G. and S. Company Off To America

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 16, 26 October 1934, Page 16

G. and S. Company Off To America

D’Oyly' Carte Company Pays First Visit to New York Since 1887 — "Treasure Island" to be Produced in Auckland — Ivor : Novello’s New London Play, "Murder in Mayfair."

BARING sprigs of white heather, members of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company left London recently en route for New York, where they will produce Gilbert and Sullivan operas, in their traditional Bnglish form, The company’s last New York season was in 1887. Among the principal Savoyards making the journey are Miss Dorothy Gill, Miss Wileen Moody, Miss Kxathleen Frances, Miss Blizabeth Nickell-Lean, Mr. John Dean and Mr. Frank Steward. The conductor, Mr. Isadore Godfrey, travelled with the party. The company is taking with it scenery, wardrobes, and other equipment weighing more than twenty .tons. Mr. Frederick Hobbs, manager of the company, stated: "New York has never heard the operas as we play them. They have never had Sullivan’s orchestration for one thing, and there are other differences. We are taking the whole show over there just as we shotild take it to Livérpool or anywhere else on tour. We were at Brighton last week, after a vacations New York will be just another call, There is a good deal of affection for the operas in America and we are'looking forward to a happy time." The company opened with "The Gondoliers" at the Martin Beck Theatre, New York, last month. OF "Murder in Mayfair," the latest play by Ivor Novello, the well-

known actor and playwright, a critic in the London "Observer" writes:"The material of which Myr. Ivor Novello’s latest play is made resembles the bric-a-brac insinuated on her friends by Mrs. Sherry under cover ot cocktails and social intercourse--a mixture of the antique, the precarious, the showy, the vulgar, the amusing, and the specious. Mrs. Sherry, who went into business to support herself and her children, disposed of her stock-in-trade with vivacity; so does Mr. Novello, She succeeded, but success

was clouded with tragedy. Her friend, the unhappily married Duchess of Ventyre, loved and was loved by a brilliant pianist, who was loved, dogged, drugged, married, and: damned by ’ Auriol, a post-war what-not. And . since Bill Sherry-when the Duke conrveniently died-was sufficiently crazy about’ Auriol to cut these knots with a revolver, the gods should have been . appeased by such sacrifices of. truth and: beauty as Mr. Novello and his clever company of actors made to them. Let us call it a just rather than a nice © murder; for Auriol neither enjoyed her own love-life nor allowed anyone who entered it to enjoy his. And when, bullet-impelled, she slid headdownwards from the landing of her mews apartment into horrid view, we could..only feel relief while ing the strength of Miss Hdna Best’s performance. This murder and the patty at which it occurred, were fortunately delayed until the second act. ‘Thus we were free to enjoy Miss Zena Dare’s wholehearted comedy-her Mrs." Sherry did not falter until demands were made on her for tears-Mi. Novello’s. mercurial art and his glaneing’ ‘at the piano,.Miss Fay Compton’s incomparable diction, and the play’s lighter. elements, before the clouds gather, the dramatic tension tightened, the fun (unlike Auriol) died a natural death, and the third act dived into the shallows of sentiment to grope there -for a happy ending,

STRONG cast has been selected by the producer, Myr. Frederic McCallum, for the Auckland Little Theatre Society’s production of "Treasure Island," to be given in His Majesty’s Theatre for a six-nights’? season, starting on November 22. Among the weilknown amateurs in the cast are Mr. Peter Dawson, Mr. Val Mulgan, Mr. Dan Flood, Mr. Zante Wood, Mi. Neville Bonham, Mr. Graeme Holder, Mr. H. McK. Geddes, Mr, A. HW. Snaith, Mr. L. Herd and Miss ©, L. Chambers. The part of Jim Hawkins, the boy hero of R. L. Stevenson’s famous romance of adventure, is to be taken by Noel Mabee, a young Auckland lad who has already’ had considerable amateur theatrical: experience. He is a son of Mr, A. G. Mabee, well-known in sport.ing circles. The production will be staged on a lavish seale and will be the most spectacular presentation the society has yet given, with the exception of "Peter Pan" in 1980. It wil! be the society’s 87th production and the last of the 1984 season.