"KISSING TIME."
For an infrequent worshipper at the shrine of Musical Comedy the
atmosphere of a first night at a new, or renascent, theatre is perhaps
rather too heady. There are so many potent vintages set on the board;
so many connoisseurs who will offer to tell you beforehand of the
merits of their favourite brands.
I confess, to my shame, that when an actor with whose gifts I am
unfamiliar is received on his entrance with a storm of applause, I
am not prejudiced, as I ought to be, in his favour. On the contrary I
follow his performance the more judicially, and if I cannot find that
it corresponds to his apparent reputation I am apt (wrongly again) to
conclude that the fault lies with him and not with myself.
[Illustration: THE OLD GAIETY IN A NEW HOME.
MR. GEORGE GROSSMITH AND MR. LESLIE HENSON AT THE WINTER GARDEN
THEATRE.]
But in the case of _Kissing Time_, after a rather dull First Act,
during which I kept telling myself that I was not suffering from
senile decay, I had to admit that the gods were in a great measure
justified of their elect. For one thing the authors, taking a bold
and original line (from the French), had produced a coherent plot;
and both dialogue and lyrics were above what I understand to be
the average in this kind. One expects, of course, a little Cockney
licence--"pyjamas" rhymed with "Palmer's," and so on--and a certain
amount of popular banality, as in the song, "Some Day" (rapturously
approved); but there were excellent verses on the text, "A woman has
no mercy on a man," and, I doubt not, much other good stuff which
I missed because Mr. IVAN CARYLL, who conducted (and was probably
thinking more of his own pleasant music than somebody else's words),
did not make enough allowance for my slowness in the up-take of
patter.
Mr. LESLIE HENSON was funny, and should be funnier still when the book
has been cut down by about an hour and space allowed him for private
developments. Miss PHYLLIS DARE was graceful and confident. One easily
understood her popularity; but Miss YVONNE ARNAUD, who was a little
slow for the general pace, must, I think, be more of an acquired
taste.
Mr. TOM WALLS (very svelte in his French uniform) did sound work, and
so did Mr. GEORGE BARRETT, a humourist by gift of nature. Mr. GEORGE
GROSSMITH, who with Mr. LAURILLARD has made out of the old Middlesex
a most attractive and spacious "Winter Garden," brought with him the
traditions of the Gaiety, and had a warm personal welcome. I could
bear him to be funnier than he was; but as I'm sure that he's clever
enough to be anything he likes I can only assume that he wasn't really
trying.
I join everybody in wishing him good cheer in this "garden" of his,
where, if the auguries fulfil themselves, he is not likely, even in
the dog-days, to have to endure "the winter of our discontent."