Josie Melville to Star Again

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 951, 19 April 1930, Page 22

Josie Melville to Star Again

J.C.W. TOURING CO. Josie Melville is to head a new J. C. Williamson company which is now being organised. This clever little actress returned to Australia some months ago under engagement to the firm, but because of ill-health was unable to take the role allotted to her, and was obliged to rest.

Miss Melville is to be Sally again. |ln the musical j comedy of that | name she had her | first leading role, ! and the piece beat many duration re- ! cords. Miss Meljville will also in “The Girl Friend,”

“Hold Everything,” and the new musical comedy, “Love Lies,” which is at present being played in Adelaide by White and Edgley’s company. The company will open in Hobart on Easter Saturday. Stanley Grant is manager, and Victor Tatnall will produce. Among Josie Melville’s supporting artists will be Leonard Rich, the Fallow Twins, Ivy Parker, and Doris Hopkins. Fifty-four people will form this touring combination, which, after seasons in Hobart and Launceston, will play in Newcastle, and subsequently in Brisbane and other Queensland centres. “THE JEALOU S WIFE” Allan Wilkie Revives Old Social Comedy j LAST PERFORMED IN 1892 An interesting feature of Allan Wilkie’s season in Melbourne was liis production of “The Jealous Wife,” a comedy by George Colman the elder, a prominent figure in London’s theatrical world of the period. Many years have elapsed since this old comedy, once a stock piece in the repertoire of numerous companies, was last revived in Australia. The last English production was that of Rose Edouin in 1892, and the same actress included it in her Australian repertoire. A previous Australian production was that of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean at the old Haymarket Theatre in 1864, a little more than a century after its original production by David Garrick at Drury Lane. There have been other Australian productions of the play from time to time, and Mr. Wilkie recently came across a 50-year-old souvenir programme relating to one of these. It was printed on silk. “The Jealous Wife” has to do with the quite unreasonable jealousy felt by a highly temperamental wife for her mild and exceedingly henpecked husband. The husband, driven almost to distraction by the lady’s tantrums, ultimately takes a stand, as a result of the urgings of his bachelor brother, and brings the lady to her senses. There is in addition a sub-theme, which “adds to the general entanglement.. While containing an element of social satire, the play is fox the most part full of fun of the fast and furious type, and not altogether free from the indelicacies of the period. Mr. Wilkie is hopeful that it will be as much to the taste of Melbourne playgoers as Jthe three other 18th century plays which have preceded it. “The Jealous Wife” won the greatest favour in Tasmania. The cast of “The Jealous Wife” in-1 eluded Miss Hunter-Watts in the title j i role, created at Drury Lane by Mrs. j Pritchard: Alexander Marsh in Gar-: I rick's original role as the hen-pecked I I husband, Allan Wilkie as the military i brother, originated by Yates. John j Cameron as Charles, Lorna Forbes as | Lady Freelove, Marjorie Carr as Har- ■ riet, Athur Keane as Sir Harry Beagle, i and Alan Hakness as Lord Trinket.

In the course of a recent, newspaper discussion in London, Mr. Henry Ainley, the actor, asserted that he rarely took more than four minutes to dress in evening clothes. “When one does it every night one learns to do it speedily,” he said. “All my boiled shirts are made like coats so that I can put them on quickly and the collar and bow are attached to the hack before I get into them.”