STAGELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 21

STAGELAND

BOOKINGS

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE Now Playing.—“ Abie’s Irish Rose” (Grace Stafford). April 16-April 30.—“N0, No, Nanette” (Elsie Prince). May 7-May 13. —“Crooks, Ltd.” (University Students). July 2-Juiy 16. —“Lady be Good.” Coming “Meet The Wife” and “The Best People.” “Tell Me More.” LITTLE THEATRE MOVEMENT April 21. —“You Never Can Tell.” Hetty King, the male impersonator, has been booked for another tour of Australia and possibly New Zealand. “Abie’s Irish Rose” is still enjoying the support of Auckland theatregoers. There are still four nights to go before the season ends. Nellie Stewart is said to be desirous of appearing as the heroine in “Romance,” which play may follow “Sweet Nell” during the Melbourne season. * Claude Fleming, last here with “Lilac Time,” has left Australia for the United States, where he intends going into the picture business. W. Russell, manager for the Nellie Bramley Comedy Company, has arrived at Wellington from Sydney to make arrangements for a new tour of the Dominion. Marjorie L’Strange, who is appearing as Betty of Boston in “No, No, Nanette,” is a Wellingtonian. Her real name is Marjorie Wiggs, and she is the only daughter of Mr. J. Wiggs, of McFarlane Street, Wellington, says the “Waikato Times.” Sir Harry Lauder, the famous Scottish comedian, has signed a £IO,OOO contract with a British film company to play in “Hunting Tower,” a film version of the book by John Buchan. The outdoor scenes will be filmed in Scotland. Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchards, the Australians, and Jack Kirby, the New Zealander, are touring the English provinces with Laddie Cliff in “Lady Luck.” Miss Elliott and Mr. Ritchards were last in Auckland with “The Cabaret Girl.” Shayle Gardner, the Aucklander, has just concluded a six months’ tour of Canada as juvenile lead with Matheson Lang, says me “Waikato Times.” Writing from Montreal Mr. Gardner

said he was on the eve of sailing for Cherbourg, Paris, and Tunis. He intended staying five or six weeks in the last-named place. Mr. Gardner forwards a very interesting' impressionist sketch of himself. He says: “This was drawn in half-an-hour in Montreal by Kathleen Shackleton, sister

of the late Sir Ernest Shackleton. She is touring Canada as guest of the C.P.R., drawing prominent people.” William Senior and Arthur Lucas, the former for some time juvenile in Williamson musical comedy, and the latter juvenile in the Australian production of “The O’Brien Girl,” are touring the English provinces. Mr. Senior is in “Lady, Be Good,” and Mr. Lucas in “Rose Marie.” In spite of the frowns of American critics, Eva Le Gallienne’s Civic Repertory Theatre continues to flourish in New York. The prices are low, and the dramatic standard is invariably high. A single week’s programme contained “The Cradle Song,” “Twelfth Night,” “La Locandiera,” and “The Master Builder.”

Victoria Monks, English music-hall artist, died recently in London after a long and successful stage career. Her greatest song hit, “Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey?” was sung all over the British Empire many years ago, and obtained for her a four years’ engagement, which helped her well along the road to success. Will George Robey come to Australia after all? He is visiting South Africa, and after all, that’s half-way. The story goes that he swore he would never come out here under £5,000 a week. Apropos this, is there anyone who has not heard the story of the “once-upon-a-time theatrical magnate” who cabled Robey asking what his terms would be for the Tivoli, and his reply which read: “Why this idle curiosity?” George Wallace, who has returned to New Zealand and is now at Fullers' Wellington house, is a comedian who enjoys himself and makes everybody enjoy him. He heads a smart company. playing “His Royal Highness.” a little playlet that occupies the whole of the bill, and which made a decidedly favourable impression on its opening night, when the company in its initial bow before Wellington audiences had an enthusiastic reception.

(By COTHURNUS.)

i C. M. Hallard is appearing in Seyj mom* Hicks’s latest play in London, j "Air. What’s-His-Name,” which has j been done from the French. He was i last in New Zealand with Bion Boueicault and Irene Vanbrugh. Mr. Hallard is a most capable actor and appeared in Noel Coward’s “The Queen Was in the Parlour.” Others in the cast of “Air. What’s-His-Name” are Margaret Yarde, Hubert Harben, Madeline Seymour and C. W. Somerset. Plays that cause laughter wear theatre seats much more rapidly than does serious drama. Consequently, says the London dramatic correspondent of the New York “Tribune,” when audiences quaked with mirth night after night for three years, as London folk did at “The Farmer’s Wife,” Eden Philpotts’s comedy of Devonshire rural life, which has just ended its long run at the Court Theatre, the joke is partly on the owners of the theatre. The Court was closed for a month while new bottoms were put in the seats. It is reported that Irene Vanbrugh and Bion Boucicault will return to Australia in time to open in Melbourne

in Cup week. Their first production will be Somerset Alaugham’s “Caroline.” Re c e.n 11 y Air Charles Wenman told me that New Zealand will be included in the Vanbrugh - Boucicault tour this time. Auckland theatregoers have pleasant memories of the last visit of these brilliant folk.

