LEGITIMATE STAGE’S RETURN

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 108, 31 January 1935, Page 11

LEGITIMATE STAGE’S RETURN

Revivals in London PANTOMIME HAS ALSO SURVIVED London was the one great metropolis in which the legitimate theatre was affected least when “talkies” appeared oat of the blue to upset and partially strangle the theatre as the English have known it from Shakespeare’s time. So writes a correspondent, who adds that it is encouraging to see a fair measure of prosperity attending the stage in London now with an increasing number of theatres with open doors. Merit is evident, too, in many of the recent productions. Few who witnessed “Hamlet”; with John Gielgud as the sable Prince of Denmark, will readily forget that deeply intellectual achievement—the finest since Forbes-Robert-son. The persistent purpose of this actor marks him us one of England’s aristocrats of the stage. And he is not . yet 31 years of age. But he comes of great stock. His father, Frank Gielgud, happened to marry Kate Terry-Lewis, so that he is a nephew of the late Ellen Terry, of immortal fame. John Gielgud has since been playing in that fasconating play, “The Maitlnnds,” by Ronald Mackenzie, and produced by Komisarjonsky. Mr. Priestley's Attention. Mr. J. B. Priestley frankly says that more money can be made out of a successful book than a successful play, so he is giving a lot of attention to the Stage. His play, “Eden End” has been quite a success. Herbert Farjeon in the “Sunday Pictorial” went so far as to say “the best play now in London by a living writer.” That is saying a good deal, as when it was written, “The Wind and the Rain” (Dr. Merton Hodge’s cameo of medical student life in Edinburgh) was still running merrily on in its twelfth month. “His play loses direction and loses itself on the shoal of sentiment,” wrote “The Times” of Denis Johnston’s tragicomedy, “The Moon on the Yellow River.” It is an attempt to dramatise the eccentricities of modern Irish character —how it reacts to the idea of a German engineer who proposes to supply an area of southern Ireland with electricity. “A delightful admixture of melo and real drama," is the correspondent’s summary of “Mary Read—Dragoon and Pirate,” presented at His Majesty’s Theatre in November. It is by James Bridie and Claude Gurney and was presented by George Grossmith. In a tremendous cast, which swings the action along in fine style, the outstanding players are Miss Flora Robson, Miss Iris Hoey, the handsome Robert Donat, Claude Allister (an English screen favourite), and Beatrice Wilson. Back in 1927 London heard “The Blackbirds,” an all-negro team of singers and dancers from U.S.A Now “The Blackbirds of 1934,” a Harlem rhapsody, is intriguing half London (at- the Coliseum) with their pulsating' rhythms and elemental intensity oi feeling and action. “Merrie England.” Another revival that is going well is Edward German’s opera "Merrie England” at the Princes. The patriotic flair of this melodious work still touches the people. Mr, W. S. Percy, well known iii New Zealand, plays Wilkins, the comedy part. Gertrude Jennings, who must have written hundreds of one-act plays, has scored a success in her comedy “Family Affairs,” in which Mary Glynn, Athene Seyler, Clare Harris, anil Robert Eddison are seen to advantage. In New Zealand Miss Seyler will be remembered for her fine work as the Archduchess in the picture “Blossom Time.” On December 20 “Jill Darling,” a new musical comedy, was produced by William Mollison at the Saville Theatre, with John Mills, Arthur Riscoe, Frances Day, and Louise Browne at the head of a competent cast. London will be the last stronghold of the pantomime. Christmas in the metropolis would be unthinkable without its Drury Lane pantomime. This year Julian Wylie presented “Cinderella” there with Phyllis NeilsonTerry, Dan Leno, jun., Clarice Hardwieke (late of J. C. Williamson’s forces), Billy Danvers, and Ethel Reynell. Then there was another “Cinderella” at. Brixton, “Alice in Wonderland” at the Duke of York’s, “Slnbad the Sailor” at the Embassy, "Dick Whittington” at the Lyceum, “Aladdin” at the Prince Edward, “Robin Hood” at the Victoria Palace, besides “Peter Pan” and “Treasure Island,” so who dares say that pantomime is on its last Coming Back Slowly. Other shows running at the year-end were Alhambra, “The Bing Boys Are Here”; Aldwych, “Half-a-Crown”; Apollo, “Hyde Park Corner”; Cambridge, “Admirals AH”; Comedy, “Hi-Diddle-Diddle”; Criterion, “The Ghost Train”; Daly’s, “Charley’s Aunt”; Duke of York’s, “The Greeks Had a .Word for It”; Embassy, “The Dominant Sex”; Gaiety, “Sporting Love”; Garrick, “Belle of New York”; Globe, “Murder in Mayfair”; Hippodrome, “Yes, Madam”; Holborn Empire, “■Where the Rainbow Ends”; Kingsway, “Young England”; Little, "Lady Precidus Stream”; Lyric, “Theatre Royal”; New, “Hamlet”; Palace, “Streamline”; Palladium, “Peter Pan”; Phoenix, “Ten Minute Alibi”:; Piccadilly, “Young Mr. Disraeli”; Playhouse, “The Luck of the Navy”; Queen’s, “Inside the Room”; Royalty, “The Red Rover’s Revenge”; Sadler’s Wells. “St. Joan”; St. James, “The Shining Hour”; Savoy, “Clive of India”; Savoy, “What Happened to George”; Shaftesbury, “For Ever”; Strand, “Lucky Break”; Vaudeville, “Lover’s Leap”; Westminster, “Alien Born”; Winter Garden, “A Waltz Dream”; and Wyndham’s, “Sweet Aloes.” The list is impressive enough to say that the legitimate is coming back slowly but surely, and what London does one year is reflected over the Empire in the next two or three years.