Jan 13 p8
Stage and Screen
[...] The pantomimes "Robinson Crusoe" and "Aladdin" at the Theatre Royal and Alhambra respectively appear set for long runs. [...] A well-known screen star, it is expected, will be seen in a new musical play at the Alhambra.
Jan 31 p2
Pantomimes that run throughout January and continue with few signs of fatigue into February may safely be credited with success. [...] There should be no flagging of interest or endeavour during the pantomime's concluding three weeks.
Feb 18 p10
AN EDITORIAL DIARY
The musical comedy "I Can Take It," which succeeds the pantomime "Aladdin" at the Glasgow Alhambra on Monday and will run for a month, is an 'All-Hale" production. It is Sonnie Hale's first venture in actor-managership, and he is associated in the responsibility of the production with his wife, Jessie Matthews, of film and revue fame, and his father, Robert Hale, revue star, who will shortly be celebrating his 50th year on the stage.
21 Feb p11
Glasgow Theatres
One feels that the spirit of the troupers in "The Good Companions" inspires Jessie Matthews and Sonnie and Robert Hale in "I Can Take It," the first musical comedy they are producing on the stage under their own management.
The troupers had courage and self-reliance. It is no small thing for the star and director of successful films to emerge from the comparative privacy of the studio and face, night after night, the publicity and creative ordeal of the theatre. It is like moving from the moon to the earth — from a mechanical aridity to the throbbing richness of life — and not being certain that the shock of the changed conditions will not kill.
Thanks largely to reliance upon their own talents and knowledge, Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale make the transition from studio to stage technique with comparative success. They strive hard to achieve that vital contact with the audience which is the fecund life of the theatre, and the absence of which constitutes a running sore in the film actor's life. They do obtain it — first by neatly roping in the audience as participants in the production and then by the more usual appeal of song, dance and humour.
The transition from film to stage is facilitated and the sympathy and interest of the audience caught by the provision of a story of the "A Star is Born" type — the creation of a film star out of an appealing little "stand-in" — and by the use of the entire auditorium in the opening and other scenes, the audience being regarded as a crowd of "extras". Sonnie Hale as director of the film which the "British Wonder Picture Corporation" is producing keeps the "extras" in order while scenes are shot, orders their applause, states that their rate of pay is 30s per day, and tells them to be in the "same place to-morrow at 9.30 a.m." This bit of showmanship at the beginning unfolds the happy, trouping spirit of the show as a whole.
In several of her films Miss Matthews begins as an unknown girl of humble origin — a bargee's daughter, for example — and climbs to the top of the theatrical tree. In this musical comedy she is at the top and bottom at the same time. She plays the double roles of Sue Merrick, a dark-haired stand-in, and Gloria Grosvenor, a glamorous, temperamental, and very blonde star, and her swift changes from one to the other must cause a great fluttering of hearts, and desperate glances at watches behind the scenes.
Sue and Gloria have widely contrasting temperaments. Sue is pert but companionable, essentially the home-making type, and a good actress, while Gloria is all that "glamour girl" and "gold digger" stand for. Performing somewhat of a tour de force, Miss Matthews plays both roles convincingly. It will be noticeable, however, that her own personality and style of dancing — leisurely and sylph-like — accord more with the character of Sue than with that of Gloria.
But taking Miss Matthews' performance as a whole, one has a feeling that something has not just [sic] "come off". One feels that her five years' devotion to studio work has prevented her natural talent as a ballet dancer and revue artist from growing to its full height. In "I Can Take It" she is feeling her way back into her true medium. Maybe in some future play of Hale Productions, Ltd., she will make a more commanding impression.
The story in "I Can Take It" is judiciously tinted with Ruritanian extravagance and Californian fantasy. Gloria is really a nasty piece of goods. She leaves the set in high dudgeon, and goes on a jewel-thieving expedition to France. Meantime Sue impersonates her in the studio and puts up an excellent performance — to which is added the complication of falling in love with an American friend of Gloria's. When the police trail Gloria, it is Sue who takes the rap. But at a trial, staged in the South of France before a very irreverent Judge (Robert Hale), Gloria's crime is revealed and Sue's innocence vindicated.
Sonnie Hale as Sebastian, the film director, is the driving force behind both the story and the production. One sweats with him as he shouts at the camera men [sic], bosses the chorus, and generally simulates all the reputed stress and strain of the studios. He is pursued, in the story, by Billie Frobisher, a Californian conception of a girl from the Australian bush, bristling with revolvers, tomahawks, and knives, and played with great zest by Peggy Rawlings.
Robert Hale doubles the parts of the film produucer and the French Judge, and reveals his veteran's skill. The young American who partners Miss Matthews in song and dance is Hal Thompson. He pleases, but does not arrest
Jean Black and a well-trained and good-looking chorus supply the dance ensembles, and the musical score — the overtures to the two acts especially — is tuneful and clever. The scenes in France are very colourful — but that does not excuse the lack of restraint and taste apparent in some of the bon mots. The first scene in the opening act is much too long. The story could be launched with greater economy. Time and the blue pencil should make "I Can Take It" a going concern.
