“Gaiety George” Gives Interesting Sidelights On Old-Time Theatre

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 59, 23 June 1948, Page 3

“Gaiety George” Gives Interesting Sidelights On Old-Time Theatre

Interesting sidelights on the oldtime theatre can be seen in “Gaiety George,” which stars Richard Greene and Ann Todd with Peter Graves. At the end of the last century when “Gaiety George” (Richard Greene, in the title role) took over the Princess Theatre, entertainment on the English stage was at a low ebb; music-hall had not yet been reborn, and the great era of “musical comedy” had not yet arrived. He finds the theatre shabby and halfempty, the actors seedy and the acts crude, the chorus slovenly and badly dressed. The only bright thing is the loveliness of the young leading lady of the show (Ann Todd). Gaiety George enthusiastically sets about putting his new ideas into being. After an initial clash when

Ann Todd resents his well meant criticisms, she agrees to try out his innovations. Old hands in the theatre are frankly sceptical when at his first audition Gaiety George turns down established favourites and engages newcomers with “looks and legs.” Even- in those early days, however, two shrewd business men (Frank Pettingell and John Laurie) sense the young showman’s flair for success, and make him an offer, which he refuses, to “come in on the ground floor.” It is to these same backers, however, that later in his career Gaiety George does sell out to realise money to pay for a big law suit. It might have spelt disaster to a less flamboyant personality but backed by the indomitable courage of Ann Todd, the girl who had starred in his first show and who had given up a promising stage career to become his wife, he sets out to rebuild his success in a new theatre. The film’s conclusion finds Gaiety George acknowledged as the greatest figure of the English stage.