... TU By Horace Horsnell Sky High (Phoenix) Those two queens ot Burlesque, iviesaames Hermione Baddeley and Hermione Ging- old, have become popularly associated as a kind of dual constellation in the vaudeville heavens, where they shine with mutual and derisive glory. When last we saw them fooling there together, the slogan was Rise Above It Now it is Sky High, which seemed to promise even higher ...

... By Horace Horsnell Blossom Time (Lyric) Sadler's ff ells Ballet (Netc) LET it be said at once, since comparisons need not be odious, that Blossom Time is Lilac Time in another part of the old Vienna garden. These two operettas are not so much independent works as variations on a similar theme-- genius at odds with life and love. Schubert, the hero of both, is the same inspired innocent who ...

... Wild Rose (Princes) By Horace Horsnell THIS fond old musical play, first seen, heard, and whistled in London in 1921, under the name of Sally, was even then something of a pastiche. Its action passes in New York in the early 1900's. So now we get, as it were, a double throw-back in manners and melody. It belongs to the gentler vaudeville school. The composer, Jerome Kern, links on to the pre ...

... Thunder Rock is Filmed Michael Redgrave and Frederick Valk in their original parts as Charleston, the 1940 Escapist, and Dr. Kurtz, Escapist of an Earlier Century Just over two years ago, Thunder Rock written by a young American, Robert Ardrqy, was produced at the Neighbourhood Theatre in Kensington. Its success was immediate and very soon it was transferred to the West End. The play has now ...

... By Herbert Farjeon On Approval (Aldwych) HERE are two revivals, the first (unex pectedly) being a revival of the theatre orchestra. This takes one back. Let us hope it also takes one forward. For, speaking generally, live and lively fiddlers are jollier, though admittedly more expensive, than inanimate and unexhilarating grinding- machines, exercising over the atmosphere of the auditorium a ...

... By Horace Horsnell Big Top (His Majesty's) THE title of this revue is not to be taken literally. The big top is not a tent, but a triumvirate-- Mr. C. B. Cochran, Mr. Herbert Farjeon, and Miss Beatrice Lillie. Mr. Cochran is, of course, the king of show men, and recherche entertainment is his metier. Mr. Farjeon, as you know, is the ace of wits, whose impertinent inventions are as full of ...

... By Horace Horsnell Claudia (St. Martin's) THIS American comedy comes to us from New York with an immense reclame. It is a bright example of the modern school that pays lip tribute to Freud, and seasons sentiment with psychology. The author, Rose Franken, has a shrewd sense of character which she doesn't abuse, a facile pen which is not allowed to rust in reflection, and an impulsive wit ...

... By Horace Horsnell IT hy Not Tonight (Ambassadors) GOOD farce, like good wine, needs no bush. It is to indifferent comedy rather what vintage burgundy is to dubious bordeaux-- especially if, expecting the one, you are fobbed off with the other. One of the virtues of farce is that the characters do not expect to be taken too seriously. They are licensed clowns, and are out, not to edify, but to ...

... TU By Herbert Farjeon Warn That Man Garrick FOR what particular patriotic purpose, one asks on leaving the Garrick Theatre, did Mr. Winston Churchill, unseen hero of Warn That Man!, once every month charter a special aeroplane to take him to Buckley Hall in the depth of the country, there secretly and unbeknown to any but the highest officials to encounter a certain person or certain persons ...

... TU By Horace Horsnell Skylark (Duchess) ALL for love, and the world well lost is a grand theme for a dramatist, and Shakespeare and Dryden both did marvels with it. Mr. Samson Raphaelson, the author of this modest American version, would probably be the last to claim kinship with his illustrious predecessors. His heroine is no Cleopatra, but the cosiest of little New York wives, and his hero ...

... By Horace Horsnell Let's Face It (Hippodrome) THE show we are invited to face at the Hippodrome is well worth looking at. It is a musical comedy of American origin and manners. And since its plot resembles a Christmas tree, in that it serves primarily as a foundation for the display of festive diversities, we are not obliged to approach it as a serious work of dramatic art. The libretto serves ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Comus (New) ONCE more to the ballet-- perhaps, more specifically, I should say once more to the Sadler's Wells Ballet, since there are so many second, third, fourth and fifth rate ballets roaming around and coming to rest that it would be a pity to confuse Ninette de Valois's organisation with its competitors, offshoots and derivatives. Not that, in these difficult days, the ...