Feb 24 p8
Stage and Screen
IN the palmy days of a generation or so ago the variety stage author or impresario did not have to contend against the competition of "three corners of the world." His contribution to the theatre's lake of romance and what someone termed its "rippling, roaring, rushing, rollicking river of risibility" received the practically undivided attention of its public.
But to-day he has no clear fairway, no straight run of green lights. He finds himself competing with the films, the cabaret, the dance hall, the B.B.C. programmes, the ice rink, the speed track, and "the dogs." So he has to forget Ruritania, forget the totem pole, and find such scenes and setting for his revue or musical comedy as will tickle the fancy of a public torn by heterogeneous interests.
The new Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale musical play, "I Can Take It," now successfully launched upon a month's run at the Glasgow Alhambra, has rather neatly solved the problem by exploiting, from the satirical and gay angle, the personalities, technicalities, and ballyhoo of the film studio.
In the character and blonde glamour of Gloria Grosvenor Miss Matthews makes sport of the nervous tantrums and dictatorial methods commonly attributed to movie queens. But neither the part nor the play raise Gloria to prodigious heights of rodomontade, megalomania and fantastic allegory. One has to turn to a play like Mr A. G. Macdonald's "What Next, Baby?" (Macmillans, 3s 6d net) to see to what heights of crazy fantasy the film star can be thrust.
[...] At the last moment Amanda and her older colleague and rival, Bianca, leave Croydon for America instead of Tanganyika. They are to appear in a gigantic film version of the Bible, the part of the Deity being divided between them.[...]
"I Can Take It" will be succeeded at the Alhambra on March 20 by a revival of "Rose Marie," with Derek Oldham in his original part of Jim Kenyon and Billy Merson in his original role as Hard-Boiled Herman. [...]
Feb 23 p13
ENTERTAINMENTS
ALHAMBRA.
Evgs. 7.45 till 18th March
Every Wed. and Sat. at 2.
GLASGOW'S BEST SHOW IN YEARS!
JESSIE MATTHEWS
AND SONNIE HALE
in their New Musical Comedy,
"I CAN TAKE IT."
| EVGS. — 7/6, 6/-.6/-, 3/6, 3/-, 1/6, 1/- | BOOK |
| MATS. — 5/-, 4/6, 4/-, 3/6, 2/6, 2/-, 1/-, 6d | NOW |
Box Office, 99 Hope Street. 10-9.30. Central 5346-7-8
Feb 28 p6
WOMEN'S TOPICS
WHEN musical comedy comes to town we look for something extra special in the way of fashions, and in "I Can Take It," at the Alhambra, Glasgow, we are not disappointed. A glance at the programme reveals that certain of Miss Jessie Matthews's ensembles have been designed by Norman Hartnell, the Queen's own dressmaker. So we know to expect models of the very latest design and colour. There is a charming toilette fashioned on redingote lines in deep anemone purple and worn with a flower-bedecked hat fastened under the chin with long ties of blue spotted net. A double blue fox fur completes the outfit.
A gown featuring the fashionable two-colour scheme is worked out in palest chalk-blue and rich plum shade. The corsage is in the latter tone except for a narrow strip of blue on one shoulder, while from the waist-line downwards the two colours are equally shared. On less striking though equally charming lines is the delicate blue chiffon dance frock besprinkled with diamante.
By superimposing a dress of white crepe over a slip of cyclamen pink a delightful effect is obtained, and as she dances Miss Matthews reveals an under-hem of pleated net frilling in various cyclamen hues. Over this frock she wears a full-length evening redingote of stiff faille, in deep rose colour with insets of darker toned velvet.
Whether in these glamorous evening gowns or in her businesslike slacks, silk blouse and blazer Miss Matthews is equally attractive. The chorus, too, have a variety of costumes, and the impression the entire show gives is that we are looking on at some continuous fashion parade.
Feb 28 p11
Take an understudy and give him 20 minutes rehearsing in a role that calls for some fairly intricate dancing with a star of stage and screen, and if he is sufficiently adept not to attract overmuch attention to himself, then he is a good understudy. But if on his second appearance in the part he adds to a faultless performance of dancing and singing a personality and appearance that rivet the onlooker's eyes on him even in the presence of a star, then one wonders why he should have been an understudy at all.
Such is Eric Cole, the juvenile lead pro tem. in the Jessie Matthews-Sonnie Hale musical comedy "I Can Take It" at the Alhambra. When Hal Thompson strained a muscle at the weekend and his indisposition threatened to ruffle the smooth passage of the new show, Eric Cole, at a minute's notice — 20 to be exact — was taken from the obscurity of a small part to play opposite Miss Matthews, whose tribute at curtain-fall last night and the applause of the audience demonstrated just how successful he had been.
