Variety (June 1925)

^-p^" •'^ 19 VARIETY FOREIGN Wednesday, June 10, 1925 LONDON <Contiiiucd from saire 2) modern drama and comedy. Plnero's "Trelawmey of the Wells" ■will be "Trelawney of the Wells" will be old Sadiers' Wells and the attempt to raise money to reclaim the old house and reopen in conjunction with the Old "Vic. may have some- thing to do with the revival. The "Q." will shortly put on a new play by Frederic Whitney, en- titled "Jdle Hands," the caet in- cluding Lawrence Anderson and Aida Jenoure. Frederic Whitney, one of the younger "clean" drama- tists, has Just had another play, "The Adventurous Age," produced by Mrs. Patrick Campbell in the provinces. Marie Tempest's production of "The Torch Bearers" will be trans- ferred from the Ambassadors to an- other theatre with a new leading lady in order to permit her produc- tion of Noel Coward's "Hay Fever" June 8. Th4 leading male part will be played 1^ Grahame Browne. *nBetter Days" im the first revue to fail at the Hippodrome since 1913, and it will flnish its career June 6. It also has the distinction of being so weak in its original version that a new edition was necessary before it bad been in town a month. The ■how is undoubtedly a poor one even from the spectacular point of view, the only bright spot in it being the "act" of Moran and Mack. The closure has come as a great shock to the fninor members of the company who look upon their engagements as iMing almost permanent. The plays which are particularly exciting the Bishop of London s group of stage reformers are "White Cargo,' "Fata Morgana." "Our Bet- ters," "Fallen Angels," "Spring Cleaning," "On with the Dance," and "Rain." ■i! Jose Collins and "Frasquita" have •nly had a short run at Princess and other thentreii are beginning to ex- perience the annual summer "wind up." "Bamboula" having, finished at His Majesty's is touring the suburbs. "Boodle" is about to flnish at the Empire, and the Lyric la still black following the flop of "Just a King," which failed after a success- ful provincial run. Viola Tree's flrst effort without sup- porting collaboration, only ran Ave nights. With the return of the Diaghiloff ballet to the Coliseum, the building is once more the haunt of the "un- lift," "high brow," and young men and women who consider it the cor- rect thing to follow the Russians and look upon all else as low. Wonder- fully dressed these high arts things look as bored as possible during other acts, turn their backs upon the stage, and talk loudly to the annoy- ance of those who have come for entertainment, but when the ballet does up they become alive and give strange little gasps of ecstasy. Following the matinee of Chariot's Revue with chorus girls playing leading parts and "stars" selling pro- grams a performance of which much waa heard before the event, but little after, the management have struck another publicity stunt to the eliect that a new edition of the show will be produced monthly. It looks as tkough even the Chorus Club lec- tures on Ibsen, housework, and a chorus girl's whole duty to her man- ager will have to give way to rehear- sals. Comic singing is a profltable busi- ness here, but you have to be care- ful you are not on the dole, while practicing the art of amusing. Henry William Hobba has learned this, and probably will not offend the law again. He was hauled before a mag- istrate by a furious labor exchange offlcial who charged bim with draw- ing the dole fraudulently because he was given Ave shillings to sing at a working men's show. Bvidence showed the criminal had spent four shillings on songs and eight-pense half-penny on make-up, receiving three-pence half-penny aa his sal- ary for the night. The magistrate dismissed the case against Henry William. Although "Clo Clo" was originally scheduled to follow "Lightnin' " at the Shaftesbury, there is a possibil- ity of a change of plan which will take the new musical show to the Strand. The notice for the termina- tion of "Lightnin*" went up May 23. Lawrence Cowan, who wrote "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil," built the Fortune, and opened it with another play of his own, "Sin- ners," for which he had been draw- ing goodly sums in options for years (a source of income which has now stopped) has written an Irish play entitled "Biddy." The leading part will b« played by Marie O'Neill. r:' Sybil Thorndike's new production, •The Round Table," at Wyndham's has been as sensational a failure as "St. Joan" was a success, both at the New and the Regent. During the last week of the Shaw play over £2,200 was taken. "The Round Table" finishes May .^0 and will be followed by "The Lie.' George Middleton's name often appears on London play bills. "The Bride" is the latest of his belong- ings to be scheduled for produc- tion. In this case he shares "The Bride' with Stuart Oliver. FOREIGN REVIEWS ■ :j" ■i_,^.'