NEW LONDON PLAYS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 644, 23 December 1932, Page 1

NEW LONDON PLAYS.

Frederick Lonsdale Again Sparkles. LONDON, November 3. Frederick Lonsdale's new play. “ Never Come Back,” has now been produced at the Phoenix Theatre, and proves to be an inverted version of “ The Last of Mrs Cheyney.” This time the thief is a man, Smith, admirably played by Raymond Massey, in love with a beautiful girl—a part which Adrianne Allen, recently returned to London after her Hollywood triumphs, fills to perfection. There are the usual collection of amusing oddities from the peerage, and the usual Lonsdale sparkle which is likely to fill the theatre for many months to come. Ellis Jeffries, who has figured in so many Lonsdale plays, is also in the cast. Leon M. Lion has put on a play about Soviet Russia—“ The Bear Dances,” at the Garrick. It is written by F. L. Lucas, a Cambridge don. who has got all his facts from books, but manages to present the case for and against Bolshevism with clarity and interest. There is rather too much talk, but the piece is entertaining, and drew Sir Austen Chamberlain and H. G. Wells to its first night. Miramova, the Russian actress who played the dancer in the stage version of “Grand Hotel,” heads the cast, which also includes Maurice Browne and Olga Lindo.