10 APRIL 1936, Page 16

TIIE humour of this revue is not extreme ; your

beliefs are flattered and your prejudices never pricked. Popular laughing-stocks, such as advanced schools, Italian barbers, young men with beards and children of Cabinet Ministers, are covered with good-humoured banter ; the pathos of ageing cocottes, clever little milliners and discarded mistresses are rendered with proper respect and sentiment. Humour and pathos, avoiding the head and the senses, fly straight to the heart, and the music softens the way for them. Culture assists with a setting after Degas, an ecossaise with Lord Berners' wild Highland music, and plenty of allusions to Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Evelyn Waugh, W. H. Auden and other leading social figures. The dancing is not too professional or too abandoned to spoil this English holiday. Only Mr. Lyle Evan's almost fierce Dirty Songs" interrupts its modera- tion; Mr. Nelson Keys and Miss Ivy St. Helier appear often enough to remind us of what it is to be amused ; and Miss Hermione Gingold is excellent in all her numbers. The audience enjoyed their evening exceedingly, and I ant sure this is a revue to which you may take any member of your family ; they may be bored but no harm can come to them. But the costumes seemed to have come from a bargain basement.

GORONWY BEES.