STAGE AND CONCERT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 18

STAGE AND CONCERT

A BRIGHT FUTURE SOME COMING ATTRACTIONS Optimistic views on the future of the legitimate stage and the concert platform were expressed on his arrival in Auckland yesterday by Mr. Claude Kingston, concert director for J. and N. Tait and J. C. Williamson, Limited. Mr. Kingston said that Mr. Richard Crooks' farewell concert in Victoria drew 16,000 people to tho Melbourne Exhibition Building last Saturday week, creating a record for any J. and N. Tait concert attraction over the past 30 years. In Wellington, where the inaugural concerts were given, two houses were sold right out hours before the time for commencement. As an indication of the return of confidence he said that on board the Moldavia, due to arrive at Adelaide in a few days, were 65 members of the Colonel de Basil Monte Carlo Russian Ballet, the ballet which performed so successfully at Monte Carlo under Fokine ami Massine for years, and which created a furore in London only a few weeks ago. Under Morenstein this company (larger than those of Co nee and Pavlova) will present 24 ballets, introducing the latest effects in spectacular choreography. Before leaving Wellington Mr. Kingston received telegraphic: advice that on the first day the box plans for the ballet season were opened in Adelaide (where centenary celebrations are in progress), £3400 was taken. This company will play in Melbourne after Adelaide until just before Christmas. It will play at Christmas and New Year and until February 16 at Sydney, after which it will leave for New Zealand. Mr. Kingston said there were excellent prospects of a tour of New Zealand in the New Year of the Melbourne Repertory Company, under Mr. Gregan McMahon, presenting such plays as " Lover's Leap," " Richard of Bordeaux, ' possibly " The Wind and the Rain," and other delightful modern plays. Mr. McMahon was formerly a clever character actor in J. C. Williamson's companies, and is regarded as one of the best producers of comedy in the Commonwealth " The Merry Widow " has been revived in Melbourne again with Gladys Moncrieff in-the lead. " She was simply wonderful," said Mr. Kingston. " Miss MoneriefF has 'reduced' in some miraculous way; she wears a number of ravishing costumes which become her, and is singing as well as ever. The GilbertSullivan Company, after a run of one year and nine months, is at Perth, and will return to Sydney for a farewell season in December. Its success has been phenomenal." Mr. Frank Tait is to leave for America in company with Mr. Richard Crooks in October by the Mariposa.