STAGELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 666, 18 May 1929, Page 24

STAGELAND

(By

COTHURNUS.

FIXTURES HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE N o w Playing: “The Midnight Frolics,’’ Edgeley and Dane. COMING "The Desert Song.” ST. JAMES THEATRE Now Playing: “King of Kawau,” University Students’ Association. May 25: Pat Hanna’s Diggers. July 8: “Rio Rita,” Gladys Moncrieff. COMING “Baby Cyclone” and “Good News, ’ Elsie Prince and Jimmy Godden. Muriel Starr, who came to New Zealand first in “Within the Law,” is now playing on the Tivoli circuit in Australia. She is partnered by Harvey Adams. * * * Nellie Bramley must be very popular in Brisbane. She has .iust completed a 12 months’ run at the Theatre Royal—comedy and drama —with an indefinite stay there still ahead of her. For the most part a weekly change is made.

“Education purchased at the cost of privation and struggle,” declares Sir Harry Lauder in a series of articles he is at present contributing to “T.P.’s Weekly” (London), “will always beat education secured at a much easier price.” •T. C. Williamson, Ltd., is extending its activities in London. The firm has found “Mr. Cinders” a highly successful proposition at the Adelphi, and now it will stage “Coquette” at the Apollo. Both pieces will be seen in Australia in due course. * * * Betty Ross Clarke has played a variety of roles since she played Julia in “The Ghost Train” in Australia and New Zealand. She is now at the head of the new Fuller dramatic company which will begin a season in “The Barker,” a drama of American circus life, at the Palace Theatre. Yvonne Banvard, who was Lady Jane in “Rose Marie,” and Jack Settle will also have important roles in “The Barker.” * * * A new theatre, called “The Theatre of Youth,” which is designed “for children and the young in heart,” was opened at Young Street, Sydney, on April 2, by the Misses Joan and Betty Raynor. Miss Elaine de Chair per formed the simple opening ceremony and made a sympathetic little speech An interesting programme was given which included folk songs, ballads sea chanties, and an amusing play by Anton Tchekov. Clever acting and £ wholesome mixture of fun and pathos made the performance enjoyable. Tbs theatre, though very small, is artistic ally arranged.

Stiff With Talent

“HAY FEVER” Noel Coward Comedy by Little Theatre Society “Hay Fever,” Noel Coward’s delightful comedy', will be the next production by the Auckland Little Theatre Society. It will be presented on June 25 for a season of four nights. The role of Judith Bliss will be taken by Daphne Knight, who played Mrs. Cleveden Banks in “Outward Bound.” “Hay Fever” enjoyed an amazingly

successful run in London, where Marie Tempest played the leading role. The story is woven round the Bliss household. Judith, the mother, is a retired actress who longs for the glamour .of the footlights again. Her family, including her husband, invites several friends to the house for the week-end. No one knows who has been invited, where the guests are to sleep, or when they are leaving. The most amusing complications ensue. Coward’s sparkling wit finds its full expression in three amusing acts.

In Perth, Gladys Monehieff told the newspapers that she was considering retiring, but not for two or three years. Her retirement would be permanent, and would not preface a series of farewells and come-backs, she emphasised. * » * The following ballets are being presented by Pavlova during her Australian tour:—“Giselle,” “The Magic Flute, “Snowflakes," “La Fille Mai Gardee,” “Chopiniana,” “Visions,” “Amarilla,” “Oriental Impressions,” “Walpurgis,” “Fairy Doll,” “The Romance of a Mummy.” * * * A theatrical event almost unprecedented in Edinburgh occurred recently when Percy Hutchison, the actor-man-ager, recently in New Zealand, announced that he would be unable to present the play, “The Love-Lorn Lady,” at the King’s Theatre in the evening. The play requires special furniture and a large wardrobe of dresses for its production, and when these failed to arrive the performance had to be cancelled.

“Wake Up and Dream ” Is a Dancing Revue

The stalls were stiff with celebrities, the stage stiff with talent, at the London Pavilion, for the new annual edition of C. B. Cochran’s revue, called —as if to challenge slothful 1929 — “Wake Up and Dream!” Out of this riot of skilful colouring and the rasping laughter, a little cruel, that seems to echo our brittle modernity, one carries away a memory' of dancing—and still more dancing, writes a London critic. They seem to have been collected from all over Europe and America, these amazing dancers, in Mr. Cochran's zest for something new. Each one seemed to outdo the last in plangent rhythm, in daring movement, or in vagrant grace. Each ona succeeded —until the next. Tilly Losch, from Germany, with the supple body and seventh sense of choreography; Tina Meller, sister of the famous Spanish Raquel, all fire and sinuous shiver that came as a shock to our Northern eyes; the three Berkoffs, astoundingly Russian and unbelievably acrobatic; Margie Finley and Chester Fredericks, streaks of lightning from America; and looselimbed Jessie Matthews, with her special brand of melting-eyed innocence that we like to think belongs to England; a shimmering constellation. The humour was less successful, but Sonnie Hale had one delicious burst of burlesque as Sir Thomas Beeeham in “Operatic Pills.” Cole Porter’s smooth lyrics, some superb blending of colour and costume, and Mr. Cochran’s Plumper Young Ladies excused a ragged § tart and helped toward a revue of nearly all the talents.