"BALALAIKA"

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22517, 27 September 1938, Page 17

"BALALAIKA"

SPECTACULAR MUSICAL PLAY The success of the spectacular musical Play, "Balalaika," at the opening performance at the Theatre Royal + on Saturday evening augurs well for the futurepresentations of the play, which will be repeated nightly until next Thursday. There will be a matinee performance to-morrow at 2 p.m. The second production, "The Desert Song, will commence on Friday evening for a season of three nights and a matinee W The dancing in ''Balalaika," of the older Russian ballet style, is really outstanding. Its choruses and individual singers, heard mostly in songs of Russian type, contribute a major share to the success of the performance, and it* costumes, well planned in colour as well as in general design, are a delight. "Balalaika is a thoroughly enjoyable musical comedy, and one Ihat gives additional pleasure by many touches of originality in its Russian theme, . "Balalaika" is a comic opera that is pleasing both to the ear and the eye. ft fulfil* every expectation, it is spontaneous, unhackneyed, and vital, with such musical and dancing as are a sheer delight. As -a spectacle, it is said to eclipse any production ever staged in New Zealand, and its eomedy scenes are refreshingly wholesome and genuinely humorous. . A musical comedy is not a tiistonca play, but an incidental of "Balalaika is that it sketches something of what happened to the Russian officer class in the revolution, and explains too plight of those groups of Russian exiles which are common in Paris. Beginning with one of these groups, it suddenly switches back to IM4, to the famous Marinfky Theatre in St, Petersburg, There the Imperial ballet is rehearsing, and the story takes a normal musical comedy course in introducing a troop of Cofsack officers who fair in love with the girlf, This provides the opportunity for romantic songs, and for excellent dancing. x Then coroee jfoe war, and ultimately the revolution. The final" scene cornea back to the group of exiles in Parte. Such • outline give* no idea of the colour and movewent of "Balalaika," and the many opportunities it gives, for unusually jntereetjng dancing and spectacular wettings.