CIVIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 16

CIVIC

PREMIERE OF "BROADWAY” A great motion picture is as much a “scoop” to the theatre which presents it as a really big news story is to the newspaper which gives it to the public. Therefore the management of the Civic Theatre is especially pleased to announce the showing of “Broadway,” the all-dialogue Universal super-production of the sensationally successful New York play, which will open today with Glenn Tryon, Evelyn Brent, Myrna Kennedy and others. Besides bringing to the screen the intensely dramatic cross-section of American night life which proved so absorbing on the stage, the photoplay version of “Broadway” has immeasurably increased the fascinatingly compelling atmosphere which surrounded it. Here is shown the Great White Way in all its gaiety, complete with its every emotional sensation from the pop of a cork to the crack of a pistol shot. One set is the huge interior of the Paradise Night Club, carried out in every detail in a motif of cubistic art which famous critics have acclaimed as the finest example yet seen. To climax the gorgeousness of this setting and to bring its full radiance graphically to the screen, it was photographed in one sequence in technicolour.

The story of “Broadway” contrasts the romance of a boy and a girl, entertainers in the pulsating rhythm of New York’s crescendo pleasure whirl, against the staccato drama of the underworld. The love of Roy Lane and Billie Moore, played by Glenn Tryonn and Myrna Kennedy, is threatened by the sinister shadow of Steve Crandall, the “liquor king,” played by Robert Ellis, and they find themselves drawn into the vortex of gangster warfare because of Crandall’s desire for the beautiful revue girl. Another fine supporting programme of music and dancing will also be presented today. Ted Henkel’s Civic Concert Orchestra will play “Slavische Rhapsodie” (Friedman), and Fred Scholl at the grand organ will play “Souvenir” (Drdla). The new stage band entertainment, which will be entitled “Orientale,” will feature the brilliant trio, Ramon, Madeline and Pedro, and the Civic ballet.