FIXTURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 323, 7 April 1928, Page 20

FIXTURES

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE Now Pk ying: Maurice Mosci ■ iteh in "The Ringer ’ and "The Terror.” ~~ 2-May 1Z: “A Cuckoo in the Neat,’ "Rookery Nook." and “Thark.” May 23-. lune 12: ‘‘The Student Prince” and "Madame Pompadour.” June: Dion Boucicault and Irene Vanbrugh. COMING "The Girl Friend.” "Castles in the Air.” Grand Opera Company. ST. JAMES’S THEATRE June (indefinite;: "Sunny,” .“Archie” and “Mercenary Mary” (Klsie Prince). Conuitg: Grand Opera Company.

Mr. Walter Monk returned to Auckland yesterday after the conclusion of the Southern tour of “Rose Marie” .and ‘‘Tip Toes,” and is now taking up the advance arrangements for Muscovite h. Guy Bates Post, here with “The Masquerader” and “The Green Godess,” is back in New York, and is appearing in the English melodrama, “The Wrecker,” by Arnold Ridley, author of “The Ghost Train.” Ethel Morrison CEttie Maginnity), oi W ellington, is playing in support of Mitzi in “The Madcap” in New York. The Billboard refers to her as “that effective character actress.” She last toured New Zealand ir: “Merrie Eng-

An American paper says that only 1- plays in the history of the Xew York theatre have been as enduring as “Broadway." These are: “Abe’s Irish Rose,” “Lightnin,” “The Bat” “The First Year,” “Seventh Heaven,” “White Cargo.” “Peg o’ My Heart” “East is West,” “A Trip to Chinatown,’’ “Rain," “Is Zat So?” and “Adonis.” Most of these plays have been presented in New Zealand, and J. C. Williamson has the rights for Broadway.” In the item on gross box-office receipts, "Broadway” surpassed all cf these, with two exceptions. _ Its gross receipts were £297,677, a weekly average of .£4,050. The movie rights have been .sold for £ 45.000: There is a poignant allusion to Marie Lloyd in Shaw - Desmond’s “London Mights of Long Ago.” The author recalls the last time he heard Mis 3 Lloyd sing. It was at the Palladium, and she sang her last success, “I’m One of the Ruins That Cromwell Knocked About a Bit.” The audience frantically applauded, and Mr. Desmond says: “She came back from the wings, did Marie, without her wig, on old, grey woman, wiping back the frowsy’ blousy hair from her poor, worn face. . . . I "will always believe that, with the premonition of those about to die, the real Marie, contemptuous of convention in that dread instant, deliberately showed herself to her audience as she was, knowing the end of the road in sight.”

With Mercia Swinburne in “The Crooked Billet” at the Royalty and Xorah Swinburne in “Regatta” at the Prince of Wales, there will be two actresses with the same name playing leading parts in West End theatres, says a London writer. . What makes the coincidence more remarkable is that George Relph, who is playing “opposite” Xorah in “Regatta,” is' the husband of Mercia. “Everyone as-

sumes,” says Mercia, “that Xorah j s in the same play with her husband, but Mr. Relph is not her husband, nr.r even her brother-in-law, for she and I are not related in any way, though people persist in thinking so. Perhaps it is because we are very good friends. Anyway, the confusion had led to many mistakes.”

(tip CUT HU UN US} Godfrey Winn, an actor who ap- ' peared in Xoel Coward’s play, "The Marquise,” and was at one time junior j tennis champion for the South of England. has a first novel announced fGr j publication. Mr. Winn, who is a Cam- j bridge graduate, is 21. “The White Eagle,” which Mr. F.us- . sell Janney took from Montreal, had ! a great reception from the critics. A j Red Indian dance la the last act seems ! to have created as big a sensation as j did the Totem dance in “Rose Marie,” while Rudolph Friml. the composer, is ; likened to Puccini. The next play to be produced bv the ! Canterbury College Drama Society is ? the late Thomas Hardy’s “Queen” of ! Cornwall,” which deals with the ! legend of Tristram and Isolde. The re- j hearsals are to begin as soon as possible, and at the same time it is intended to make a start with two or j three other plays. Considering the un- j qualified success of “Good Friday” and 1 “The Devil’s Disciple,” which were j produced by this society, the new play should be something outstanding.

With the object of establishing the Civic Repertory Theatre in New York as a people’s playhouse, with one dollar as the top price for tickets, a membership campaign was recently conducted, with the object of securing 200,000 new members for the Civic Repertory Theatre Club for the season of 1928-1929. The Civic Repertory Tneatre is now. in its second season at its playhouse in Fourteenth Street under the direction of Eva Le Gallienne.