Dancing Hit

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 24

Dancing Hit

Madge Elliott and Cyrilßitchardin London AUSTRALIANS COME INTO THEIR OWN London papers are paying flattering attention to the Australians in the new musical production, “So This is Love.” One journal says:— Thank Heaven the Winter Garden has gone back to the musical play, and, thank Heaven again, it is a good one! "So This is Love” is a most uninformative title. “So This is Dancing” would have been much better. There is dancing of the first and finest order—dancing of the ballet, ballroom, acrobatic, and knockabout species. Everyone can dance, it seems: but, alas, how few can sing! Madge Elliott is the embodiment of willowy, feathery grace and bewitching beauty. Beyond question, Miss Elliott and Cyril Ritchard are the most perfect stage lovers we possess. They are so supremely natural and unaffected, and they dance as no others do. But the dancing triumph of “So This is Love” is a little girl who helped to draw all Loudon to “Oh Kay.” Her name is Reita Nugent, and the firstnight celebrities, shaken out of their accustomed and studied reserve, actually stood up and cheered her. Miss Nugent is an acrobatic whirlwind, with a style akin to that of Emma Haig. But Reita apparently has more tricks and steps in her repertoire than the little American. Another paper says:

Pamela, the heroine, is played by Madge Elliott, whose dancing made so emphatic a hit in “Lady Luck,” and she dances divinely. Dances—did I say? Miss Elliott just glides and floats round the stage with an effortlessness and grace that is pure poetry. Dancing is the great feature of “So This is Love,” a new musical play that should fill the Winter Garden for months. Everybody dances. Cyril Ritchard partners the delightful Miss Elliott most of the time, and they move together charmingly in the languorous steps that follow “Just Suppose” and “Sweetheart.” In their last dance. “Mardi Gras,” which is more spirited, they are equally successful. Reita Nugent, an extraordinarily nimble young artist, puts more acrobatics into her dancing, which is amazingly timed and extremely clever. Dave Mallen, corr''' ,, an of “Rio Rita,” now playing in Sydney, expl'*ns himself: “I was born in New York City on the east side, in 313 F«asL .13th Street. My arm:’ identification disc had a 13 in it, I signed my contract for ‘Rio Rita’ on * v - 13th of January, and I have been 13 years on the stage. Owing to my likeness to George M. Cohan, I have been k> wd 0 - ‘nont.-n+ edition’ fc many years. I’ve played in New York all the time in such pieces as "Blue Kitten. ‘Padlocks of 1927,’ and ‘Queen High.’ A long time ago somebody whispered to me that Australia was the actor’s paradise, so I’ve been making strenuous efforts to come over It’s all they said.’

Excellent judgment is shown by Cecil Kellaway in the role of Albert Chuff in “Princess Charming.” Selfconfidence he is required to have as the Continental manager of the Colossal Assurance Co. But he is never unduly overbearing. The result is that every line and situation is exploited to the limit in laughter, without the character, for a moment, becoming extraneous to the general atmosphere of the play.