RACY ENTERTAINMENT—"BROAD WAY SCANDALS"—GAIETY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 50, 31 March 1930, Page 2

RACY ENTERTAINMENT—"BROAD WAY SCANDALS"—GAIETY.

Racy entertainment was provided a large audience at the popular Gaiety De Luxe Tifeatre on Saturday night, when the musieal comedy extravaganza e"Broadway Scandals," had its first showing, 'being received with great enthusiasm. The piece had plenty of sparkle, combining the brightness and snap of a musieal revue with catchy songs and an appealing love story. It had pretty girls, gorgeous costumes, snappy dance numbea-s, plus a love story that was beautiful and tender. I.aughs greeted practically every line of the clever dialogue while the pJot was neatly constnicted. A noteworthy feature was tlie range and beauty of the musieal numbers. Everybody left the theatre humming or whistling the song hit of the evening, "What Is Life Without Love." The production is seintallating with popular melodies that are sure to be heard everywhere for many months to come. No less than seven were included in the musieal score and each one was comparable with the best heard in any talkie in Napier. Perhaps the most popular num'ber ivas "Does an Elephant Love Peanuts ?" on account of its comedy. This was sung by sweet little Sally O'Neill and Jack Egan, the latest and greatest song and dnaee man. Tbe lyrics in "What is Life Without Love" and "Rliythni of the Tambourine" wero hoth exceptionally catchy numbers. Carmel Myers made full use of great opportunities in the song "Would I Love to Love You" and "Can You Read in My Eyes?" Artistically effective costumes were a feature of this musieal comedy sensation, some of the mass scenes being very fine, while the dancing scenes were well ahead of anything similar seen in talking films previously. Fine varieties of "Blue" dancing numbers, with fifty girls in each, gave Jaron de St. Germain, the famous designer, plenty of opportunity to exercise his ai-tistic fancy and ' he took full advantage of it. Blue tulle and silver for the "St. Louis Blues," hlack velvet in fttturistic designs for the "Hesitation," silver and rose taffeta for the "Memphis" and a net nucle effect emhellished with silver dragons for the "Limehouse" were the fabrics used to carry out the striking chorus costumes for this big number and the colourful effect was really beautiful. Another noteworthy feature was the beauty of the costuming of the leading ladies. Miss Sally O'Neill wore simple bnt neat and effective frockings, while Miss Carmel Myers appeared in elaborate creations of marvellous lines and. wonderful beauty that won the heart of every lady in the audience. The interpretation of the piece was excellent while the recording of the. voices left nothing to be desired.. Miss O'Neill was excellent as the warm-hearted loyal Httle heroine, while Miss Myers was equally fine as the beautiful vamp. Jack Egan- played the leading_ male ' role with rare sympathv, while his singing voice thoroughly captivated his hearers. Taken all in all it can be said that "Broadway Scandals" tranlcs among the best of the backstage musieal extravaganzas. The phqtography is excellent, and the recording of voices, songs, dancing and sounds is admirable. A spleridid collection ,of all-talking-singing "short" subjects, including topieals, vaudeville' acts, musieal novelty and comedy completes one of tlie grandest entertainments. piaced before the Napier public for ' maiiy past months. The supporting items include all the latest sound topieals, together with the magnificent singer, Cr,aig Ca.mbell, in three particularly fine numbers. and the Smart Set Revue SpitalynS Band, with singing, dancing and niusical numbers. Seats may be booked by telephone 3809 j or at the Gaiety. "Broadway Scan- 1 dals" runs for a season of two more ; nights and two more aftemoon per- ^ formances. j