LONDON PLAYS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19329, 2 November 1932, Page 3

LONDON PLAYS

STAGE STILL A VITAL FORCE. CURRENT SUCCESSES. Interest is still alive in the theatre in London to judge from the contents of a letter received by the last mail, in which the writer praises the high standard of recent performances. “ ‘The White Horse Inn,’ ” according to the writer, "disappeared from the Coliseum some weeks ago, and its place has been taken on the revolving stage by a pictorial romance of mediaeval Venice entitled ‘Casanova.’ exquisitely decorative in costume, lighting and scenery, but not a very strong play. It is termed ‘a musical play of love and adventure.’ “Tom Wall’s luck is proverbial. All the world knows of his luck in winning the Derby with the outsider April the Fifth, but I think his greatest luck was in striking Ben Travers, the clever playwright, who has kept the Aldwych going with laughable farces for over six years. The latest in ‘Fifty-fifty,’ with Ralph Lynn, Winifred Shotter, Mary Brough and J. Robertson Hare iij the cast. Mr Walls was also lucky in securing the services of Mr Lynn—London’s sure-fire comedian. “Violet Loraine, Billy Merson, and George Gee are at the Alhambra in the jc “y .revue ‘Over the Page.’ ‘Musical ChaL'j’ is still attracting the public at the Criterion. It is a capital r

play, and one regrets that its author, j Ronald McKenzie, was so unfortunate I to be killed in a njotor accident in ! France. At least one critic says it | is the best play written by an Eng- ! lishman in the last 40 years. Shades j of Wilde, Henry Arthur Jones, Pinero, j Shaw', Maugham, Glasworthy rise in I protest against such an assertion. Personally I w’ould not class it as a better play than ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street.’ “J. B. Priestley's ‘Dangerous Corner’ is still drawing crow'ds to the Lyric, and there is some stunning acting in ‘To-morrow will be Friday,’ which has Marie Tempest, Leon Quartermaine, W. Graham Browne and Athole Stewart in the cast. ‘The Cat and the Fiddle,’ a musical comedy by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach. is at the Palace, and ‘Twelth Night’—a sweet performance—finished last week. By the way, ‘Cavalcade’ finished on September 10 after a marvellous run. Noel Coward, who is the busiest man in the .business and perhaps the cleverest, has a new musical revue in hand called ‘Words and Music.’ ‘Firebird,’ an exciting play, sees Gladys Cooper and Frank Harvey at their best. ‘Evensong’ is still arousing a lot of pro and con Melba talk, and Sir Gerald du Maurier has a good play in ‘Behold, We Live,’ by John van Druten. “From the above incomplete notes you will see that in London at all events the stage is still a vital force.”