“As to indecent plays, I know that American actors and actresses are very sick of that kind of play, and they do not want to act in them. Only a small fraction of American theatregoers are attracted by that sort of production, and the rest prefer to see a clean play. The need for a strict censorship of plays in America is very urgent, as it is not fair to place such a responsibility on the police alone. As regards the films, nothing could be more strict than the censorship which is imposed. Film actors and actresses are timed even as regards the number of seconds they may kiss on the stage.T —Cyril Maude, in a London exchange. Evelyn Hope played Araminta Dench in “The Farmer’s Wife” 1,300 times in London without missing a single performance. “Toward the end of the run I had a strange obsession that 1 could not litter a line of my part,” Miss Hope explained. “I think nearly all the members of the cast got the same way. We imagined we had dried up and couldn’t say the lines. In fact, sometimes we did forget. You can know lines too well and say them too often. But every actor knew the lines of all other members of the cast, and there were plenty of prompters on the stage to pick one up. It is strange that one forgets one’s lines, but can always remember the other lines in the play.” “Crooks, Ltd.,” this year’s extravaganza by the students of the Auckland University, promises to be full of good things. A story with lots of local colour has been written by one of the students, and a willing chorus is-ac-quainting itself with frothy melodies and blithe steps. Here is the cast of the players: Colonel Alarjoribanks: H. R. Anderson. Valerie Alarjoribanks: Jean Robertson. Hubert Henderson: Bruce Hutton. The Boss: J. B. Ramsay. All’. Dan Plummer; Dudley St. John de Vere Jones, Bob Fenwick; Jimmy, Trevor Hay; Antonio, Mervyn Rattray; Fred, L. O. M. Brown; Lulu, Win. G. Trevarthen, Members of “Crooks, Ltd.” Inspector of Police: Frank Martin. Silas P. Hicks: Tim Hudson. “63”: —. Cavan. City Councillor: Nat Gould. Air. Trevarthen is the producer, Mr. Trevor Sparling is the musical director, Air. George Lowe the stage manager, and Air. John Stevenson the business manager.

There are some particularly attractive dance interludes in the captivating musical comedy, “No! No! Nanette.” which comes to Auckland on April 16. and is now being shown at Wellington to crowded houses. Several of these were originated and arranged by Royston McDonnell, the light-footed young gentleman who takes a leading part in most of them. With dainty Alma Alackie he appears in the first act in an attractive dance scena, while. Gladys Devereaux and Rosie Fitzgerald also appear in a special feature. The second act is particularly strong in dance numbers. First of all Gladys Devereaux and Royston AlcDonnell appear in a creation of the latter, which possesses ! much that is charming and delightful | to the eye; and immediately after Alma ! Alackie astonishes the audience with one of the most difficult, and graceful. acrobatic dances ever seen on a New Zealand stage. At the conclusion of this act Kathleen and Allison Fallow. two handsome light-footed damsels who have worshipped devoutly at the shrine of Terpsichore, and Royston McDonnell, appear in another dance specialty; while in the final | session Phyllis Du Barry delights ! everyone with a really high-class exI hibition. It will thus be seen that ! “No! No! Nanette” is particularly j strong in dance numbers.

•Lady Be Good" is described as a riot of revelry, a mix-up of mirth and music, and a musical comedy possessing many particularly attractive attributes. it possesses many catchy tunes and vigorous choruses, and some of the solos and duets are of a particularly high standard. “Lady Be Good" is strong in dancing numbers, and as the company contains some of the best dancers, of both sexes, ever seen in the Dominion, theatregoers in both cities and provincial districts may expect something unusually attractive in this very essential department. In every case “No! No! Nanette" and “Lady Be Good” will be presented in their complete form—there will be no abbreviations in the provincial areas. The success of “The Man With a Load of Mischief” placed Ashley Dukes in the first rank of the newer dramatists. For this reason, his new play, “One More River,” was received with something like reverence when it was presented by the Incorporated Stage Society at the New Theatre, W.C., says a London critic. A farce written partly in blank verse and partly in rhymed couplets—that is the manner of it. The period is described as “the future”; the scene is placed in a kind of halfway house, wherein people may stay who have been divorced, and who are filling up time, as it were, before the decree is made absolute. Into this strange place there wander by accident ex-husbands and ex-wives. There follow the familiar complications of farce, related in the language of a literary artist. There is wit. there are cleverly conceived situations. But all the time it is difficult not to feel that the same story might have been more amusing had the author thought less of the polish of .his lines and more of the knock-about possibilities of his situations. Athene Seyler, Ernest Thesiger, Angela Baddeley, Malcolm Keen, Leslie Banks, and Jeanne de Casalis, among others, acted their parts well, but the manner of the play made it necessary for them to appear more like marionettes than like men and women of flesh and blood.