HUMPHREY BISHOP CO.

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 72, 16 June 1927, Page 17

HUMPHREY BISHOP CO.

OPENS AT STRAND TO-MORROW The intimation that the Humphrey Bishop Musical Comedy Company is to play a short return and farewell season at the Strand Theatre, commencing to-morrow will be received with a certain amount of satisfaction by vaudeville lovers who enjoyed their sparkling shows on the occasion of their former visits. During the forthcoming season they will appear twice daily, once at the afternoon session and again at night, for a period of ninety minutes at each performance, which will consist of picked items from the new repertoire, which the conipany has been rehearsing for their Sydney season. On the occasion of the recent return and farewell visit to Christchurch, the “Press” says: “No better tribute to the popularity of the Humphrey Bishop Company and no more striking indication of the place it holds in the estimation of the Christchurch public, could have been offered than the liberal patronage bestowed on them on the company’s reopening night at the Theatre Royal. When the curtain rose every seat in the theatre was occupied, and unstinted applause encouraged the clever band of entertainers throughout the sparkling performance. Nothing quite so good of its kind has been seen here.” Box plans for the dress circle are now on view at Lewis R. Eady and Son Ltd., and both dress circle and stalls at the Strand Theatre. Novelists and motion pictures have familiarised a certain type of “human triangle.” Unfortunately for screen enthusiasts, the humorous possibilities of these trios have never been so effectively depicted as in “There You Are.” the hilarious comedy, to which patrons of the Strand Theatre will be treated to-morrow.

In this instance two of the parties are an eloping couple, and the third is a month-old baby whose presence the man finds difficulty in explaining. It is not his—and his bride-to-be weeps profusely at his stammering replies as to how he got it.

How the infant is finally disposed of —after frantic flights from furious parents—after a convulsing tangle of cross-purposes and mixed matrimony —and after a ludicrously heroic rescue from a burning building—is told as a diverting and extremely funny story. Conrad Nag;el is particularly impressive as a mild-mannered clerk who summons sufficient daring to elope with his employer’s daughter. His part is light; and frothy compared with his portrayal in “Sun Up,” and his versatility is so rare that he makes the transition with consummate ease.

Fox Films, during the 1927 season, will give the screen a series of Tom Mix and Buck Jones productions that will set a new standard for “Westerns.” Authors whose fiction is rated among the best in current literature have been engaged to write special stories to fit the personalities of these stars and many of the leading novels and short stories have been purchased. Among the authors who are. at work on special stories or who have contracted to write them are Adela Rogers St. Johns, Jackson Gregory, J. Allan Dunn, Gerald Beaumont, Shannon Fife, Charles Darnton, Max Brand and John Stone.