A PROFITABLE PLAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19730, 27 December 1926, Page 11

A PROFITABLE PLAY

ROMANCE OF ROSE MARIE BIG LONDON SUCCESS. Sir Alfred Butt, M.P., chairman of the Theatre Royal, Dpiry Lane, Ltd., revealed at the annual meeting of the shareholders last month in London that lup to that time 2,379,551 people had seen the musical play Rose Marie. I He described the success of the play •as a "romance.” A dividend of 10 per cent, and a bonus of 2| per cent. 1 were declared. The total receipts were £657,947, and the profits £185,139. . Authors’ fees amounted ,to £51,000 j artists’ salaries to £120,000, and entertainment tax to £87,000. , Sir Alfred Butt said that 4648 I of shoes had been used in the produc- ! tion. 2444 costumes and 2600 pairs of istockings. “I know.” he continued,

■"there is a small minority which con- ! siders it a desecration and degradation ' that a musical play imported from America should be successfull produced at Drury Lane Theatre. I am rather tired of all this cant. Art has no natLonality and !• am satisfied that the moral and mental results of more than two million people witnessing a pro- ; duction like Rose Marie are far more beneficial than the effect produced by mahy of the so-called 1 intellectual’ plays which, for their success, depeifd largely upon sensuality and salaciousness. ”