The Hale family need have little fear about the future of their present venture. "I Can Take It" puts a new slant on the musical comedy. It is both comic and musical. It has a brilliance and variety of dressing not seen in a Glasgow show for some years. Moreover, interest is never permitted to lag. Scene swings into scene, and the tempo of the entire piece is fast.
Things to see in it are Jessie Matthews's effortless dancing and her flashes from one role to another in her double part of Sue and Gloria; Sonnie Hale's superb fooling as film producer; Robert Hale's caricature of a French judge; and an unusually attractive company of singers and dancers. Thing to hear include the song, "Only Once."
The show has its off-moments of course. The "No No Nanettes" and "Desert Songs" were not without them either. But in weeding out the "sticky bits" the Hales should concentrate on the early part of Act I. The remainder of the show is well able to attend to itself.
Mar 3 p8
Stage and Screen
[...] Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale enter on their last two weeks of "I Can Take It" at the Alhambra on Monday night. Business is exceptionally brisk, but there are still seats available for all performances.
Mar 4 p8
"If any London managers want to try out a new show, I strongly advise them to bring it here first to Glasgow, and they will soon find out whether it is good or not," declared Mr Sonnie Hale to the members of the Glasgow Publicity Club yesterday, when he and Miss Jessie Matthews were the guests of the club to luncheon.
The audiences in Glasgow, said Mr Hale, were very "tough." The present show, "I Can Take It," at the Alhambra, was the first experience of Miss Matthews and himself in running their own show, and they had learned a lot.
In some places people practically began laughing as they bought their tickets. In Glasgow people paid their money, wondering all the while if the show was going to be worth it.
At the opening of a show a Glasgow audience was absolutely "solid ice" because they were so critical. Their own experience had been, however, that the atmosphere became warmer as the show progressed and they felt they had been paid a high compliment when they saw, as the final curtain was falling, that not a soul had left the theatre.
Mar 7 p10
"I Can Take It," the new musical comedy which entered its third week last night at the Alhambra, competes with the film "musical' in the matter of slickness of sequence. Scene merges into scene — there is a surprising number of them — with great rapidity, and the entire show moves at an unusual tempo for stage entertainment. As musical comedy it has the further distinction of boasting more than a mere breath of plot. In fact, the show's most obvious weakness lies in its elaboration of story, the presentation of the twin character of Sue and Gloria tending in the earlier stages to puzzle the onlooker. But for beauty of presentation, sparkle of melody (very little of it, however, is "whistle-able"), delicacy of dancing and brilliance of dialogue "I Can Take It" is a credit to its principals, Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, and Robert Hale.
Mar 10 p10
Stage and Screen
[...]
[...] "Son of Frankenstein" is correctly classified "horrific." No child should see it. But the average adult will be amused by its array of shadowy, vaulted rooms, secret passages, thunderstorms, Frankenstein's Monster, and the terrible Ygor. It was a pleasant contrast to see Sonnie Hale and Jimmy O'Dea range from Ireland to the B.B.C. offices in London in "Let's Be Famous," a British comedy of undoubted merit.
[...] The Jessie Matthews-Sonnie Hale musical comedy, "I Can Take It," enters its fourth week at the Alhambra on Monday.
Mar 14 p10
Glasgow Theatres
[...]
"I Can Take It," which began its fourth and final week at the Alhambra, Glasgow, last night, is certainly one of the gayest recent musical comedies. No doubt it is in the first place a "vehicle" for Jessie Matthews who doubles the two principal women's parts, but one is not at all sure that the honours of the show should not go to Sonnie Hale, who remains sardonically, tirelessly entertaining throughout all the twists of the rather complicated story. Robert Hale completes the family party.
The dressing and staging are neat, and the show moves fast and smoothly.
Mar 15 p15
It was a young people's day at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow, yesterday, the occasion being the annual charity matinee organised by the Glasgow Jewish Board of Guardians Auxiliary. Although leaders of the lighter sides of stage entertainment — Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, Tommy Morgan, Jack Radcliffe, Peggy Rawlings, and a number of others — had pride of place in a programme which took close on three hours to complete, the possible "stars" of to-morrow were also given a try-out. And it is doubtful whether the honours of achievement did not go to the youngsters.
Members of the chorus of the new musical comedy "I Can Take It" displayed remarkable prowess in individual acts of their own. The popular success of the afternoon, however, was three-year-old Janice V. Woolfson, who danced and sang with remarkable precision and even more remarkable sang-froid. Jacquelyn Dunbar and Drew Pringle, both from Edinburh, ran Baby Woolfson very close in precocious contempt for stage fright.
Mar 17 p10
Stage and Screen
[...] The Jessie Matthews-Sonnie Hale success, "I Can Take It," concludes its initial run at the Alhambra to-morrow night. It will be succeeded on Monday by "Rose Marie," elaborately produced and redecorated [..]
Mar 21 p11
GLASGOW THEATRES
[...] The trouble with revivals is that they never quite revive, and "Rose Marie," the musical comedy hit of a decade or more ago, just fails this week to gets [sic] its second wind at the Alhambra. [...]
See further coverage from the Glasgow Evening News
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