THE THEATRE
INFLUENZA is ravaging the corps de ballet at the New Theatre but this fact is not perceptible in any falling-off in the performances as seen from the auditorium. It was, however, unlucky for Beryl Grey, who had an important part in the new Whet Promenade this week, that her place had to be taken at the last moment by Margot Fonteyn. This new ballet—choreography by Ninette de Valois, scenery and costumes by Hugh Stevenson—is one of the most successful of recent, new productions. It is charming, light-hearted and amusing and its humour is never forced or vulgar. A similar distinction of style is shown in the costumes. The music selected from Haydn by Edwin Evans is perfectly delightful and Ninette de Valois has woven her dance-patterns into it very ingeniously.
For my part I confess to a preference for dancing over miming though both are essential elements of ballet. There has however, been a tendency in the Sadler's Wells company to overdo has, miming, due perhaps to the talent of Robert Helpmann. It is the old rivalry between melody and dramatic expression in music over again, and the greatest masters can combine both ; but in a ballet such as The Rakes Progress the drama is too near the Lyceum melodrama, the senses are as starved as the emaciated body of the Rake in his final metamorphosis. This is an artistic fault. Dramatic miming and effective tableaux are easier to come by than inventive choreo- graphy, as may be seen in Ashton's The Wise Virgins, where some of the grouping is excellent, but when for a beautiful triple time measure of Bach's some real choreographic invention is called for between the Bride and Bridegroom, the Angels and the Virgins, it is not forthcoming. A really fine performance, with Margot Fonteyn as Swanlida, of that classic masterpiece Delibes' Coppelia is a feature Of the present season and should not be missed by balleto- manes.
The Palladium management must now be faced with an extreme dearth of variety talent, for Look Who's Here! would be better described as There's Nobody Here! in spite of the fact that some well-known names such as Binnie Hale and the Cairoli Bros. appear. Binnie Hale's imitations are carefully finished but lifeless. The Cairoli Bros. need some new ideas. As for the rest it would be hard to find a single complimentary word for any one of them.
JAMES REDFERN.
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