HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1516, 15 May 1919, Page 34

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE.

ROYAL COMIC OPERA SEASON. “MAYTIME.” Heralded as a “play with music” and “something different,” one looked for something away from the beaten tracks of the ordinary type of musical comedy in “Maytime,” consequently there was a crowded audience at His Majesty’s Theatre on Saturday night to watch its interpretation by the J. C. Williamson Royal Comic Opera Company. “Maytime” conspicuously gets out of the rut, Rida Johnson Young (author) and Sigmund Romberg (composer) having collaborated to such good effect that music and ballets and costuming, instead of being merely incidental, merge into the action of the play with charming unityj There are four distinct periods in “Maytime,” and the spirit of romance permeates each, from the crinoline mincing days of 1840 to the tight skirts and bonhomie of 1917. The old, old story is started in the first act by Ottille Van Zandt (niece of Colonel Van Zandt) and Dick Wayne, an apprentice. The affair is nipped in the bud for class reasons, and fifteen years elapse before the next scene. Ottille, now married to her dissolute cousin, Claude Van Zandt, becomes reckless, and visiting Madame Delphine’s Night Club is saved from scandal by the interposition of her former sweetheart, who has returned from South Africa a millionaire, and announces his engagement to Ottille’s friend. The third episode (1885) sees Ottille a white-haired woman having to sell up her home. Arrives on the scene old Dick Wayne, who, still constant to his first love, rescues her from poverty and buys up the property as it stands. In the fourth and last phase the grandchildren of the old lovers take up the broken thread of their forbears’ romance, a smart dressmaking establishment run by Ottille’s granddaughter (Mdlle. Brown) and financed by Dick Wayne’s grandson being the locale for cementing their love. Miss Gladys Moncrieff as the heroine of each period skilfully suggests the varying parts, from the dainty maiden of 16 in the first era to the old woman of later years, and then back again to the vivacious girl of the present day. Her singing is always delightful, and although there is only one solo for her, “Selling Gowns,” she has several bewitching duets with Mr. Reginald Roberts, “In Our Little Home, Sweet Home,” “Will You Remember” and “The Road to Paradise.” Mr. Roberts is well placed as Dick Wayne, giving a good study of the contrasting periods, and in the last act he has a breezy little number with the ballet, “Only One Girl For Me.” An outstanding portraiture is given by Mr. Leslie Holland in the role of the debonnaire Matthew Van Zandt, who through all the ages never loses sight of a woman’s charms, and who at 94 is about to take unto himself another wife. Never once do his gallantry and courtly grace fail him, and his sentimental theories are charged with a drollery and whimsicality that are a joy to beholders. “Jump, Jim Crow,” the risque—for that period—polka theme, gives him a chance for a gay breakaway. Misss Florence Young only has a few moments on the stage in the role of Lizzie, Matthew’s third wife, but she makes those moments fly quickly with her broad comedy work and ultra-bizarre costuming. Mr. Phil Smith, too, only makes a brief entrance as the auctioneer, but every word and gesture is an enlivener. Mr. Percy Claridge does- convincing work as the unscrupulous Claude Van Zandt, and Mr. Gordon Ramsay discloses a fine voice in his solo, “O Come, My Love.” Miss Addie Lennard conveys excellently the delicate graces of the crinolined spinster who blushed at the mention of legs, and Miss Olive Godwin has all her natural charm to fit her as Madame Delphine, of the Night Club. Miss Maie Baird and Mr. Robert McKinnon are the principal figures in an alluring set of ballets.