THE THEATRE
MR. IVOR NOVELLO knows his business and it is not for nothing that his Dancing Years at the Adelphi has already run ,or over two rears. His new venture, in which he himself does not appear, is also likely to have a long run, for it is so thoroughly competent in every respect and is well produced by Leontine Sagan. The fact that it is definitely old-fashioned in story and music does not matter, for the music, if reminiscent of many nineteenth-century composers, is all the more acceptable for the majority for that, while the story is truly neat and appropriately sentimental. Also, the play has the advantage of a really attractive heroine in Mary Ellis whose acting and singing are both much above the general standard in musical plags. She has charm and immense vitality and carries conviction in everything she does. The chief asset of Peter Graves as the hero is his conventionally handsome appearance, but Maidie Andrews, Nella Westcott and Raymond Lovell and others, give more support to Mary Ellis, for their acting is quite above the average in entertainments of this sort. Altogether a gay and vigorous show.
In spite of the publicity given to Irving Berlin and his singing, this is not the best part of his "All-Soldier Musical Show" by the United States Army at the Palladium, given this month for British Service charities. The tap-dancing of negro soldiers is outstanding, and there are some very, attractive costumes in the item "Mandy "- otherwise the best thing in the programme is "Daddy's Furlough," a very amusing skit on a soldier returning on leave, who instead of finding "Home, sweet home," discovers his wife and mother-in-law in uniform both of higher rank than himself, who proceed to drill him
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