SUNNY AS HER NAME

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 410, 19 July 1928, Page 17

SUNNY AS HER NAME

ELSIE PRINCE AT ST. JAMES Small as Elsie Prince is in stature, she radiates an immense amount of brightness across the footlights at St. James, where “Sunny”—in which she plays the name-part—continues to delight Auckland audiences. The star is seen in a variety of frocks and in ever-changing scenes. From a circus tent at Southampton, in which Elsie Prince makes her appearance, carried shoulder-high by her admiring “gang,” the plot transports “Sunny” (as a stowaway) to the deck of an Atlantic liner, and then, after a wedding ceremony at sea, to her unwillinghusband’s palatial home at a fashionable resort in the States. After marrying the wrong man, and suffering the usual vicissitudes of a musical comedy star, “Sunny” finds happiness on a poppy field. Jimmy Godden, who, under the influence of persuasion and a fierce mixture of most of the known spirits, marries and divorces Sunny all in the space of an hour or so, makes the most of many opportunities for his delightful fooling.

As the silk-hattecl owner of the circus, and passionate but unsuccessful suitor to Sunny’s hand, Charlton Morton proves as amusing as ever.

Others in the cast to whom honours are due are Elsie Parkes, who is only runner-up in the game in which Tom Warren (Leonard Rich) is the prize; Nellie Dean, who seems to have the happy knack of arranging anything from buying a dog to a divorce; Betty Lambert, the “baby vamp,” to whom Jimmy Godden remains true—till he meets Sunny.

George Willoughby wields his circus whip and deck mop with equal dexterity, and in “spruiking” outside the circus tent or in the loudest of waistcoats as a successful father-in-law, is equally entertaining.

One of the brightest and daintiest choruses seen in Auckland for a long time puts the finishing touches to a very bright show. The ballets are exceptionally good.