MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 44, 14 May 1927, Page 17

MAJESTIC

“THE WHISPERING BARITONE” It is not so much what he sings, but the way he sings it, that puts Jack Lumsdaine so high on the bills. An engaging personality and a varied repertoire of catchy little numbers which he sings in a manner ail his own, will bring him into high favour with Auckland audiences, if the warmth of the reception accorded him on his first appearance at the Majestic last evening is any criterion.

Sometimes he “whispers” his numbers and sometimes he sngs them But, however he does it, like all good artists he makes it appear delightfully easy. When he sings it is with a high baritone voice of very pleasing quality, while his work at the piano stamps him as a musician of no mean ability. Indeed, at times one cannot help wishing to hear him in a more serious mood.

“Thinking,” “Mary Lou” and “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain” so delighted last night’s audience that he had long exceeded his share of the programme when lie was reluctantly allowed to depart. As a final offering he resurrected “Lulu.” Resurrected seems hardly the word. Served up a la Grand Opera with dashes of “II Trovatore,” “Tales of Hoffman” and other well-known operatic airs, it was something entirely new, and incidentally, a number, which, to use a rather trite expression, fairly brought down the house.

With Auckland audiences the whispering baritone is going to be a very popular turn.

Bachelor husbands and charming spinsters form the basis of Warner Fabian’s delightful comedy drama. “Summer Bachelors,” which heads the picture programme. Deserted by their wives during the hot American summer season, lonely husbands have to find some distraction. Judging by this Fox feature they appear to be very successful. The chief lonelv bachelor, in the person of Allan Forrest, turns out in the finish to be the genuine article, so when Madge Bellamy, the most charming of the consoling spinsters, falls violently in love with him, tragedy is averted and the final close-up fills all requirements. “A Majestic News," an “Eve’s Review” and an exceptionally bright comedy of Western life complete a capital bill.

Under Mr. F. G. Mumford, the Majestic orchestra provided two veryartistic contributions with Suppe’s “Jolly Robbers” and Chopin’s “Nocturne.”