*>^wr 11' •^ii>->^ A* -J TELL ME MORE (London Production) Mualeal coanedy by Pr«d Tboaip*oa *iUI Wm. K. Wella, mu>ic by tieorg* Ocrahwln, produced by Urcramlth & M«Iob« at tb^ Winter Uarden May 2*. m*ce direction by Kellx Bdwardea. Daocea by ijammy L««. ALEX HYDE Is the ONLY AMERICAN DANCE ORCHESTRA LEADER in Ger- many. Hyde's contract aa •xclutive Victor (Gramophone Artiata has been renewed for another year. They think ao much of ALEX HYDE over there that a Bronze Bust, present^ by Princa Albert, of Bavaria, is «n exhibition in the Munich KUN8TAKADEMIE (Hall of Fame). The name ALEX HYDE ia a household word in €tormany and repreaents • box-ofHc* attraction. s^ acta are of the "amall time" type and although the management says each person receives at least £5 a week to work from early afternoon until midnight this figure appears to be the maximum to be split up among the several members of an act. One of our great film stars is now the chucker out of a small club in Soho and a "great producer" man- ages a ham and beef shop on the Haymarket. Eva Moore will bring "Mary. Mary, ^uite Contrary," a pkiy which has been touring for some time, and has been the battleground of a good deal of trouble of one sort and another with more pending, and will dis- place the successful "Sport of Kings," which has been running since last September. Within 24 hours of opening the management of the new "music hall" the Alcaxar decided that a. noon opening was too early and the "con- tinuous" vaudeville now commences at 2 and 2:30 o'clock. Three stages are used and the audience strolls about from one to the other at the request of an announcer. All the Clemence Dane, silent since the failure of "The Way Tbings Hap- pen," has another play ready for managers. This is on the Biblioan subject of "Naboth's Vineyard," and the chief character Is Jezebel, from whom many ladies have been called since.' "The Passion Flower" will pos- sibly blossom at the Ambassadors under cultivation by H. M. Har- wood. This Is of Spanish growth by Jacinto Beneventi, exhibited some six years ago In New York by Nance O'Neil at the Belmont. London, June 1. Most of th« humor of the London production of "Tell Me More" is to be found at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. There must have been a hole in the boat that brought the show across. Apparently Grosamith A Malone could not bring themselves either to adapt the show for London or to leave well enough alone. In con- sequence, if a joke does not fail for one reason it fails for the other. Take, for instance, the ending of Act I, where Lou Holts came for- ward Happing bis bands and was told, "You're meant to b« British, not Yiddish." As all the company at the Winter Garden are British anyway, the Joke Is blunted from the start. And as Henson, unlike Holts, has to use a special makeup to get a Hebraic appearance, the point is not worth making. On the other hand, the tale of the Ford which has no door but has to be entered with the help of a can- opener is altered to suit the lan- guage of the country. "Can-opener" becomes "ttn-opener." There is only a very subdued laugh. The witticism will not bear translation. So far the best Joke in "Tell Me More" has been an accident on the second night. When Heather Thatcher pushed Leslie Henson into the wastepaper basket his suspend- ers burst, and during the dance that followed his trousers started to fall. This so delighted the audience that the band could not make itself heard for the roars of Joy. But Leslie Henson and Heather Thatcher have most of the humor to themseves. At times she turns her back on the house and shaken with mirth. They dry each other up and stop the action of the play. Not so very long ago, Leslie Hen- son sharply reprimanded Cicely Debenham for doing likewise in "Patricia," the musical comedy he produced at His Majesty's. Wise- cracking, he declared, should be abolished. What is necessary now is that he should practice what he preached. ^o^- JUST A KING Comedy In four acts by th« late Cyril Harooart, founded en a atory by jTan" SUyton; prewnted by lJin«horn% Barton at ib» I^ric tbealre, London, May 4. many inconsistences. Wit-h differ* ent wording It ^oold be the most ordinary kind of 10-30-30 show. At the Lyric It Is placed in the wrong house, for it Is hardly likely to attract West End audiences; a. better gamble would have been the Lyceum. "Just a Kink" Is fairly wejl acted. Langhorne Burton, under' whoHe management it is given, plays the lead. He is a hefty agreeable actor, and strikes the right balance be- tween the comedy lines and the shrieking situations. Mary O'J^ar- rell as the girl, and Arthur Laylnmt as the anarchist, arc sufflciciit. A clever piece of character work is done by A. Bromley Davenport ns ' a fear-stricken noble; and out of a large cast noticeably good work ia done by Alec F. Thompson, J. J. iBartlett and Eric Cowley. If the unnecessary third act were omitted and the others, enlivened with song aitd dance, "Just a King"" might serve as a musical comedy. There is a fairly adyenturous story of the Ruritanian kind and the dia- log is witty; but a red-nosed com- edian is needed to persuade the au- dience not