ENTERTAINMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12022, 27 December 1924, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS

"THE ©’BRIEN CIBL” REFRESHING MUSICAL COMEDY FESTIVAL OF DANCING. At His Majesty’s Theatre last evening the “O’Brien Girl” danced her way into a popularity as immense and immediate as any which has greeted a musical show since the theatre began. It was a red-letter date in Dominion theatrical history, for it marked the entry of the Fuller-Ward combination into tlieir first New Zealand tour. And the piece which they chose for this: long-awaited debut is of striking merit. I There never was a more excellent and ! appealing show. “The O’Brien Girl” is a most invigorating and wholesome comedy. It is based upon an age-old theme; hut it turns tha theme inside out and does not let it suffer. The audience last evening was enormous, and for the suc-deeding evenings is likely to continue so. For the whole play is wonderfully produced and wonderfully slick. The girls m it are legion, and they are remarkably trained and tremendously efficient. Any little rawness is at once remedied. And the many maidens who dance their way through the piece move with the precision of a guardsman and the grace of a coryphee through stdps as complicated as a mathematical problem. The show is the only one in history to rival “Mary” in the matter of dancing. In “Mary” there was almost too much dancing; in “The O'Brien Gill” there is scarcely enough. For liberal though the producer has been one wishes for more. The ballets on a grand scale —choral-ballets one might call them are of superlative excellence, the steps are infinitely various, and each new dance has its own particular individuality. The frocking is a thing of marvel and amazement, and tho ensembles in consequence are of Unusual beauty. The sentiment of “The O’Brien Girl” is a thing momentary and skin deep. No one viewing Miss Mamie Watson could doubt the outcome of her adventure. But the message of the show is contained in one of the ditties in the first act, “Learn to Smile,” and its delightful high spirits survive to the end. Above all it is a festival of dancing; in short the best musical play whioh mas visited us for a long time. The plot is simple and effective. Alice O'Brien, chief stenographer to the publishing firm of Drexel and Pattor., purchases pome wonder frocks, and elects to spend fourteen days in a j fashionable hotel in the Adirondaeks, all this on an uncle’s legacy. She is] charming, beautiful, cultured, if not j brilliant, but does she “belong?” -Larry Patten, just out of college, says that she does; the rest of the world, when it finds her out, does not. Larry, | young and handsome, is fair game for; the matchmaking Mrs Drexel (the! third lady to own that name) and is J engaged off to Eloise Drexel. in thatsurprisingly easy manner in which people who know what they want usually I manage to get it. But Eloise has! other ideas and so has Larry, and Alice | changes her initial, to “P” round, about the time that irresponsible Bill j Weatherley, Liny’s chum,, finds Eloise, responsive to his hundred-and-1 first proposal. Which means that all ends happily, save for Humphrey Drexel,” who began henpecked, was made to be henpecked, and. save fol one glorious moment of revolt, will re-:, main henpecked for ever. i (

Never was a show so fortunate in its Principals. Musically “The O’Brien Girl” is orjght and engaging; hut the singing is not very strong. In every other department, however, the standard is not merely high, it is superlative.

Miss Mamie Watson, to begin with, is a star whose attraction is none the less definite for being unusual. This tall, slender girl has grace and dignity, she has beauty and brains and is a world away from the strident soprano, or affected, fruity utterance of the ordinary run. Her movement, is graceful arid appealing, and her natural poise and charm make her visits to the stage refreshing and all too rare. Next, for the sake of contrast, one must put June Roberts. In repose* Miss Roberts has no chance to reveal her powers; but once in action : she is be witching. Her dancing ia! electric, she has her body under perfect discipline. Her smallest action is made in the most definite manner and with wonderful command and dexterity. The ease and rapidity of her dancing are equalled l onlv by her surpassing cleverness and the unparalleled profusion of her steps. She canuot fail to stir enthusiasm. And yet again a third dancer. Hazel Harris, ! appears with Wesley Pierce. Here is, another unusual type, a girl tall, lissom and as light as a feather. She [ held the audience enraptured and vanished to a storm of applause,. There is nothing ordinary about her ( and her dancing is always distinguished. Because of the variety of these three girls in the one field Miss May Beatty has waited till now. But she js still as clever as of old, as eccentric, as wonderfully odd and full of surprising tricks. One charm of Miss | Beatty is that you never find her doing the expected. Another is that she is a genuine comedienne who never wastes a word'. That i»be is as popular /as ever the protracted applause which marked her appearance. testified. Mr Mark Daly is the most whimsical of fun-makers. He is a master of effect and his resources are infinite. He radiates harmless and infectious laughter, punctuating his perfect im-| personation of a bullied husband with | a. moment when the worm turns. Jl l is a thing of ecstasy. Similarly with Mr Ireland Cutter. He has a manner of his own. He is an ae®, but an agreeable ass and he is always welcome. Air Lcyland Hodgson, who plays Larry Patten, in the language of flapperdom, is “a thrill.” His work is manly and convincing and' he strikes us as deserving hie bride, which is saying a lot. There are other dancers of merit the Siamese twins. Jack | Smith and Jack Roberts, Dorothy Roberts, Maudie Vera—and there are principals whose, work is satisfying; Miss Belle Bellchambers, Mr lx>u ’Vernon and Mr Royston McDonnell. A fine orchestra,, under Mr W. Redstone, makes tho musical numbers a delight. “The O’Brien Girl” is a short one. It will bo repeated' until Friday next, ;i- gj. ve to “L'vtle Nel|lie Kelly.” j * ORGAN RECITAL f BERNARD PAGE AT TOWN HALL j TO-MORROW. | Mr Bernard F. Page (city organist)! will give a recitnl at the Town Hall tomorrow (Sunday) evening, and he has arranged his programme as under: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (Dorian), by Bach; Pastorale, by Scarlatti' Harmonies du Soil', by Karg-Elert; Siegfried Idyll, by Wagner; Humorcske, Op 101 (No. 7), by Dvorak (this item is by request); Meditation, from ! “Thais,” by Massenet (by request!;! Toccata from “Suite” (Op. 14), by p! i do Maleingreau, 1:

"Mr F/. Pa?r, 8.M.. Jen. I *. with" +’•>,» following on*"* in the 'Mnc’ ; *ltrste> rvvirt. vesterdar: —Three firet "Tending inebriates were each 6r>»d JOs : two f j lllrro WOT o ronvirted and discharged. e-<d James °impson. with three previous convictions, wpa •’■fth in the sr~e manner. John T'/Khoa was fined £2 and costs for assault.