STAGE and SCREEN

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 416, 24 April 1937, Page 3

STAGE and SCREEN

Local Amateurs

Rehearse Milne Comedy “Great Broxopp” for Coronation Week

We associate Milne and the commercial stage once was in New Zealand with Irene Vanbrugh and Marie Tempest, for both of these brilliant comedienes played in “Mr Pim Passes By.” The memory of their suiting still lingers. Milne’s “Great Broxopp” is not so well-known as “Mr Pim,” but it has all the Milne charm and amusement, and it has all the essentials for an acting success. It is the Drama League’s choice for Coronation Week in Stratford, and nothing more suitable tjould.have been chosen for this joyous occasion. The play opens in the Bloomsbury flat of Jim Broxopp, a struggling advertising agent, who is only waiting for “the great idea” which will lift him and his wife out of the struggle and put them on the road to success. Before the first act the idea has come, and with characteristic enthusiasm Broxcpp (Mr W. J. Hall), paints a glowing picture of the future to his wife (Miss E. Cartwright) who, in spite of his failure to earn enough money, has never lost faith in him. In the second act, twenty years later, we find the Broxopps in a country house surrounded with all the attributes of wealth. The idea has worked and Broxopp is a successful man with a flourishing business and a son, Jack (Mr K. T. Moss), of whom he is immensely proud, chiefly owing to the fact that he was educated at Eton and Oxford. Jack is the antithesis of his father. He detests the business which has made his expensive education possible but his life miserable because posters of him as a baby have been extensively used in Broxopp’s advertising. He wants to be an artist and his father is clearly disappointed in his ambition.

He becomes engaged to Iris Tenterden (Mrs R. Stokes), the daughter of Sir Roger Tenterden (Mr Glover), an old country Squire who lives nearby. Sir Roger strongly disapproves of his daughter marrying a name that is seen on every hoarding throughout the country and tactfully suggests in the course* of a rather strained interview that Broxopp might sell the business and change his name to Chillingham. To this the generous Broxopp agrees. In the third act, Broxopp, now Chillingham, is living the life of a country gentleman and is very bored with it. The money from the sale of the business has been invested in a Building Society, which ultimately fails and the Broxopps are poor again. Back in the Bloomsbury flat in the fourth act and Broxopp once more looking round for a money making scheme, but older now and less sure of himself. Iris and Jack arrive and tell the sad story of Jack’s failure as an artist. The tempo of the play moves faster now. From a casual remark passed Jack sees another road to fortune. Gone. is his “arty” languid air and in its place is the old Broxopp enthusiasm. He explains his scheme and sweeping all objections aside decides the immediate details for its fulfilment and starts organising leaving Broxopp slightly bewildered, but the audience firmly convinced that another fortune is in the making. Mrs LTniacke, who is quite a clever producer, has everything already in splendid order. The other people working under her direction are Mrs Deane, the Misses E. Moon, M. Malone and L. Penn, and Messrs Paton and Goodman. A packed Town Hall is anticipated for the evening of May 15.

GLADYS MONCRIEFF RETURNING . Gladys Moncrieff is due back in New Zealand next month in a series of unfadeable musical shows, including her two biggest successes, “The Maid of the Mountains” and “A Southern Maid.” The New Zealand season will open at Auckland on Wednesday, May 26, and other plays in the repertoire include “The Merry Widow,” and “Katja the Daner,” a Marie Burke success of 1927. Frank Leighton, Cecil Kellaway, Lois Green, Don Nicol, and Miriam Lester are among the supporting artists. X- X- -XGladys has been a favourite for many years now, ever since 1917 when, as a slim miss with a certain aesthetic beauty, she sang “Rackety Coo” in “Katinka.” There is no voice on the musical play 'stage in London that can equal the bell-like, even notes of the Queensland-born soprano. And for that matter, no operette actress in Vienna or Berlin, in Paris or Bucharest, is her equal. Gladys Moncrieff, like the great Florence Young before her, will always live in the hearts of the New Zealand and Australian theatre going public. * * * BING CROSBY’S IDEA. Bing Crosby thought up the idea of mid-ocean previews. There have been pre-showings of pictures on planes, trains and buses, but never on the brimy. When Bing left on his trip to Hawaii, he had Columbia book passage for a print of “Pennies from Heaven,” his new picture, which he hadn’t seen. But he’ll never do it again, for he had to see the film every night for the five nights of the trip. Passengers in eyery class demanded to see the preview and asked that Bing be present to lend a bit of atmosphere. You can’t turn down a boat load of customers, which is why Bing was so glad to see land and the last of “Pennies from Heaven.” * -X- * The Manawatu Repertory Society presented three one-act plays at Palmerston North this week. They were: “Blind Man’s Buff” (F. Carmichael Brupton), “Russian Salad” (Philip Johnston) and “Half an Hour” (Sir. J. M. Barrie). * * * “And So To Bed,” presented by the Thespians at the Wellington Concert Chamber this week was marked especially by the beauty of the costuming, the seventeenth century clothes worn by the players being correct in every detail and in perfect harmony with the general scheme of colour found in the settings.

THUMBNAIL BIOGRAPHY. ROBERT TAYLOR: It is paradoxical that, this young man, so quiet, with a life so uneventful, should be the sensation of a Hollywod decade. Born in the tiny town of Filley, Nebraska, August 5, 1911, he enjoyed a normal boyhood as the son of a comparatively well-to-do country physician. Metrd 1 made him a star, and he has played with Irene Dunn, Janet Gaynor, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford and Garbo. Was with Joan Crawford in “The Gorgeous Hussy” at the Plaza, you will remember. The intimate facts about Bob are soon told. He doesn’t get nervous before the camera. He never learns his lines until the night before he needs them. He gets up before his alarm rings at seven every morning. He sleeps in a great big bed. He likes meat, hates fruit, drinks about 1,0 cups of coffee a day. He has a manservant by the name of Joe who lays out Bob’s clothes, which he changes three and four times a day. His latest picture, “Camille,” with the Garbo, you will see later on. * * * SECRET OF STARDOM. One studio, in the past three years, has spent more than half a million dollars trying to.find an actor with Clark Gable’s box-office appeal. In one year four thousand tests were made of material. They made some promising discoveries—but no Gable. And that’s only one studio. AU the others —-including Gable’s own—have spent a similar amount. To reach starmdom an actor must have a personality distinct from any other in the business. Go down the list of the Jean Harlows, the Bette Davises, the James Cagneys, the Gary Coopers, the Victor McLaglens, the Janet Gaynors, and you will see what is meant. But neither personality nor sheer acting ability can alone guarantee the heights. The public is the final judge—and the public favour is as unpredictable now as ever. There has never been another Mary Pickford, and Janet Gaynor, who became her successor in the winsome roles, stands alone today. Rudolph Valentino’s empty crown fits no other actor’s head; there was only one Lon Chaney, and in the whole history of the film industry there has been but one Clara Bow.