THEATRICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19892, 10 March 1928, Page 8 (Supplement)

THEATRICAL NOTES.

A NOVEL AS A MUSICAL PLAY.

" Show Boat," the uovel by Miss Edna Ferber, one of the most delightful of recent years,, has been transformed into m musical play under the aegis of that indefatigible New York producer, Mr. Ziegfield. " Show Boat," according to Mr. Percy Hammond, the critic of the New York Herald-Tribune, is one of the most distinguished light opera of its generation. It does as much as the theatre can do to be tuneful, dramatic, funny and picturesque. The libretto is by the second Oscar Hanunerstein, the author of " Iloso Marie," if one may use the term, and is said to bo a comparatively reverent approximation of the novel. The songs by Jerome Kern are pretty and atmospheric. The adapters of necessity, had a difficulty task before them if they were to preserve tlie essenco and atmosphere of the tale, a drifting story of lifo on a floating theatre on the Mississippi River, One .wonders how they could improve on the word pictures painted by Miss 1' erbcr. Here is a sample: "Those were mesmeric nights in 1 lie Cotton Blossom Floating Palace Theatre.' The whites of the negroes' eyes gleamed brighter; the swarthy coal miners and their shawled and sallow wives, the small town merchants, tho shambling loafers, the backwoodsmen and the farmers wore magically transformed. They forgot the cottonfields, the wheattields, the cornfields. They forgot tho coal mines, the potato patch, 'the stable, the barn, tho tihed. They forgot the labour under tho pitiless blaze of the noonday sun; tho bitter marrow-numbing chill of winter; the blistered skin; the frozen road; wind, snow, rain, flood. Tho women forgot., for an hour, their washtubs, their kitchen stoves, their childbirth pains, drudgery, worry, disappointment. Hero were blood, love, lust, passion. Here were warmth, enchantment, laughter, music. It was Anodyne. It was Letho. It was escape. It was the Theatre." . . * " Show Boat" should more than ■welcome if it ever comes to New Zealand, for in it there should be scopo for characterisation such is seldom found in a modern musical play. Magnolia Eavenal and her husband are both, in the novel, beautiful figures, Captain Andy essentially human and tho domineering Parthcnia Hawkes a little too powerful to be comic and a little too comic to be dramatic. And the show boat actress who hides in shame the secret of her negro blood should provide another striking character. , Altogether, " Show Boat" contains the material for a fine play, and perhaps a musical setting, with tho pathetic croonings of a downtrodden race as the background, should give it added beauty. One has only to read the novel to want to see it acted. PLAYS AND PLAYERS. Rudolf Friml, who was response for the music of " Rose Mario and the Vagabond King," has composed the score for " The White Eagle, the musical version of 11 The Squaw' Man. Ihe plaj was produced in New \ ork recently and opened successfully.

Mr. Maurice Ralph, general manager for E. J. Gravesiock, Limited, has received advice from Mr. Gravestock that the New Zealand tour of Miss Amy Evans and Mr. Fraser Grange will open in Wellington Town Hall on April 14. These two singers,' who'"delighted New Zealand audiences seven years ago, will then make a comprehensive tour of both islands. Both Miss Evans and Mr. Gangc liavo met with considerable success during the seven years they have spent in the United States.

To judge from an announcement just snade, variety in England is not being ousted by revue and motion pictures. Sir Walter Gibbons and Mr. F. A. Szarvasy have launched a scheme to purchase immediately 60 theati'es in London and the provinces and to turn them a new type of cinema-variety house. Ultimately 40 more are to be acquired, and a new theatre, seating 5000, will bo built on a London site already purchased. The 6vndicate *as bought the Palladium, the liolborn Empire, and 15 other theo.lres, for £770,000, as part of the scheme. Sir Walter Gibsons states that popular prices, from lid upwards, will be charged, with stalls at Is 6d, and every programme will include three oi* four "turns," thus keeping the essentials of the music-hall aliVe.

A season of Grand Opera will be opened in Australia next month, and later on the company will play in Auckland, Wellington, Christcliurch and Dunedin, As the result of Mr. J. N. Tait's recent visit to Italy, tho list of artists is now almost complete and contracts have been signed. The company, consisting of about eighty artists, has been selected mainly from the Scala Opera, Milan, and will include four leading performers who were in the previous comSany which tpurerl Australia. These are oti Dal Monto (soprano), Lina Scavizzi (soprano), Apollo G ran fort e (baritone), and Uinberto di Lelio (basso). Another soprano chosen is Aranghi Lombarcii, and two others have yet to be selected. Other members of tho company are:—Tenors: Francesco Merli, Angelo Minghetti. Ettore Cesabianchi, Do Muro Lamonto, Luigi Cilia and Luigi Parodi; mezzo sopranos: Minghini Cattaneo and Vere de Cristoff; baritones: AuguSto Beuf and Rossi Morelli; bassos: Gaetano Azzolini and Oreste Carozzi. The principal conductor is 'Antonio Fuggazola. Another one has yet to be chosen, as well as two assistant conductors. Tho staff consists of [Roberto Zucchi (chorus master), Carlo Farinetti (stage director), Ines Acari (ballet mistress), and Amleto Tornari (prompter). Some Australian artists will also be included in the company, but final arrangements with them have not yet been made. The complete list of operas to be played is now available. They are " Lohengrin," " Tannhauser," " Valfciria " (Wagner) ; " Aida," " Rigoletto," •"Trovatore, " Traviata " (Verdi); f'Lucia," " Don Pasquale," " La Figlia del Reggimento" (Donnizetti); "Fedora," ."Andrea Chenier " (Giordano); "Faust " (Gounod); " Turandot," " Suor Angelica," "II Tabarro," " Gianna Sehicchi," " Boheme," " Tosca," " Manon Lescaut " (Puccini); "II Barbiere di Siviglia " (Rossini); " Les Contes d'Hoffman " (Offenbach); " L'Amore Dei Tra Re " (Montemezzi) ; " Cavalleria Rusticana," " Lodoletta " (Mascagni); " Cosi fan Tutte," Adrianna Lecouvrier " ;(Mozart.)