STAGELND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 798, 19 October 1929, Page 24

STAGELND

By

COTHURNUS.

FIXTURES HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE j October 30: “Journey’s End.’’ October (indef.): “Dracula” and | “No. 17,” Nat. Madison and Bertha Riceardo. November 27, December 19: “The Desert Song,” Dance Fairfax. ST. JAMES THEATRE Now Playing: Jim Gerald Revue Company. COMING Hector St. Clair Revue Company. “Dido Dady.” “Baby Cyclone” and “Good News,” Elsie Prince and Jimmy Godden. TOWN HALL October 22 and 24.—Dusolina Giannini, world-famous dramatic soprano.

Douis Goodrich, here with Margaret Bannerman, is playing in “The Bachelor Father” in Dondon. * * The Dondon Savoy Theatre, now in course of reconstruction, will reopen with Gilbert and Sullivan this month. Derek Oldham and Winnie Melville will play the leading parts. Charles Hallard, well known to New Zealand audiences, was playing Hillcrest in a revival of “The Skin Game” when the last mail left Dondon. This revival of Galworthy’s fine play has been a great success. Some of Gertrude Jennings’s best work, for the theatre has been as the author of one-act plays. She has just written another called “Scraps,” which gives a glimpse of society "below stairs” on the occasion of a dinner party. Elmer Rice, who is regarded in some circles in America as a greater playwright than Eugene O’Neil, has just finished two more plays—“ See Naples and Die” and “Dife is Real.” The latter shows the fifteen—not the seven—stages of man from the cradle to the grave, and at the end of each episode two men representing Optimism and Pessimism make typical comments.

Under the heading of “Plays You Should See,” the Dondon “Theatre World” lists the following:—“BitterSweet” (Noel Coward’s successful operetta); “The Middle Watch” (a farcical comedy by lan Hay); “Journey’s End”; “Dove Dies,” “Wake Up and Dream,” “The Show’s the Thing,” “The First Mrs. Fraser” (a new comedy by St. John Ervine, starring Marie Tempest and Henry Ainley); “The Skin Game” (Galsworthy revival) ; and “Da Vie Parisienne” (Nigel Playfair’s light opera). * * * Mary Casson, the second of Sybil Thorndike’s clever daughters, is taking the part of Margaret in “Dear Brutus” (acted in the first production in October, 1917, by Faith Celli), which Sir Gerald du Maurier is to revive at the Playhouse Theatre, in Dondon. Sir Gerald will play Mr. Dearth, and other engagements are, Dorothy Black as Mrs. Dearth, Grace Wilson, as Joanna Trout, Norman Forbes, the only other member of tbe original company, as Mr. Coade, Dame May Whitty as Mrs. Coade, Eric Cowley and Gladys Faber as Mr. and Mrs. Purdie, Ambrose Manning as the butler, and D. Hay Petrie in the part of the puck-like Dob.

TOO COSTLY

Big Musical Shows May Be Curtailed “Rose Marie” will be revived in Melbourne after the season of “Show Boat,” and Marie Bremner will be in the title role. It is hardly likely that “Show Boat” will he sent to New Zealand. In making this announcement, Frank S. Talt, a managing director of J. C. Williamson, Etd., gave some particulars of the enormous cost involved in the presentation of spectacular musical plays, and said that if the proposed additional tax was imposed, the firm would have to consider whether it was worth while producing them. In estimating the expense of putting on modern musical plays, rehearsals are an important consideration. Before the curtain went up on “Show Boat” the rehearsals of merely the ballet and chords involved an expenditure of £2,500.

Another official statement is that the production of “Show Boat” cost about £5,000 more than that of “The Desert Song.” "Show Boat,” which requires a double chorus and ballet (coloured and white), is the most expensive musical play that has been staged by J. C. Williamson, Dtd. Mr. Tait said that though the piece had attracted huge audiences up to now, big business could not be expected to continue indefinitely, and when the takings began to fall “Show Boat” would have to be withdrawn. J. C. Williamson. Dtd., had never expected a very large dividend from

"Show Boat,” because of the abnormal expense of producing and running it, but this piece was an outstanding production abroad, and the firm felt it would like to give it in Australia. “Show Boat” had proved so heavy an expenditure that its presentation outside the main four or five cities could not be considered. In view of the ever-increasing expenditure, and the threatening taxation, it seemed that the firm would be compelled to reconsider its present policy of sending its companies intact through the Commonwealth and New Zealand. Indications were that cheaper companies would have to be formed, and cheaper productions made, in order to meet the situation outside Melbourne and Sydney. Expenses of big musical productions seemed to be reaching the breaking point, and if the proposed taxation was brought into operation in Australia, it was evident that the firm would have to give careful consideration to the question of whether it was worth while providing entertainment which called for an enormous outlay.

