Round The Shows

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 660, 11 May 1929, Page 15

Round The Shows

“THE MIDNIGHT FROLICS” HIS MAJESTY’S ON WEDNESDAY Positively only eight nights can be allocated to the approaching farewell season of the Midnight Frolics, which organisation, considerably augmented since its last appearance here, will make a welcome reappearance on Wednesday night next. On Friday, May 24, Clem Dawe and his happy band of singers, comedians and pantomimists will leave for Sydney anil it may be some considerable time before we will again be privileged to enjoy their excellent entertainments. Clem Dawe told a newspaper representative recently that he and the other members of liis company would always have loving memories of Hew Zealand, which he considers is one of the happiest and most progressive countries in the world. Wednesday night’s opening performance will be particularly noteworthy from the fact that it will once again present to Aucklanders the dashing young London comedienne, Miss Mona Magnet, whose singing, dancing and artistry has materially assisted in making the present the most successful tour ever enjoyed by the Midnight Frolics in New Zealand. . .. Clem Dawe. Eric Edgeley, Dorothy White. William Perryman, Gertie Cremer and Les White will also appear on Wednesday in a number of new and screamingly funny humorous sketches and they will also introduce a number of entirely new song and dance successes. Gregory Ivan off will delight playgoers again on his violin, and the Frolics Jazz Band and will again be r n outstanding feature of the entertainment. The box plans will be opened on Monday morning.

ROYAL AUCKLAND CHOIR FIRST CONCERT, MAY 23 The Koval Auckland Choir will present the first concert of the new season in the Town Hall on Thursday. May 23. The following items will be given bv the choir: —Part song. “To Arms (Maunder); “Eyemng Song (Ritchie): “Sword of Ferrara (Bullard); “Mynheer Van Dunck” ( Bishop R “Jabberwocky” (Chadwick); meta (Bantock); "On the Banks of Allan Water” and “The Long Day Closes” (Sullivan). The latter will be sung in memory of the late Mr. M. Trenwith, a foundation member of the choir. Vocal soloists will be Miss Naomi Whalley, soprano, and Mr. Trevor L. Thomas. Miss Whalley will sing ‘‘One Fine Day,” from “Madam Butterfly.” “The Night Wind” (Farley), “The Pastorale” (Turner), “The Big Brown Bear.” and the “Jewel Song” from “Faust.” Mr. Thomas's items will bo ‘Myself When Young” (Lehmann), “The Luto Plaj'er” (Alisten), and “To the Forest” (Tschaikowsky). Violin solos will also be contributed by Mr. Ronald C. Muston. a talented young Auckland artist.

Emil Jannings is completing work on his latest picture for Paramount, titled “Betrayal.” Esther Ralston and Gary Cooper are featured in the cast.

RIALTO, AND REGENT, EPSOM “BABY CYCLONE” Aileen Pringle, the statuesque beauty of the screen, wears some of the most striking costumes of the present season in the ultra-modern jazz life depicted in “The Baby Cyclone,” in which she and Lew Cody co-star, and which is now at the Rialto and Regent (Epsom) Theatres. It is a broad comedy, satirising society’s lap-dog love, and filmed from the George M. Cohan stage success. Eddie Sutherland directed the play, with Gwen Lee, Robert Armstrong and a notable east. “Eileen of the Trees,” which is also being shown, is a romantic story of English life, replete with views of the English countryside. Anny Ondra and William Freshmen are the stars.

AUCKLAND CHORAL SOCIETY “MARITANA” NEXT THURSDAY The Auckland Choral Society will present, at its opening concert of the season, Wallace’s melodious opera, “Maritana.” This wiiL be given in the Town Hall on Thursday next, May IG, with full chorus and orchestra. The soloists will be Miss Kate Campion (soprano). Miss M. Clague (contralto), Mr. Arthur Ripley (tenor),'Mr. Geoff. Colledge (baritone), and Mr. E. Thomas (bass). 'The whole performance will, as usual, be under the baton of Mr. Colin Muston, L.R.A.M. Miss Edith Whitelaw is the leader of the orchestra. The box plans open on Monday morning at Strong’s Box Office. Details of annual subscriptions are advertised, and applications may be made to Mr. R. W. Strong.

PLAZA “THE SINGING FOOL” With a record of crowded houses every session for the past week, “The Singing Fool” the talking picture at the Plaza Theatre is establishing motion picture history in Auckland. For “The Singing Fool” is no ordinary picture. It combines songs by America’s great vaudeville actor A 1 Jolson with a film story of unusual power. It is double entertainment. The greatest American film critic wrote of “The Singing Fool”: “After seeing and hearing ‘The Singing Fool,’ I could not help becoming convinced that talking pictures are here to stay. They fill a definite need in the show world I doubt if a picture has been made; to this day that has brought more tears to the eyes than brings ‘The Singing Fool.’ “The emotion-stirring situations are numerous. But the most effective of them all are those that show Mr. Jolson and little Dave Lee together. (Master Leo takes the part of the hero’s child. He is given an opportunity to talk now and then. liis talk is charming in the extreme.) And among these the one I that shows David Lee die and the father broken up as the result, will rock the soul of anybody, particularly of fathers and mothers. The scenes at , the theatre where the hero goes on ! with the show even though his heart ; was breaking will impress themselves in the mind so deeply that one will remember them for years to come. “The story revolves around a hero, working in a cabaret as a waiter, who eventually rises to great fame as a singer and a ballad writer. “Mr. Jolson is superb, not only as a singer, but also as an actor. He sings several songs. But ‘Sonny Boy’ is the one that makes the muscles of one’s thorax contract the most- Josephine Dunn is the heartless wife. Betty Bonson is the cigarette girl. Reed Howes, Edward Martindel, Arthur Housman, Robert Emmett O’Connor and many others are in the cast. “The story was written by Leslie S. Barrows. It was directed with great skill by Lloyd Bacon. “ ‘The -Singing Fool' will be to talking pictures what ‘The Birth of a Nation’ has been to silent pictures. It is the greatest picture that has ever been made.” As is only fitting such a fine production is accompanied by an equally fine supporting “talkie” programme. Mischa Elman, the great violinist plays 'two numbers exquisitely—they are “Huraoureske” and Gossec’s “Gavotte.” He is followed by Giovanni Martinelli, the leading dramatic tenor of the New York Opera Company. Other items are "Tho Tannhauser Overture,” by the New York Philharmonic Society, songs and patter by the Howard Brothers, and songs by a male quartet entitled, “In Monastry Cellar.” Harry Green, who appeared on the New Zealand vaudeville stage in “Give and Take,” has been cast by Paramount as a fight manager in “The Man I Love,” an all-talking romance of the boxing ring which features Mary Brian and Richard Aden in the leading parts.

May Foy, one of the first actresses ; to leave the footlights for the Kliegs I when the movies were in their infancy, appearing at that time in a one- j reel biograph made by David W ark Griffith, again is one of the first to ; venture into a new form of artistic ex- | pression. Fhe has an important role > in the Fox Movietone all-dialogue pro- j daction, “Watch Out.” under the direction of James Parrott. _