REINHARDT TRIUMPH

Evening Star, Issue 22442, 12 September 1936, Page 11

REINHARDT TRIUMPH

‘ MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM ' FOR HIS MAJESTY'S Max Reinhardt’s super production of Shakespeare’s comedy, ‘ A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ will commence its local season at His Majesty’s Theatre on Wednesday, next, with one of the biggest and most talented casts ever to appear in a single picture. Reinhardt, long acknowledged to be Europe’s greatest stage producer, consented to present’ his spectacle in film form after it had met with tremendous success at the Hollywood Bowl and at San Francisco. It is said to be the ultimate in spectacular grandeur, while at the same time its comedy and romance are hilarious and as human as the mortal race. James Cagney heads the all-star cast, with Joe E. Brown, Hugh Herbert, Frank M'Hugh, Otis Harlan, Dewey Robinson, and Arthur Treacher playing with him as the artisan mummers who present a play before the Duke of Athens on the occasion of his wedding to the Queen of the Amazons. The leading romantic roles are played by Dick Powell, Jean Muir, Ross Alexander, and Olivia de Haviland, whose mixed-up love affairs lead to some strange pranks by the elf of mischief, Puck, portrayed by Mickey Rooney. Others include Victor J'ory, Verree Truesdale, Anita Louise, lan Hunter, Hobart Cavanaugh, and Grant Mitchell. Scores of beautiful dancing girls take part in the fairy spectacles, directed by the two famous European ballet authorities, Bronislawa Nijinska and Nina Theilade. The spectacle is set to the beautiful music of Mendelssohn, arranged by the noted Viennese composer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The play was arranged by Charles Kenyon and Mary M‘Call, jun., and directed by Max Reinhardt in association with William Dicterle.