On and Off the Stage

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20782, 17 July 1937, Page 14 (Supplement)

On and Off the Stage

News About Plays and Players «<

A search for a new modern formation dance to take the place of the old-time lancers and cotillons was a feature of f c Blackpool Dancing Festival recently. Modern dancers have shown such partiality for dances such as the palais glide that the new competition I was instituted. It attracted teams from ! Copenhagen, London, Newcastle and other centres. Tire festival drew to ! Blackpool the cream of Europe’s ballj room and stage dancer's. About 30,000 | dancers entered, heats being held in various parts of England. Couples also came from France, Austria and Czecho- ! Slovakia.

I Eric Bush, who is now playing the role of Prince Danilo in “The Merry Widow” and Baldasarre in “The Maid j of the Mountains" is a most versatile I actor. Eric is a fine actor, splendid singer, and a most accomplished dancer. He is one of the rising young stars of the Australian stage, and has | a fine future ahead of him. Eric Bush, I it will be remembered, was the juvenile lead in “Nice Goings On.” Later, an i important role in “Anything Goes” I came his way. In fact, he returned i from England to appear in that production. Eric is a former Australian surf champion, and when in Sydney seldom misses a surf at Bondi. The North Island tour of the J.C.W. Comic Opera Company playing “Merry’ Widow, “Maid of the Mountains” and “Southern Maid” more than fulfilled the expectations of the WilliamsonTait organisation. It was a series of j triumphs for Gladys Moncrleff. the I Australian soprano, who is as much the idol of New Zealand audiences as she lis in Australia. She has the support of a powerful company, and at Auckland (where a record season of three weeks terminated recently) the company had a wonderful reception at the hands of delighted audiences. Tire company is now in Christchurch. Tito Schipa, who stands alone as the perfect lyric tenor of the century, is at present creating a sensation in Australia, and will be coming to New Zealand later on his first visit. Messrs Tait present the famous celebrity with pardonable pride for Schipa has an international reputation that cannot be equalled. The fascination of his voice and personality has recently intrigued crowded audiences in New York, Milan, Tunis, Algiers, Buenos Aires (where he sang with lovely Lily Pons), Brazil, Rio de Janiero; thence to European cities, back to the New York Metropolitan Opera, then to Australia and later to New Zealand. In opera, Schipa has been called “The Prince of Lovers.” Possessing a fine tenor voice and a handsome appearance, Arthur Clarke is an Ideal leading man. Over six feet in height and possessing magnificent ,

physique, he not only looks the part, but is the part. Arthur, who is now appearing with the Gladys Moncrief! company is “The Merry Widow” and “The Maid of the Mountains,” is a young Australian witii a definite future. He has made rapid advancement in recent months Four of his more recent shows in Sydney were “The Gipsy Princess,” “Waltzes from Vienna,” “A Southern Maid” and “The Merry Widow.” Mr Clarke, it will be remembered, played the juvenile lead in “The Hayseeds.” one of the most successful Australian pictures yet made.

I The fifth Auckland area festival of I the British Drama League will be heid ! from August 16 to August 21. Miss ■ Elizabeth Loe will be adjudicator. The I winning team will be given the oppor- ! tunity to compete against eight others jin a North Island areas semi-final festival at Wanganui from September 116 at which the successful teams from ; each island will compete. I Cecil Kellaway, who has been divid- • ing his time lately between the stage and screen, has the role of Baron j Popoff in “The Merry Widow.” Cecil I is one of the most popular actors ever !to step on the Australian stage. The ' cheery Mr Kellaway is a brilliant and , versatile star. In recent months he i has delighted us in several superb I characterisations. Melbourne saw him a few weeks ago in “Wild Violets,” and before that with Gladys Moncrleff in ' “The Maid of the Mountains” and “A i Southern Maid.” Mr Kellaway made liis last appearance in Sydney in “Waltzes from Vienna.” Other recent successes in which he has appeared inclue “The Gipsy Princess,” “Jill Darling,” “Miss Hook of Holland” and “The Desert Song.” Two plays by Bernard Shaw are included in the repertory of this year’s Malvern Festival, beginning on July 26. These are “The Apple Cart,” first produced at Malvern in 1929, and a recent play that has only up to now been seen at Bexhill, “The Millionairess.” There will be one other example of contemporary drama. “Return to Sanity’,” by Gerald Wynne Rushton and T. South Mack, first produced a few months ago in Birmingham. Other plays in the repertory’ are “The School for Scandal.” Fielding’s “Tom Thumb the Great,” and two examples of 16th century' playwriting, the celebrated “Gamma Gurton’s Needle” (c. 1575). and the recently discovered “Susannah (c. 1560), unearthed by professor Ivor Evans in what is believed to be the single surviving copy.

A Sheakespearean company is being brought by J. C. Williamson, Limited, from Stratford-on-Avon next year, states the Sydney Morning Herald. The paper adds that as the tour will begin in February, and will extend throughout Australia and New Zealand, this company will be something different from the body of players which appears in the famous Shakespeare Memorial Theatre during the English spring and summer. Still, a selection of recent Stratford stage settings may be brought here, and that would be excellent; for some of the leading designers, such as Komisarjevsky, have provided highly attractive examples of their work for the special performances at the festival. Although few really famous actors appear at Stratford, the companies there usually reach an even level of achievement, and they perform the Shakespearean repertoire with eloquence and smoothness. As regards the Australian visit, much will depend on the personality of the producer who has the duty of welding the new assemblage of players into a harmonious ensemble. Franz Lehar’s music and his handsome face fascinated the daughter of the director of a Viennese theatre at Wien. The father, however, would have none of this play, “The Merry Widow’,” but his daughter pleaded w’ith him so long that at last, when at a sudden loss for a temporary attraction, he agreed to give the play a chance. So successful was “The Merry Widow” that the other attractions lined up to follow it were indefinitely postponed, for the stop-gap opera ran, not two weeks as had been previously expected, but well into the second year. It was eighteen months after the sensation.d success of “The Merry Widow” in Vienna before this gay operetta was presented on the English stage. George Edwardes, great English empressario, was a very stubborn man. When its success w’as reported to him he was not impressed and obstinately refused to consider the matter. At last Captain Malone purchased the “Widow” fo” Edv ardes for £l,OOO. No fewer than seven hundred and seventy-eight performances were placed to the record of “The Merry Widow” at Daly’s.