THE STAGE IN SYDNEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE STAGE IN SYDNEY.

PLAYS AND PLAYERS. (By A Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 20. "It Pays to Advertise'- comes like a breeze to the Royal with Sam Wren in the part of the bright young man who determines to show his father and his father's secretary, with whom he is in love, that he is a stout fellow and can make money with the best of the old folks. He adverties a soap that isn't, but it creates such a demand that fater takes him into his , own business to reorganise it, and the secretary consents to marry him. Leon.Gordon has a part out of his usual line as the big business publicity agent who helps put the young man's soap on the map and in the bath. Mary MacGregor plays the secretary, and Eileen Sparkes is a French countess of sorts. The revival was a happy thought arid goes with a swing.

"Lombardi, Ltd.," is a success. It couldn't (fail to be.with the impressive personality, of Leo Carrillo pushing it, and the cast of pretty, pleasant women who help him to show off his marvellous

costumes. It-appears to be dug in to the Criterion for some time to come, though "Journey's End" will Avant house room in Sydney before very long.

; "Hold Everything" will replace "The Five O'Clock Girl" at Her Majesty's in a week or two, and it is to be hoped it will hold more, than she did, for it must be written that "The Five O'Clock Girl" is akin to a failure. It was, thin to attenuation, and nobody felt he had got his money's , worth. "Hold Everything" will introduce a new soubrette in Mary Lawson, who has the singing part. Norah McManus, frbm Auckland, is understudying her, "because it is the singing part. The contracts of William Valentine and Helen Patterson are not being renewed, and Helen Patterson, at least, will return to the States forthwith. Gus Bluett will join a Tivoli Follies Company, and Leyland Hodgson will reinforce it, with Marie La Varre and some other well-known comedians as well. In "Hold Everything" the comedy reverts to Alfred Frith and Cecil Kellaway, who are well able to carry as much of it as the gentleman who wrote the'book of the words provides. E. J. Tait has gone to America, and will afterwards go on to England for a six months' tour of the theatres, picking winners, if possible. Sydney has only three theatres flying the flag of the stage. The. others. are "dark" or given over to talking pictures. This means the' Grand Opera House, the Palace, the Empire, the Savoy, and the St. James . are temporarily lost to the "legitimate." The next to go will'.be the Theatre Royal, which has been wired in prospect of running.talkies there soon. What's the world coming to ?'". . A new twinkler has arisen in Melbourne, and many are staying she will yet be a star. Gwynneth Lascelies is i her name. She" is a Manly girl, and has . had some considerable experience .in amateur shows in Manly before she I joined the chorus of "Show Boat" in Melbourne, and eoon afterwards was I given the understudy of the leading part, j She ■ played it at matinees, and was L apparently so promising that the man- ■ agement decided to give her'the part for • keeps. Nydia d'Araell, who came from ; the United States to open the show/is now going back to .open another—over I there—and Gwynneth Lascelies takes • over the leading role, played in London • by Edith Day,.and more important than that played' by Marie Burke in the same • cast. ./..•:' Meantime the, Turret Theatre is presenting the only real plays in Sydney, and so successful have these amateurs found their performances that they are moving in from North Sydney to a city hall. They tried, to secure the Savoy Theatre, but the manager thereof is scared of giving over to amateurs and would not trade. So the St. James' Hall will house them pro tem. "The Romantic Lady" and "Granite" are their two main cards. Other amateurs flourish in their narrow circles, for even talkies cannot kill the desire to act in human beings, but they have not the wide following of the Turret-ers. "The Zeppelin Terror" is due in Sydney shortly, but, the theatre it will be presented at is still a deep secret. The Grand Opera House is thought to be the most suitable; as it is rank melodrama. Melbourne did not take very kindly to Gladys Moncrieff's first venture in management, and even the advertised ambulance at the door to carry away all the fainting women who witnessed the piece and were overcome by it was no catch; nor the plea, spoken nightly by the manager, Charles Roadknight, to please support the company because it was "Our Gladys' Own."