STAGE AND SCREEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 3 December 1927, Page 4

STAGE AND SCREEN

West End theatre managers aro having a thin time (writes “The Mail’s” London correspondent). They have to pay devastating rentals. All their prettiest chorus girls are turning mannequins. And now I’iere is something like a famine in leading ladies. Thero is no dearth of actresses who consider that, Providence specially designed them to play Sybil Thorndike and Edith Evans parts in serious drama, but whero are the picture postcard queens of musical comedy? Beatrice Lillie and Annie Croft aro in America; Evelyn Layo is packing to go there; Binnio llalo wants a good holiday; Lily Elsie and Phyllis Dare arc tired of musical plays; and Helen Gilliland is booked for “The Girl from Cook’s”, the new'vonture that is to make its debut in Manchester this month before coming to London. The only consolation of the harassed manager is the fact that public schoolboys are tumbling over each other for male chorus parts. < A new Shylock won an exceptional success when “The Merchant of Venice” was revived at the Lyric, Hammersmith, recently. This was Lewis Casson, the husband of Sybil ■ Thorndike, who played “the Jew that Shakespeare drew” for the first time in his life. “The be.st Shylock since Irving, ’ pcoplo wero heard saying as they, left theatre. Mr Casson has long, established himself as one of England’s most versatile actors, and his Shylock was played upon unusual lines. To begin with, he spoke in tho accent of the Jews of the Moderfi East London ghetto. He ( pronounced “well” as “veil,” and “was as “vas.” “Regatta, a new play by Sutton Vane, author of “Outward Bound,” recently had a- two weeks’ tour in the English provinces before its production ,in the West End. Oscar Straus, the noted composer’, won success with many light operas, but none is more melodious, attractive, and brighter than “The Chocolate Soldier” which ig based on Shaw’s whimsical comedy “Arms aud the Man.” Tho music is exceedingly graceful and tuneful. The versatile principals of tho J. 0. Williamson Comic Opera Co., at present delighting Now Zealanders with an extensive repertoire, will stage this opera, will find new scope for their ability in musical comedy, and it will be• interesting to note how tho. present combination will appeal to music-lovers and theatre-goers of tho Dominion. Stella Wilson will play Nadiua. “Rose Marie” which after many delays is advertised to open in Auckland on 21st December'is said to have broken every musical comedy record in traliaOn conclusion of his production of “The Arcadians” in Nelson, Mr Theodore Trezise will spend a short holiday at Mount Cook after which lie will leave for Sydney to fulfil a dancing engagement at the Tivoli Theatre. Ho will be partnered by Mile, Liane do - Salanges the Parisian beauty with the wonderful blonde hair. ' y i AUSTRALIAN,FILM FANS Mr David R. Casey, tho joint owner of six largo cinemas.’in Melbourne, is in London telling British producers that Australia wants more good British films. British pictures used to bo very unpopular in the Antipodes, owing to the fact that American concerns bought up batches of the admittedly poor films, produced here when the industry was in an impoverished state, and disposed of them on the block booking system. But wfien “Mademoisello from Armen-tieres”-reached Australia, the unpopularity disappeared.. Mr Casey says: “That film had one of tho greatest successes that any picturo has had in Australia in recent years. Our film-going public is already asking when ‘Roses of Picardy’ and oilier British films aro likely to read! Australia.” In Australia there is a cipema to every 5,000 peoplo, and tho audiences are very critical. They do not Hesitate to boo or count out a film they do 7 not like,, and . in some cases they will even throw things at the screen. ' Australia is “the only country in the world that shows two star pictures in each programme. “Every, night,” said Mr Casey, “we have to show, between 18,000 and 21,000 feet of film in three hours.” There is a movement to cultiVatc the hobby of, amateur motion picture production in Auckland. Last week 60 amateur photographers and actoi’s met to discuss the new club. Tho intention is to produce a film based on a scenario selected in competition between members of the club. Ireno Rich has commenced work on her latest production for Warner Brothers’ “The Silver Slave.”. . Audrey Ferris has the juvenile feminine lead, with Carroll Nye, Holmes Herbert and John Miljan completing the cast.