"OH, KAY !"

Otago Witness, Issue 3842, 1 November 1927, Page 72

"OH, KAY !"

(From Our Own Correspondent.} f _ LONDON' September 24. “Oh, Kay!” the New York musical comedy success this week in London at His Majesty’s, is a piece which centres largely around Miss Gertrude Lawrence, but it has a New Zealand interest in that Mr John Kirby, fronierly of Dunedin, plays the part of chief comedian, the smuggler, and mock butler. The story appears to be too American for British tastes. Perhaps we are rather tired of the “ bootlegging ” play. But all the critics agree that Gertrude Lawrence is charming. “ What is the secret of Gertrude Lawrence’s success? ” it is asked. “Why did America rave about her? Why for month after month in New York last year did she earn £720 a week as her share of this play’s takings? ” “It is her-gamin quality,” says the critic of the Daily Express; “her great gifts of,comedy, so marked, that she is even talked of as a future Marie Tempest in straight plays. Like Violet Loraine, she does no mind dropping to low comedy even now and then. There now is a twinkle in her eye, now a turn of her head, now a strange little noise from her mouth. Although she danced well, sang nicely, and looked very sweet there was something more than that—that indefinable ‘ personality ’ that makes the great star. Without her 'Oh, Kay! ’ would not have received its warm ovation. Clever though John Kirby was as chief comedian, and delightful as were the Dodge Twins, two Am rican girls who danced with ostrich feathers, like the Dolly sisters, and wore brightly varnished hair, the first act was dull. Besides, nearly all the play’s jokes are about bootlegging and drink —very funny in New York, but not nearly so much so in London.” “Mr John Kirby,” says the critic of the Evening Standard, “is a first-rate comedian, and did heroic things with next to no material.” And again: “Mr John Kirby had his moments as a funny man.” This from another critic: “There is really no one else that matters (but Gertrude Lawrence), though Mr John Kirby makes himself felt by his massive and mellow impudence as M'Gee, the smuggler and mock butler.”

At the end of the play Miss Lawrence and the producer appeared, and other members of the cast, but the stage was so full of huge baskets of flowers that only the heads of the company could be seen. The book is by Mr Guy Bolton and Mr P. G. Wodehouse, author of so many humorous novels. - The lyrics are by Ira Gershwin, and George Gershwin has composed the music.