GLADYS MONCRIEFF

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21946, 14 February 1946, Page 2

GLADYS MONCRIEFF

NEW ZEALAND TOUR SANG FOR TROOPS Looking extremely well and full of zest for her forthcoming New Zealand tour. Miss Gladys Moncrieff, Australian light opera star, stepped off the Durban Castle at Wellington recently. It is her first visit since 1940, when she came to New Zealand under contract with the National Broadcasting Service. This time she is with J. C. Williamson. Limited, and will appear in some of the musical comedy roles in which she first won fame. Like most other people who arrive on troopships, Miss Moncrieff has been busy on war service. She played in many centres w'here troops were stationed. Her biggest audience was at a concert on the cricket oval at Port Moresby, where 17,000 troops assembled. The boys came hours early to get vantage seats, she said, and were tremendously enthusiastic. Favourite song among the soldiers was “Home Sweet Home.” The first time she sang it she wondered whether perhaps it was the wrong thing to sing to men so far away from home and under such circumstances, but after that first time she was constantly requested 1o repeat it. “My Hero” -was second favourite with the troops. They wanted her to sing the Lord’s Prayer, but she refused. Musical comedy was still the principal draw in the Australian theatre, she said. During the last three years and a half musical comedy shows had established an all-time record. In New Zealand, her programmes, starting at Auckland early in February, would include the “Merry Widow,” “Viktoria and Her Hussars,” “Rio Rita,” and one other, perhaps "Maid of the Mountains.” Just how the whole company was going to get itself together in New Zealand she was not yet certain, since some of the cast were still held up in Sydney, waiting for their ship, the Katoomba. to sail.