English Theatres Do Good Business

MANY NEW PLAYS The theatres that have gone through the summer have done extremely good business, says a Dondon writer, commenting on productions for the coming season in England. .... “Journey’s End” and “The First Mrs. Fraser” are playing to consistently packed houses, and they may both be running this time next year; and another great success is the recentlyproduced naval farce, “The Middle Watch.” C. B. Cochran has two of the most popular entertainments in town in “Wake Up and Dream” and “Bitter Sweet.” “Mr. Cinders” continues to draw crowded houses to the Hippodrome and “Dove Dies” to the Gaiety. The changes in the cast seem to have helped “Hold Everything” at the Palace. Two very different plays, and both well acted —“The Matriarch” and “Murder on the Second Floor” —have settled down to steady success. That gay little show, “Da Vie Parisienne,” at Hammersmith, must not be forgotten as one of the choicest entertainments of the year. At most of these theatres there is unlikely to be a change in the next few months. What of the autumn programme? A start will be made at the Adelphi, when the übiquitous Mr. Edgar Wallace presents “Brothers,” a drama of the New York underworld, in which Hartley Powers, who appeared here first as the detective in “Broadway,” doubles the twin brothers at the opposite ends of the social scale. FAY COMPTON’S RETURN

The season does not start in earnest, however, until later, when the arrangements include a three-act drama, “The Devil In Bronze,” at the Strand; the new comedy by Walter Hackett, “Sorry You’ve Been Troubled,” which replaces “A Bill of Divorcement” at the St. Martin’s; “Dife,” a tense drama about two men and one woman, by Gladys St. John Doe, at the Apollo; Edward Percy’s chronicle of “The Dife and Misdoinings of Charlie Peace,” which opens at the redecorated Ambassadors; and the revival of “Rose Marie” at Drury Dane. The revival of “Secrets,” at the Comedy, brings back Fay Compton to the Dondon stage. “The Calendar,” Edgar Wallace’s own play has Owen Nares in the cast at Wyndham’s. Other new plays are first Dondon performance of “The Apple Cart” at the Queen’s, and “Emma Hamilton” at the New, “Jew Suss” at the Duke of York’s, and “Sandy,” the musical comedy version of “A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur” at Daly’s. An important event later on in the season will be Mr. Cochran’s pi'oduction of “The Silver Tassie,” for which no theatre has yet been fixed. IN THE PROVINCES

Meanwhile many new plays are being “tried out” in the provinces. “Paris By Air” and “The Flying Fool” are likely to come to Dondon sometime, and “Miss Adventure” (Reginald Berkeley's adaptation from the French) and “Madame Plays Nap,” in which Sybil Thorndike is appearing, open at places as far apart as Eastbourne and Edinburgh. A three months’ tour of the latter play is arranged before it is seen in town. Jack Hulbert’s revue; “The House That Jack Built,” has opened at Diverpool, but its destination in Dondon is not certain. Dennis Neilson Terry’s revival of “Typhoon” will also probably be seen in the West End some time this year, and the production of Ivor Novello’s new play is due in October.

Altogether the autumn season, if not very distinguished, promises a varied programme. The German visitor who comes to Dondon and expects to find our national dramatist represented on the stage must cross the bridges to the Old Vic., which opens with “Romeo and Juliet,” to be played by one of the best companies the theatre has had for a long time. Dondon’s newest and biggest theatre, the Dominion, to open early in October, will, like Drury Dane, be given over to musical comedy. The Duchess, opening about the middle of October, is likely to be the home of an interesting new venture, and it is possible that the Embassy, the charming little play-house at Swiss Cottage, will be taken over by a wellknown producer this autumn. In addition, Basil Dean returns from America with plans for a subscription theatre. He has a number of plays, including new pieces by John Galsworthy and Monckton Hoffe, waiting for production.

Several members of the J. C. Williamson dramatic company who play prominent parts in "Journey’s End,” ■which will tour New Zealand shortly, know what the real thing is. Reginald Tate, who plays the difficult part of Captain Stanhope, had four years’ service in the Great Year—two years as a first lieutenant in the infantry and two years in the Air Force. Ambrose Flower (Captain Hardy) served for several years with his regiment, and he took part in some desperate fighting in the Ypres section. Victor Dawsou (Second-Dieutenant Trotter) was also in the Air Force, and met and admired many Australian and New Zealand soldiers.

“The Tiger in Men,” Margaret Bannerman’s first venture in Dondon after her return from Australia and New Zealand, was withdrawn after 16 performances. It ■was written and produced by Dion Titheradge, and is described as “an actor’s play which gives many good characterisations but no constructive plot.”