A BIG PUNCH COMEDY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 72, 22 September 1930, Page 5

A BIG PUNCH COMEDY

CLEM DAWE IN FISTIC SCREAM

The Dawe-White-Edgley Company, which only lately revived musical comedy in Wellington with a bright double bill, is back again with a third pieco equally bright, called ■ "Hold Everything;" The wonderful ballet-chorus is as scintillating as ever, and the team of comedians is equally frolicsome and diverting—in fact, the whole production is so efficient that on Saturday evening it was hard to believe that the company had had only eight days in which to get it ready. This rushed preparation explains how, in so short a time, the players were able to be off with the old love and on with the new; and when the circumstances of the' production were explained in a fall-of-cuitain speech the largo and well-pleased audience at the Grand Opera House on Saturday night signified well-deserved approval.

I "Hold Everything," although mostly a tuneful scream, yet has a story running through it. Proceedings open in a boxing training camp on the eve of a prize fight between the hero and another pug. Mr. Michael Cole plays the hero pug, and his young lady (played, by Miss Betty Eley) assumes the right to dictate his ring-tactics (her great grandfather having been a glove-maker), but meets with the justifiable opposition of the trainer (Mr. Dan Agar). The trainer is determined that the hero shall not force the fight in the opening stages. The girl is determined that he shall, and manages to get- insulted by the enemy pug, which information • she (in defiance of orders) communicates to the hero on the eve of the fight, with the result that' he, enraged, cuts loose at the foe and is twice floored. His recovery, and the lucky punch with which he wins the almost lost battle, provide a moment of genuine excitement. But side by side with this rather unusual story (for the stage) of hera pugilism is the comedy of the "dud" pug, Gink, who is, of course, Mr. Clem Dawe. It is a good comedy part, and the right man has been found in Mr. Dawe, who includes among his many drolleries an ability to make all sorta of freak uses of his manly figure. When not drunk, or asleep, or out of action through overweight, Gink is lying down to escape punishment—in fact, an attitude of recumbence is habitual to him. But luck sticks to him in a very literal sense (he puts a large size horseshoe in his glove) and the result is that his ferocious opponent is outed in the first round..

If the "dud" pug has found the right actor in Mr. Dawe, his lady love has found the right actress in Miss Stewart, who "lets -herself go" and is responsible for a big share of the success on the comedy side. The same may be said of Mr. Bobbie Gordon as a beer-brewing cook. Mr. Dan Agar is an insistent but forgiving trainer, Mr. Eric Edgley is some sort of a sub-trainer, and there is a lively retinue of stable hangers-on. Right from the outset the ladies of the ballet create "atmosphere" with fistic evolutions. They figure charmingly immediately afterwards in support of a song by Miss Mona Barlee, and in these and all their many succeeding efforts they pleased the audience immensely. Whether supporting Mr. 'Cole's soDgs, or the Eley-Cole duets, or the StewartDawe funnyisms, the beautifully dressed ballet-chorus was always there to deliver the finishing blow, i Among the new evolutions is a very pretty movement up I and down a broad stairway in the beautifully mounted "Terrace Garden" set. One of the finest numbers ("Don't Hold Everything," by Miss Stewart and chorus, followed by Mona Zeppel's and Will Delaney's specialty dance) leads up to the interval. , In the second act the good work is continued, with the addition of another specialty danco by Miss Mona Zeppel, and a very graceful dance (in evening dress) by Messrs. Taylor and Richards, who move in perfect accord. An outstanding item is the Stewart-Da,we number, "Oh I Gosh/ a study in expletives.

"Hold Everything" can be recommended to anyone who wishes to see musical comedy at its best, with an orchestra of merit (tinder Mr. Gregory Ivanoff). Sup porters 'of "the old order" .will find no better opportunity to link up with the days that were, and which (with public support) may continue to be.