In the Theatres

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18635, 2 August 1930, Page 15

In the Theatres

A new Sheriff play was presented recently in London. It was “Badger’s Green,” and though a good play, it was not the world-shaker that Sheriff’s "Journey’s End” proved to be. In the cant was Louis Goodrich, who was with Margaret Bannerman when she toured New Zealand.

Maurice Elvey, the producer, is turning his attention to pictures, and has decided on "School for Scandal” as the first of a series of old English comedies to be filmed. Madeleine Carroll will be Lady Teazle: Basil Gill, Sir Peter; -Henry Hewitt, Charles; lan Fleming, Joseph; and Edgar Bruce, Sir Oliver Surface. Natural colour is to be used for the entire film.

Gus Bluett has joined Edith Taliaferro’s company for the presentation of "Little Accident.” Following on the successful season of "Let Us Be Gay” and "Garden of Eden,” the petite Williamson star will have another congenial role, and with her will be Miss Ethel Morrison in yet another of her faultless character studies.

Dame Nellie Melba has been interesting herself in the National Children's Adoption work in London, and was planning a matinee concert at Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, at which she would herself appear. Dame Nellie was to have the assistance of Lionel Tertis, the viola player; Nicholas Orloff, the Russian pianist; Harold Caxton, Herman Bemberg, and M. Rene Le Roy, flautist. Funds were to go to the National Children’s Adoption Association, and the concert was to have Royal patronage.

Miss Zillah Bateman, whose dramatic and comedy work delighted patrons of the Grand Opera House a few years ago, when she appeared w T ith Joseph Cunningham’s New London Comedy Company in 1926, was recently playing Glasgow 7 with "The Silent Flyer.” Also in the same cast w 7 ere Reginald Long (a member of Rene Kelly’s 1927 company), and Langhorne Burton, who was leading man with Nellie Stewart some years back.

Much more attention is being paid in England at the present time to the incidental music of stage productions than was the case a few years ago. Not only is a higher standard of music demanded by producers of plays, but there is developing a conscious effort

to establish atmosphere in the orchestra well before the curtain rises. For the first performance of this new play, "On the Spot,” Mr Edgar Wallace engaged a police band to strike the necessary “underworld” note, w T hile for "Down Our Street,” a play of the East End, the orchestra itself gives place to a piano, an organ, and a harmonium.

Nat Phillips and his Whirligig Company have been appearing with conspicuous success at Perth; Jim Gerald has been delighting Melbourne theatregoers with revue and vaudeville; George Wallace was at Newtown, Sydney; Humphrey Bishop and Mike Connors were finding Queensland a good ground for their separate activities; and Alfred Frith and Tui Black had forsaken the musical comedy for revue at Adelaide.

Maggie Dickinson and Sydney Culver are still appearing as a dance duo, the last word of them coming from London. Williamson playgoers will always look back with pleasure on the dancing art of Miss Dickinson and Mr Culver a deux, in acrobatic and classical scenas. Another performer who has made good in London is vivacious Marie Nyman, of the George Wallace Revue, who was snapped up by Stoll shortly after her arrival in England, for a tour of their-music-halls. She may appear in a West End production in the autumn, after a provincial tour. Molly Fisher, an Australian girl, has been appearing in the London production of "Sons o’ Guns.” Fred conyngham, who was here with “Cradle Snatchers,” has also been appearing as a dancer in London. Noel Dainton, w r ho was in New Zealand with Marie Burke in "Frasquita,” is in "Sons O’ Guns.” Claude Dampier, a former vaudeville and revue favourite, is touring England successfully.

An amusing play about Americans abroad has been introduced to Broadway, New York, by Mr John Golden, producer. This was "Ada Beats the Drum,” and it served to bring back to the stage popular Mary Boland, who has been absent for some time. As an experiment, Mr Golden sought amateur criticism by having an amateur stage forum at a dress rehearsal of the piece, and indiated that he would alter a production if spectators saw where it could be improved. Members of the

I Church and Drama League of America, dramatic students of Columbia University, and New York University, and students of the Little Theatre Movement, attended the rehearsal and remained after the last curtain to take part in a general disussion invited by Mr Golden. The possibility of getting sound, reasonable opinions from disinterested observers was fully exploited by the enterprising producer, who explained his idea as a move towards putting some of the theatre management in the hands of those who attend plays, and to encourage interest in the back stage developments of theatrical productions.

Recent advices from Hollywood record the arrival of William Heughan the famous Scotch ba6so. and his talented wife, Gladys Sayer, and ’cellist Maud Bell. Heughan was soloist at the Philharmonic Auditorium, before an enormous audience, and had addressed the leading club 6 of the district. Heughan had also sung over the wireless, scoring heavily with a group of Scotch ballads.

Rowena Ronald, the clever young Australian, has another important role when she appears with Leon Gordon in "Tht Squall” at the King’s Theatre, Melbourne. She is seen as a passionate Spanish-gipsy girl, Nubi, "The Squall,” who plays havoc with the affections of the men folk in a Spanish family. She is a tempestuous "vamp” who sweeps all before her, and makes a turmoil that almost threatens to develop into tragedy. The role is one of the most striking that has yet been given Miss Ronald, and will provide her with unusual acting opportunities.

Mr Alfred Hill, the Wellington composer, conducted a successful performance of the Professional Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Town Hall recently, and had the pelasure of conducting three of his own compositions, "Waiata Maori,” “Tangi,” and “Waiata Poi” were the orchestral pieces. Miss May Craven was encored for her singing of the aria, "See Where the Mist,” from Mr Hill’s Maori opera. "Teora ” and with Mr Norman Francis sang the duet, "From Out This Calm,” from another of Mr Hill’s operas, "Auster ” In all, say 3 a Sydney paper, Mr Hill has caught an appropriate orchestral colour and expression of the intended idiom and atmosphere.

Those who remember the lissome grace and limb agility of the talented Sydney girl, Madge Elliott, and her dancing with her partner, Cyril Ritchard, in a series of Williamson musical comedies some years ago. are always glad to hear of her progress on the English boards. Miss Elliott has entered the cast of Laddie Cliff’s Company, playing "The Love Rose,” and English critics consider her dancing in this musical comedy better even than her outsanding work in “Love Lies.” Miss Elliott is again associated with Mr Ritchard, who, by the way, has been acting in talkies, with Ivor Novello in “Symphony in Two Flats.” Mr Ritchard has been holidaying in Berlin, and incidentally visiting the German theatres. The talented Australian girl has also recently had her first holiday for five years. The duo has met with considerable success at Home; their dancing surprised even jaded London stagegoers, by reason of its virility and its unusual grace.