STAGE, PLAYS AND PLAYERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 23 May 1936, Page 9

STAGE, PLAYS AND PLAYERS

VAUDEVILLE IN DUNEDIN After a successful season at Christchurch the Frank O’Brien revue company opened at Dunedin last Saturday to capacity houses. Headed by Frank O'Brien and Janice Hart, the company includes :—The three Velescos, acrobats ; Dave James, the cigarette wizard ; Desiree and Montiguc, dancers; The Orlandos, adagio dancers; V. Sanderson, juggler; Marie Doran, soprano; Alma Aldous, comedienne; Alec baritone; Cecil Scott, light comedian; Paul Velesco, boy violinist; Max Iteddy, dancer and comedian; and the 12 Casino Girls, ballet.

“NIGHT MUST FALL,” IN WELLINGTON “Night Must Fall,” a psychological “thriller,” succeeded “Fresh Fields” in Wellington last week. After the Wellington season the company will appear at. Wanganui. Hawera. New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Hastings, Dannevirke, Taihape (where Miss Hamill’s father is a well-known journalist), and then to Auckland, where a three weeks’ season will be commenced on 13th June GILBERT AND SULLTVAN IN CHRISTCHURCH The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera- Company is in the last weeks of its long and successful tour of New Zealand. “The Gondoliers” and “The Pirates of Penzance” were staged at Christchurch this week, with “Yeomen of the Guard” to follow. “Long Tack Sam” company is at present delighting North Island playgoers. Air Long is as amusing as he is mystifying in his illusions, and the performers supporting him (both Orientals and Europeans) are exceptionally clever.

WTLLTAMSONS TO STAGE ELABORATE REVUE

An elaborate revue is to be staged by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., at Melbourne, it is to be a show of music, dancing, spectacle, sketches and burlesque or a very generous scale. Strella Wilson will join the principals of the- “Anything Goes" com pany in this revue, and Harry Lang cion, the film star, will be seen in sonn of his most successful stage sketches. Apart from the ballet enembles vig nettes of historical scenes in Australian settings will be presented in original staging. . KINDEST HEARTS “The more- one has to do with people in various walks of life, the more one realises that those with the biggest and kindest hearts, the quickest sympathies and the most tolerant understanding belong to the stage,” says a writer in a Dunedin paper. HAMILTON ACTRESS IN WELLINGTON Of Elaine Hamill’s performance in “Fresh Fields,” the Ivor Novello comedy, the Wellington “Evening Post” says: “Elaine Hamill’s idea of the Lady Lilian was admirable. She appeared to thoroughly understand the unreality of the character depicting a foolishly proud, shallow-brained, self-centred, and semi-hyperchondriacal woman with skill and enjoyment. “Ethel Morrison (another New Zealander) and Miss Hamill received a. welcome when they appeared, but it was nothing to the ovation given by the audience at the end of the play. Speeches were demanded and given. Miss Morrison described the reception of the company as ‘marvellous.’ “Miss Hamill said it was ‘wonderful,’ adding that she could find no more to say than that she could not speak and that, anyway, she was ‘hungry.’ “THE GIPSY PRINCESS” FOR AUSTRALIA Maria Eisner, who will star in Australia in “The Gipsy Princess,” a spectacular musical play, is said to iresernble the Austrian soprano, Maria Jeritza. She is a Hungarian blonde, who has appeared in the opera houses of Dresden, Paris and Vienna, and has sung at the Salzburg Festival in Max Reinhardt’s production of “The Student Prince,” and with Richard Tauber in the German tenor’s first film. Mr Nevin Tait in London heard Miss Eisner singing music from “The Gipsy Princess” over the British Broadcasting Company’s network. Two other artists engaged for the Australian production are Charles Heslop, comedian, and Dunstan Hart, baritone of unusually high range, who starred in “The Waltz Dream.