New Theatrical Stars in London

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 24 (Supplement)

New Theatrical Stars in London

Chances of the Younger Players SEVERAL MAKE GOOD It is a coincidence, brought about more by accident than by design, that the recent London discussion about stars and their big salaries should be quickly followed by several opportunities for more or less unknown actors and actresses to show what they can do in leading parts, says "W illiam Pollock in the “Daily Mail.” Instances are Eva Sternroyd’s chance to play the leading girl’s part at the Gaiety Theatre, “Chance Acquaintance,” written by a young man and

played mainly by a young cast at the Criterion, and an unexpected opening for Sydney Howard as chief comedian in 4 Tlit The Deck,” at the Hippodrome. George Bass, the Lancashire come-, dian, has dropped out of “Hit The Deck,” partly, he says, because lie could not wear liis accustomed stage moustache in the part and felt rather lost without. It may sound a queer reason for giving up a. salary of £l5O a week, but the stage is a queer business.

The resignation of Mr. Bass gives Sydney Howard an opportunity that he has worked long to get. Since the war he has played up and down the provinces in variety, in revue, and in musical-comedy tours. Tie “followed” A. W. Baskeornb in “Mercenary Mary” for about IS months. Now Clayton and Waller are giving him the same sort of chance that they recently afforded George Gee in “The Girl Friend.”

Mrs. Robert Loraino is to try her hand at the part of Roxane in her husband’s production of “Cyrano de Bergerac.” “I believe that I have made a right choice for the part,” Mr. Loraine said recently. “But there is one difficulty: my wife has never acted professionally before, and so she has no stage name.” Mrs. Loraine, who is fair and has beauty, is beginning ambitiously; there is nothing “small part” about Roxane. Other recent newcomers to the London stage who are doing well —-one* or two of them remarkably well—include Marjorie Mars, a niece of Gwennie Mars, who was in Pelissier’s “The Follies.” She has an emotional part in “The Silver Cord,” which she does finely.

Then there is Leonard Henry, a concert party comedian of wide experience, who only needs a bit more scope and assurance in “Bow-Wows” to make a real hit in his quiet way; and Guy Newall, whose study of a silly ass in “When Blue Hills Laughed” has made a considerable impression on several managers.

So sympathetic and entirely suitable is the stage setting for Kaai’s Hawaiian Troubadours, whose unique entertainment has been playing to packed houses in the South, that it never obtrudes as a. separate item on the night’s bill of fare. The purple glow of a tropical night is just the natural atmosphere for the pulsing lilt of passionate melody. It is the subtle blending of shimmering lights and cadenced colours in actual tune with the guitars’ sweet notes that account for the wondrous whole—the strange exotic spell of a night in Honolulu.