THE THEATRE
"The Shephard Show." Devised by Firth Shephard. At the Princes Theatre.
THE silver gleams, the napery is spotless, there are lots and lots of courses and the fare can hardly be described as less than sumptuous. But the cooking is English to a fault ; though it has many solider virtues, this show lacks style. The sketches are only fairly funny, and they are sandwiched between experiments in romance which, though carried out with conviction and efficiency, fall short of that kind of alchemy which the occasion demands. But no evening can be wasted over which preside Messrs. Richard Hearne, Eddie Gray, Douglas Byng and Arthur Riscoe, and when they are on the stage the fun—though in a world which so strenuously invites satire or caricature, it seems more aimless than it need have been—is alwags fast and furious. Collectively they are at their best in a pantomime scene, dominated by Mr. Byng's Principal Boy, simpering and cur- vetting under the Bile Beanstalk. Incidentally, I think Mr. Eddie Gray leads his colleagues by a short and addled head.
In the romance department Miss Marie Burke is a tower of strength, and the chorus is a good one. But is a microphone really necessary? Is it the actors' lungs or the audience's ears which are thought to have deteriorated? Pay-as-you-earn may be a necessary refinement of fiscal technique, but I find it hard to believe that earn- as-you-sing is the right formula for even not very good music.
PETER FLEMING.
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