same ease that the little . lady .is whisked through space by strong masculine arms in one of the most spectacular presentations of this particular performance. As one of them put it, in an American drawl, “it » sure swell when all is routine.” Those quick-change artists in scene and dress, the chorus girls, complain of the cold in Dunedin, and last night it was not till well after the intermission that most of them were at all warmed up to the work into which they enter with such infectious enthusiasm. But by the time that they had satisfied the critical eye of the producer after a four-hour rehearsal when the performance proper had finished, they would probably be too tired to dwell on the frigidity of the atmosphere. No programmes are ever seen behind; everybody is thoroughly conversant with the minutest detail of the show. Nor is there ever any congestion. Chorus and principals seem to appear from nowhere just at the correct mo-

ment for their entry on to the stage. As the orchestra swings _ into the entr’acte, an episode foreign to the uninitiated takes place on the curtained stage. This is known as “ whitening inspection,” the members of the chorus responding to a number and standing under the glare of an arc lamp to test the make-up of thick powder and rouge. .As they duster in the wings ready to make their initial bow, they chat about everything, terminating their snatched conversation in many- cases as they arc actually on the stage. “ Swell place, the Castle,” said one, as she flitted before the audience. “it even has a real wishing wdl.” These girls express the sparkling philosophy of America’s show people, and are likeable and personable beings.