“DEAR LOVE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 874, 18 January 1930, Page 24

“DEAR LOVE”

All-British Show Triumphs in London

It is always pleasing to near of the triumph of an all-British show. Nothing but good has been said of “Dear Love,” the latest musical comat the London Palace. A correspondent to an Australian newspaper says that the high standard of “Dear Love” reminds him of George Edwardes’s days. It has a romantic plot with a background of that Bohemia in which art students dance and make love. It is melodious, and it has a good story, into which the humour fits naturally. “Dear Love” was built up in the Shaftesbury Avenue Theatre, Dion Titheradge', Laurie Wylie and Haydn' Wood, composer of “Roses of Picardy,” being three of the six British people who wrote the words and music. Jack Waller, Herbert Clayton and Joseph Tunbridge were the other three. The two “hits” of the first night were a burlesque Annie Croft apache dance by the Australian, Vera Pearce, and Sydney Howard—this is said to be the funniest turn in any musical show now, in London and a duet, “Dear Love,” most charmingly sung by Tom, Burke and Annie Croft.

Tom Burke’s operatic tenor voice is the best of its kind knoWa in musical comedy in London for many years. Miss Croft lias improved enormously

and looks very charming. It is fine to see Vera Pearce in a part which, if small, suits her perfectly. Clarice Hardwicke, the Australian actress, who is playing in the Drury Lane pantomime, told a newspaper representative that during her five years in London she had never been without a job. “When I went to London in 1924 I knew nobody, I had no prospects, and little funds. X had a tough spin at first, but, with the most wonderful luck, I got a part after three weeks. Londoners seemed to like

ne, and I have done well ever since,

she said. Miss Hardwicke tvas iu New Zealand some years ago with the Lee White Revue Company, and as a child in “The Blue Bird.” She played in London in “Rose Marie” and “The Desert Song.” * * * H. Lane-Bayleff. business njanager of the Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company in New Zealand on its last tour, has returned to the stage, and is appearing in Sydney in “In the Next Room,” with Muriel Starr. X* * e „ “Freddie Stone, a one-time FullerWard artist, has struck it lucky in England, and has an engagement with ‘Mr. Cinders,’ playing a dramatic part and understudying the juvenile lead,” states a Sydney paper. “He played it on a tour a while ago, and Harry Burcher, the producer, gave him a special pat on the back for it.” The Freddie Stone referred to is a son of Mr. Fred Stone, chief steward of the S.S. Ulimaroa, -who has been coming in and out of Wellington and Auckland in the Huddart Parker Company’s service regularly during the past 20 years.