STAGE AND SCREEN.
MUSIC HALL
" The Little Dog Laughed." At the Palladium.
Ma. GEORGE BLACK'S shows at the Palladium always present a good cross-section of the contemporary British character, and the latest is no exception. They give respectful room to the exotic, satisfy the national love of pageantry with elaborate and sublimely fatuous spectacle, and go nap on the personality and robust humour of the old music hall. The revival of this humour, as exemplified in the gambols of the Crazy Gang, is vastly to Mr. Black's credit. The last War pulled down an abrupt curtain on the old music hall, where personality dominated everything. After the War, the halls— in London at any rate—had been mechanised almost out of existence. Now, the pendulum is swinging back. The swing is well shown by the development as comedians of Nervo and Knox. Beginning as acrobats, this pair evolved a brilliant performance of wrestling in slow motion and a parody of ballet which, though extraordinarily funny, still depended largely upon acrobatic skill. A revue at the Chelsea Palace, just nine years ago, gave them other opportunities, and showed that Knox was a considerable actor. Nervo at this time did not act at all. His speciality was a mindless frisking which bore little, if any, relation to the lines he had to speak. Presently, he, too, began to act. His charlady in These Foolish Things showed a real sense of character, and in the present revue his rendering of the " Black Shadow " belongs to the stage as well as to the halls. During the same period his more versatile partner has become a first-rate character actor. The whole phenomenon of the Crazy Gang is a return to the old days, plus a team spirit seldom attained In that era of overpowering individuality.
The Little Dog Laughed, though more than good enough to pass, is not quite up to the level of its predecessors. The honours for solo performance are carried off by Bud Flanagan, the outstanding personality in a gang where personality is the strong point. His power and charm are difficult to analyse, but, when the whole show is over, his is the figure and his the face that remain. His biggest number, " Run, rabbit, run," adds up to precisely nothing, but he makes it significant, and, as always, there is a quality of pathos in his singing. How perplexing this revue must be to a German mind! Its humour reaches in all directions, treating Hitler's secret weapon and our own leaflet raids with the same irreverence. Perhaps Flanagan's appeal lies just in that power to make game of everything and at the same time to suggest a genuine depth of feeling underneath.
This is, as usual, the Crazy Gang's show. They have an excellent scene as beefeaters in the Tower, during which Knox persuades the audience to sing a chorus and then to perform it in dumb show. I can suggest no improvement to their share in the proceedings except perhaps the addition of Monsewer Eddie Gray, a brilliant comedian who was once an associate member, and who has a specially stimulating effect upon Nervo and Knox. For the rest, the Condos Brothers are admirable dancers, the Fredianis give a really startling performance of acrobatics, and Willie, West and McGinty's knockabout act in a builder's yard includes every possible misadventure and is perfectly timed. The two straight singers take gracefully enough the scanty chances allowed them, and the scene about Valentines culminates in a new peak of imbecility—an acrobatic dance performed by a lady wearing an expression suggestive of Mr. Aldous Huxley reacting to an unpleasant smell, in the course of which no fewer than six white doves, released in the auditorium, flutter towards her and perch obediently upon selected portions of her anatomy.
The inevitable patriotic scene is of ear-splitting magnificence and well up to the Palladium level of ingenuity, but it takes second place to the Harlem scene, in which Flanagan, with the support of the full company, preposterously red-lipped, enacts a baptismal ceremony to music for the benefit of a coloured doll entitled Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones. To this everyone brought that appearance of real and vigorous enjoy- ment which the Crazy Gang inspire into all their shows.
L. A. G. STRONG.
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