Music and Drama

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23405, 22 July 1939, Page 16 (Supplement)

Music and Drama

THEATRICAL NOTES COMING PRODUCTIONS THEATRE AND CONCERT HALL \ TOWN HALL August 16. —Secondary Schools Music festival. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HALL July 20. - 7 -—Presentation of "Merrie England." t HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE July '2O.— Young Australian Boys Band and Revuo. August 11.—Amateur Operatic Society s •'Rose Marie." lewis eady hall August 8. —Stewart Harvey. v August 24. —Chamber Music Society. ST. ANDREW'S HALL Tonight—The Grafton Shakespeare s •'Chinese Puzzle." August 12. 14, 15, and 16— Catholic Repertory Society's "Impromptu 30. Romantic Composers Music by the Romantic composers of tho 19th Century will be played at the weekly recital of recordings to be given at the Auckland University College hall to-morrow afternoon. The programme will include works by Berlioz, Schumann and Chopin, and^ there wi" bo a complete recording of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. Australian Player Well known for his work in the film, "Dad and Dave," which was produced in Australia, and in which he had the role of Dave, the Australian screen and radio player, Henry Howlett, recently arrived in Wellington. Howlett, who is accompanied by his wife, who herself had considerable experience in the repertory theatre, intends to continue his radio work in this country. Mrs. Howlett will collaborate. They will be hero for some months and eventually will go to Canada. Musical Comedy Preparations are at present in full swing for the Auckland Amateur Operatic Society's production of Rudolf Friml's musical comedy, "Rose Marie," which will be presented for the first time in His Majesty's Theatre on August 11. Rehearsals at the society's rooms in Grafton Road are going on day and night, and at the theatre the finishing touches are being put on the scenery, which is completely new. The producer, Stan Lawson, and the ballet mistress, Miss Rosetta Powell, have their arrangements well in hand, and the musical director, Colin Mustun, is fully prepared.

New Comedy for Dominion. END-OF-YEAR PRODUCTION [from OUR OWN correspondent] LONDON, June 22. AT-EW ZEALAND theatre-goers'with a taste for musical comedy can look forward to a good laugh when "Under Your Hat" is produced in the- Dominion toward the end of the-year by J. C. Williamson, Limited. , For months it has been keeping Londoners amused nightly, and its. performances are still being watched by packed audiences. \ - Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge "carry" the show at the Palace Theatre, They are the central figures in a spy plot, and, of course, they defoat the "minions" of a foreign power in a fell scheme to rob the British Royal Air Force of a secret carburetter, by the use of which warplanes can reach unprecedented speeds. Secret Serviceman There are complications, the eternal triangle popping up again to add- to the awkward positions and hilarity. The .agent of the foreign government is an attractive film actress, and the scene, moves from London to the South of France where espionage appears to be managed in a more romantic manner than foggy London. Enlisted as a member of the Secret Service, Jack is not allowed, to tell. • Cicely that he has to track the film , star"; but she turns up as a French maid to serve cocktails when Jack • and the spy are rapidly getting to know each- other much better. _ _ If espionage is really as gay lji tins musical comedy, it offers opportunities fot a diverting profession. The carburetter is juggled in a box of chocolates in a cafe, stolen'from the spies, recovered by them in an airline booking hall, and finally retrieved _by Jack and Cicely at an unusual and attractive girls' school. Company Selected Spies or no spies, there are many opportunities for singing and dancing to catchy tunes which include Rise Above It," "Together Again, ' lhe Empire Depends on You," and 'Keep it Under Your Hat." Those who have been to the show in London and are great admirers of Jack Hulbert and Cicely C° ur tneidge have enjoyed seeing this couple in various disguises, not the least popular being that of Colonel and Mrs. Sheepshanks, surely the most extraordinary couple ever claiming to hail from "Indiah." The company to perform the show in Australia and New Zealand has been carefully selected, and it is expected that it will prove as popular there as it has been in London.