Rapier, Not Bludgeon
ALTHOUGH Britons on Broadway (ZB Sunday Showease) didn't sound especially thrilling, I listened all the same. And it turned out to be the wittiest spot of the week. Stanley Holloway, Beatrice Lillie and Joyce Grenfell are old friends, although Bea --
Lillie’s excruciating rendering of "There are Fairies" was qa deliciously fresh experience. It was good, too, to hear Cyril Ritchard again in songs reminiscent of his unforgettable "Oldest Chorus Boy in London." He has gone a long way since I saw him in musical comedy, to make a shining name as a versatile actor, producer and wit, and his voice now has an uncanny resemblance to that of Jack Buchanan in his heyday. But the cream of the session was Hermione Gingold, long a legend as the most maliciously witty of revue artists, but known to me only from uncharacteristic film parts. The shatteringly macabre humour of her songs and the devastating burlesque of an unpensionable opera singer lived up to expectations, I can hardly wait to hear her again. The commentary was interesting, but I thought it unnecessarily tantalising of Peter Harcourt to allude constantly to My Fair Lady and offer us
no samples of it.
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19571004.2.42.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 947, 4 October 1957, Page 24
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202Rapier, Not Bludgeon New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 947, 4 October 1957, Page 24
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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