to take the piece too se- riously. Jolo. CROOKED FRIDAY ' Play In a prolog and tbree acta by Moncli- ton Hoffe, produced by Mary Olynee and Dennla Nel)aon-Terry In eonjunctlon wllH B. A. Meyer at the Comedy tbeatrc, Lon- don. May 20. TBB PROLOO Alexander THatan John Tumbnll Micky, bla aon Brtan Ulenale Basley Cecil BrookloK THB PLJkT Michael Triatan Dennis Nellaon-Terry Howard t^inpeter Morton 8elt«n Cbarlea Lampeter Kenneth Kent Rof«r Petennor* Alexander Samer Fella Terence de Marney A Depoty Inap^tor John Turnbull A PoNce Officer Albert Chevalier, Jr. ' Second Police Officer William Arnold A Servant Honald Buchanan Friday Mary Olynne AUSTRALIA With the Lord Chamberlain's per- mission and a little blue pencil, two more Eugene O'Neill plays are for the West Knd. H. M. Harwood will produce "The Hairy Ape" and "De- Sire Under the Kims" will be done by Basil Dean. Mary Clare, who pro- vided the sensation of "White Car- go," will play the lead in "Desire," but the play has not yet fxassed the censor. William Archer's play, "The Joy Ride," has been produced at Man- chester by Robert Courtneidge suc- cessfully. It will be brought to' fho West £nd in due course. Viola Tree and Gerald du Maurier, who, under the nom de plume "Hubert Parsons," wrote "The Dan- cers," are at work on a new play. "The DancerB" ran at Wyndham's for about a year. "The Swallow." May 15. SYDNEY The cold weather has now set in, and business is holding down strongly at most of the theatres. Owing to the cold, matinees are pulling bigger than before, espe- cially at the two-a-day vaudeville. "Kid Boots" has settled down for a run at Her Majesty's. The show is grossing among the big-money pullers in town, and should stay for about twelve to fifteen weeks. Wll- iiamaon-Tait are handling the attraction. to say, nevertheless It Is true. FyfCe has stopped the show at every per- formance. Roof Garden Trio, acro- batics and dancing, very weak. Jack Stocks, songs, over nicely; Romany Trio, instrumentalists, amateurish; Tom Clare, songs at piano, passed; Felovis, Juggler, astounded with somA wonderful tricks; Big Four, harmony singers, very big hit; Hooker and Seaward, dancers, closed the very high-class entertainment. Will Fyffe, Scottish comedian, is the headliner at the Tivoli this week. Fyffe is pulling capacity. An a co- median the Scotchman is a very serious rival to Sir Harry Lauder. Although this is rather a big thing London and Its Boxes Lon-Jon, May 20. The fact that the new Empire theatre at Liverpool has been con- structed without boxes has raised the question among managers as to whether patrons have any use for this part of the house'. In the far distant past the boxes extended completely round the circle. Here ladles, sometimes masked, would sit, free from the attentions of the gallants in the pit. The boxen wore useful for f.imlly forc- gatherings and, commanding an uninterrupted view of the stage, they were in great demand. Today \\, is different, when boxes are only at the sides from where _neck twistlngs are necessary to see the play. Except on fashionable occasions, flrst nights and so on, managers find boxes are the most dinicult seats to dispose of. They demand dressing, too, as being conspicuous from all parts of the house, a play looks something like a failure if they are seen empty. When prominent actors and actresses come in "on the nod' they are generally placed in a box to help dress the house. One argument in favor of retaining boxes is the gain to the bar. Take a mixed party In a box where there are two seats in front and two behind. The ladles have those to the fore and the men peer from the back. The males tire of the strain and adjourn to the bar. They are driven to It. Such is the case in London, though, of course, it's different in New Iftork "Tangerine" goes out of the Opera house next week after a good run. "The Honeymoon Girl" with the same cast now playing "Tangerine." Both shows run by Fuller-Ward. Williamson-Tait presented Gladys Moncrleff in "The Lady of the Hose" at the Royal last week for the first time here. The production is very lavish and may be classed a winner even at this early stage. One scene alone cost over $10,000, with the whole production costing in the vi- cinity of $100,000. This may be classed pretty good for a city the size of Sydney. The producers of this country are always game to take a chance, and do not squeal if they sometimes pick a lemon. Miss Moncrleff made quite a decided hit in the name part and was most ably supported by Claude Flemming. A brilliant cast included Blake Adams, Nell Payne, Noel Leyland, John Ralston and Linda Foy. George Highland staged the prodiictlon. Maurice MoscovKch came into the Criterion for a four week's season with "The Merchant of Venice." Business has been very good for the first week, wUh profi| asdiired on the four week's stay. Moscovitch made a big hit as Shylock, present- ing the character in an entirely new guise. Hin may be classed as a brilliant piece of acting. Clever cast includes Jean Robertson (Por- tia), Arthur Greenaway, William Stack, Kay Souper, Eileen Sparks, Nat Mnddinon and Gertie Cremer. (Continued on page 13) . - London, May IS. The new play at the Lyric writ- ten several years ago by Cyril Har- court, reaches production 14 years after his death. "Just a King," founded on a story by Frank SUy- ton, is set down as a comedy, but is mainly a melodrama, a light- hearted affair full of revolver play, attempted assassinations and_ poi- sonings. In the beginning the greatly-uni- formed King of Purgatranla bewails the boredom of a monarch's life. Through a secret passage there en- ters Carlo Herts, a grimy anarchist, whose pockets bulge with bombs. His intention is to kill the King, but after an exchange of Harcourt's best repartee, he commutes the sen- tence to banishment. The King is in his power and willingly accepts the condition imposed by going away without leaving a trace of himself. He is happy to quit the country and to seek excitement Gls^w))6rc When away from Purgatranla, the exiled sovereign names himself, "A King," and from now on the play is devoted to his adventures as a striving Journalist, and what-not, living only on his wits. He visits a Soviet Club In London and falls in love with a lady secretary he meets there, who is also a Journalist in quest of copy. He fights in her de- fense against his old antagonist, the anarchist, the man bobbing up in every act with bomb, pisAl or poison. One of the deep laid schemes of Hertz is to profit on some oil which has been secretly discovered in Purgatranla, and for this he enlists the aid of a big newspaper propri- etor. By fortuitous chance A. King is there to defeat the plot and, alive to the possibilities of the find, he decides to go back to his kingdom, develop the oil wells and make the place a prosperous and progressive country. Back In Purgatranla, A. King has his Inst set-to with the everlasting Hertz. That gentlenjan is forced to swallow, not poison as he thinks, but a knock-out dose which is guaranteed to keep him In bed for a spell, and for the time out of mischief. The King fakes the crowd to himself again, this time In company with his newly selected wife, who left her Job in London to trip It with him in an aeroplane to Purgatranla. Harcourt's play In composed of stale melodramatic tricks linked to- Igethcr with dlalCr; t)Oth natural and smart. The story rambles and hau London, May 27. What makes a woman love a man? This problem has called forth many Ingenious theories. According to one much-favored view, Jemale affec- tion thrives on floggings. Then again there are quite t^number of authors . who, taking a hint from Bill Sykes, believe a man must be a blackguard before he can inspire real life-long devotion. Farther than this, you would think, no opinion could go. Bu^ Monckton Hoffe goes a long way farther. The heroine of "The Crooked Fri- day" can only k>ve—a pander! or in other words a man who- lives on a woman. Mr. Hoffe may argue that all psy- chological problems are open to dia- cusslon. No doubt—if we have faith in the mind that states them. Could Mr. Hoffe convince us he is jiot in the habit of putting forward opin- ions without sufficient evidences to Justify them, we might take his heroine seriously. But 'The Crooked Friday" is full of errors that prove be is not to l>« trusted on the simplest matters. His idea of legal procedure in America Is presposterous. If he cannot' under- take the simplest forms of research satisfactorily, how can he pose as a guide In the more. ir.volved matters concerning human nature? Mr. Hoffe shows us a wealthy man arrested in New York on a charge of theft of a piece of Jewelry. His at- torneys are Important and wealthy people of considerable Influence, yet are unable to free him over night, despite the use of four phones, once calling the President of the U. S. A., another the governor of New York state, the third J. P. Morgan's office, and the fourth an Important local politician. It never occurred to the attorneys. In business for 45 years, to merely tender bail. Later, when the heroine is taken Into custody for the same crime, a. detective brings her with him to the lawyers' office, for purposes of dis- cussion, and turns her loose, on his own responsibility. The prolog alone is acceptable;- Hare Micky Tristan and 1 ^ father are seen In an old-fashioned car—: date of this scene Is the time when (Continued on page 46) Beating the Clock London, May 27. Now that summer time pre- vails in England, managers find the advancing of the clock has made the evening so light, that a great amount of custom is lost for the theatres. Andre Chariot and Archibald de Bear, who are running the revue "The Punch Bowl" at the Duke of York's, retard the per- formance and begin at 9.30 in- stead of 8.30, finishing near midnight instead of 11. - As the actual time Is 8.30, no change Is really being made, although all other London the- atres abided by the clock summer time came in. 1 I ■A -r \vh«ii I I >ii r nJii i***^"-* iirmii aimti it •' •' *™ ''-—■ - -'—