CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THE THEATRE •
Brigadoon. (His Majesty's.)
IT is strange how the public answers the call of whimsy in' one instance and turns a deaf ear to its elfin voice in another, and in comparing Brigadoon and the short-lived Finian's Rainbow, one fey Scottish and the other leprechaun Irish, it is hard to see why the latter was rejected with such unqualified firmness. It must have been on the grounds of whimsy, for in nearly every other respect it was a much better musical play than is Brigadoon, and yet I believe Brigadoon will be a big success. The story of how two Americans find their way into a Scotch village which through some peculiar dispensation of Providence reappears from out the mists of time for one day every hbndred years (they catch it in 1735) and of how one of them, Mr. Philip Hanna, falls in love with the local brunette Miss Patricia Hughes, need not be explored too deeply, especially as it involves not only faith in things mystical but also a firm grasp of mathematics.
The music by Mr. Frederick Loewe is on the whole poor, and save for Mr. Hanna there is no one to redeem it. The choreography by Miss Agnes de Mille is excellent, the vivacious child of reel and modern ballet, and it is executed with liveliness and grace by all, and in particular by Miss Noelle de Mosa and Miss Bunty Kelley, who are truly lovely dancers. The humour, too, is quite satisfactory, Mr. Hiram Sherman and Miss Noele Gordon bringing a nice salty taste to fairyland's somewhat insipid food. Nevertheless, though Brigadoon has its moments, I would exchange all of it for the opening scene in Finian's Rainbow which few of you, of course, had time to see before the bogs of disapproval closed over its head.
HARRIET VILLIERS.
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