STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“THE MIKADO.” The large audience at the State Theatre last night to witness “The Mikado,” voted it an outstanding picture and a decided improvement on the stage production. Writing of this brilliant spectacle the “Sydney Morning Herald” states: Having delighted audiences on the stage for 54 years,' “The Mikado” now seeks a wider field. The screen version at the State Theatre will meet the eyes of millions of people who have never seen a Gilbert and Sullivan opera in flesh and blood. It can no longer depend on the faithful franchise of the Gilbert and Sullivan devotees. It must stand or fall, not as the manifestation of a cult, but as popular entertainment. The English producers of “The Mikado” have faced this fact fairly and squarely. They I have realised that the screen demands more mobility, more fluency, and a more intimate style than the stage. To have transferred the Gilbert and Sullivan opera holus-bolus would have been a direct invitation to boredom. On 'the other hand, they have had the sense to see that, fundamentally, they could not improve on Gilbert and Sullivan. To try and do so —to interpolate dialogue, to change the character and qmphasis of the play—would have been an impertinence. Their problem, therefore, was to adapt “The Mikado” in such a way that it would sparkle and frolic on the screen, exactly as it does behind the footlights. That task the makers'of the film have carried out with extraordinary wit and taste. The acting is superb. The music of “The Mikado” comes across from screen to audience more clearly, more realistically, more compellingly, than the score of any other film one can remember hearing. The sound-track has been particularly kind to Kenny Baker, who is the Nanki-Poo. In the wordless prologue, which depicts the heir to the throne wandering humbly clad through the streets of Titipu, and catching his first rapturous glimpse of Yum-Yum. this tenor establishes .himself as an engagingly ardent and humorous personality. He discloses a voice of singing flexibility and radiance. In the matter of visual spectacle, it vies with any motion picture that has been made so far. The use of technicolour. together with the Oriental locale, and the fantastic character of the action, gave the makers an unparalleled opportunity. A continual blaze of colour would obviously have been tiring, yet something quite out of the ordinary seemed called for. So Vertes, the creator of the docor, evolved a scheme of pallid magnificence, in which nothing violently strikes the eye.