WRITING A REVUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 968, 10 May 1930, Page 29

WRITING A REVUE

Beverley Nichols Tells of its Difficulties MOSTLY “BY” OTHER PEOPLE In the following article Beverley Nichols, who has written the book of C. B. Cochran’s 1930 revue, describes the difficulties and fun of doing it. I feel a very real and unaffected bashfulness whenever anybody mentions—as they not infrequently do—the forthcoming Cochran revue. When you see “By Beverley Nichols” on the programme I shall be extremely pleased if you will not believe it. A modern ,revue is “by” dozens and dozens of people. It is “by” the artful but retiring gentlemen who perch up aloft and throw that flash of brilliant light on the leading lady’s face as she delivers my platitudes, thereby turning them into epigrams. It is “by” the equally artful but less retiring gentleman who rolls the drums when a tune begins to sound a little dciwn-at-heel, thereby turning it into a divine melody. It is “by” the weary but terrifying stage director who goes round to the players, after each performance, and says in a voice of overwhelming gloom:—“Listen, baby; if you cut in on that line you’ll kill the laugh stone dead.” It is “by” the dance director, who takes some tune that I or somebody else has written, sniffs at it, swallows it with reluctance, and then proceeds to make the chorus swallow it, too, and forces them to like it —to like it so much that their limbs twitch automatically as soon as they hear it. It Is “by” the scene designers and the costumiers, who clothe one’s feeble fancies in exquisite, tawny silks and set them against brilliant, shimmering backgrounds. It Is “by” the artists themselves. Give Ada May an idea and she plays with it as though it were a bubble, transforms it. Give Maisie Gay an idea and then you can sit back and laugh—or cry —for, like all great comediennes, her comedy is born of the tragedy of everyday existence. Most important of all, a Cochran revue is emphatically “by” Cochran. If I were to attempt to express in words my admiration for Mr. Cochran’s genius I should look very foolish and so would he. So we will leave it at that.