The Chorus Girls

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 400, 7 July 1928, Page 22

The Chorus Girls

Who said “Damn!” A Theatrical Lay from London Critic The advent of too many titled folk into the ranks of the chorus in London musical shows drew the following lament from D.C.V., in a London publication. He calls it “Mr. Cochran’s Young Ladies,” who are appearing in the famous showman’s latest production, “This Year of Grace,” at the London Pavilion: In days when Grandpa used to sup With Flossie Montmorency, She never tried to be “refaned,” She never cried “Jest fency!” She’d give his cheek a roguish pinch And call him “Saucy Kipper,” While he would boldly sip champagne From out her satin slipper. But times have changed and titles, too— Consider what’s before us! With so much County on the stage You mustn't say “The Chorus.” Refinement we should ne’er deplore, But what I say is “Hades! Stands the Pavilion where it did With C. B. C.’s Young Ladies?” They never smoke, they never drink, They never ride a pillion. Each night their chaperones arrive At London’s proud Pavilion. Bring forth the skirts of yester-year Drape each abandoned figure; The downcast eye, the modest glance Henceforth shall be de rigueur. The other night, behind the scenes, A sharp, electric shock ran. The dressers swooned, the stage hands reeled They shrieked for Mr. Cochran. The Company resigned en masse — They’re trying to recast it— For three Young Ladies tripped and fell, And shouted “Damn and blast it!”

Children’s Theatre Australian Enterprise A Success in London NURSERY TALES AND SONGS “It is, in short, a plain, straightforward place where children may enjoy themselves in their own way.” That is what “The Times,” Jetting a plain statement suffice, says about the Children’s Theatre, a habitation o£ romance which, occupying what used to be a magnificent shop in Endell Street, near Shaftesbury Avenue, is purveying to the youngsters of London what they cannot find anywhere else in the metropolis, writes Guy Innes in an Australian paper. A little boy took me to a matinee there on a recent afternoon —and I do not know whether he or I enjoyed ourselves the more. Noel Coward was forgotten, and the sophistications of the cinema were for th,e time abolished by something more innocently delightful. I learned that the success of the enterprise is largely due to Australians. One of the managers is Miss Joan Luxton, a grand-daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Luxton, M.L.C. of Victoria; and the stage manager is her mother, who, as Miss Maud Jolliffie, was well known to the patrons of the Repertory Theatre in Melbourne some years ago. Miss May Pearson, in the box office, is also a Melbourne girl. The transformation of the shop into a theatre —a ■well-ventilated, welllighted building with seats for 120 people—was largely accomplished by the players themselves. In a word, the Children’s Theatre is giving the present generation those charming old fairy-tales, ballads and legends which, before the

days of the movies, little boys and girls used to sing and recount, dancing with joined hands in a ring-a-ring-a-rosy. (Perhaps, if you are not too modern and too superior, you remember “Green Gravels” and “Nuts and May ?”) The theatre also presents new ballads, tableaux and tales of artistic value, drawing from such sources as R. L. Stevenson, Hilaire Belloc and A. A. Milne. In view of the scarcity pf cinemas suitable for children, and the natural fondness of children for dramatic presentations, this effort to fulfil a need has met cordial support. There has been a children’s theatre in Paris for some time, and the Press was quick to welcome a similar enterprise in London. Francis Birrell, writing in “The Nation” and “Athenaeum,” characterises it as “ a contribution to civilisation, consoling in our anguished and cynical age”; and the “Daily News” at once conceded its claim to be taken seriously. The critic of “The Landmark” observed, “In a season of dramatic uncertainties it is a joy to attend a performance, where there is no doubt of its artistic merit. ... It is no group of amateurs, however, who earn the applause but professional actors and actresses, many of whom are taking part in current London productions.” The hours of the theatre are really nursery hours, eminently suitable to children. Performances are given daily at a quarter to six. and there is a matinee every Saturday at half-past two. The performance lasts about an hour and a-half. The theatre opened in August last with a programme consisting of sea chanteys, folk songs, plays, dancing and mimes; and on Boxing Day a specially-written pantomime, “Dick Whittington,” was presented. Miss Luxton’s helpers, in a capable cast, include Agnes Lowson, who appeared in “Marigold” at the Kingsway Theatre, as joint manager; Norman Shelley, who was a leading spirit at the Gate Theatre; Margaret Carter, who wrote an excellent little play,

“The Dutch Doll”; and Brember Wills. The members of the company maxc all their own scenery and dresses, do their own producing and stage-man-aging, and evolve new lighting effects and scenas. The orchestra is of the simplest; but the juvenile audience becomes so enthralled with the pl*y that all they need is a mere thread of instrumental music on which w string the vocal and visible pearls that are displayed to them. Up goes the curtain on a delightful sketch, “My King,” in which a dashing Royalist youth wins from her crabbed Cromwellian foster-brother a charming sweetheart, and rides north with her to strike a blow for King CharlesThe hero, Ralph Clarendon, belted and booted and spurred, wins his way in w the hearts of the children at once. They are with him to a youngster as, evading the Roundheads and their surly hymns, he guides his charger “toward honour’s heaven, and toward King Charles’s gentlemen. ’ Baring Gould’s amusing a Thrush” follows, and is succeed** in turn by the tableau, “Two Duke* a-Riding,” in which two resplenden young noblemen win their dimple® lady-loves from the wash-tub an canter gallantly away. It is like verse from Shaw Xeilson’s charm in* child-poem, “The Land Where I Born.”

Even more stirring, with the and-go of its chorus, is “The *-o*s--of High Barbary.” This depicts encounter, with Jolly Roger, cutlass*®and all the traditional accessories. Between a buccaneer's rakish cr * ft ..s2 e a stoutly-manned King’s ship. * Puppets” is a more sentimental c ception. The most thrilling dtsP of all is “The Redskin’s Revenge. ™ which the whole cast partidpe while the childish spectators tn with mingled horror and delight, most equally fascinating is "The Sailor,” by A. A. Milne, reminiscing of W. S. Gilbert’s "elderly naval in the “Wreck of the Nancy Belle, duced to juvenile terms.