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Chu-Chin-Chow Starts Monday
Khuzayma
(Douglas McIntosh) a member of Abu Hassan’s band of robbers threatens the life
of Kasim Baba (Ted Korol) a wealthy merchant, in a scene from Chu-Chin-Chow,
musical extravaganza which opens Monday at Rainbow Stage. Mr. Korol, as well as acting in the
show, has designed the sets for it.
John Hirsch is director, Nenad Lhotka is choreographer and Eric Wild is
music director. The production
will run all this week and Monday and Tuesday of next week.
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Here There and Hollywood
With Frank Morriss
If I can take the word of John Hirsch, and I’d very much
like to, we’re going to have animals, acrobats, jugglers, snake charmers,
fireworks, fountains and the Indian rope trick on the Rainbow stage in Kildonan
park this summer.
John even promises to auction off some women, which seems
very shocking until you realize the show he is talking about is the venerable
Chu Chin Chow which will bring the Rainbow stage to a finale blaze of glory for
the summer.
John is back in Winnipeg after a winter and spring of drama
study in London, and he has been engaged to do three musical shows for the
Rainbow stage. They are Can Can,
Do You Remember? and the aforementioned Chu Chin Chow. Now I had some misgivings about Chu Chin
Chow because it was popular during World War I but I suspect has aged. The good old tunes like Any Time’s
Kissing Time. The Cobbler’s Song,
etc, have survived but what about the book and lyrics?
It was then that John mentioned his startling innovations,
although the auctioning off of the women is actually in the show. I remember being taken, as a very
little boy, to see it at the Walker (now Odeon) theatre and hearing the gasps
of the audience when the ladies walked onto the draughty Walker stage, protected
only by a gauze curtain.
Note to Mr. Hirsch, James Duncan and the rest of the Rainbow
stage people: It can be very
chilly on an evening in Kildonan Park.
Enough of frivolity however. The facts of the Hirsch case since he left Winnipeg some
time in January are these:
He has been studying at the Central School of Drama, whose
principal is Gwyneth Thurburn, coach for Sir Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave
and other eminent actors. John’s
teacher was Oliver Reynolds, who taught with Michael Saint Denis. The school, incidentally, is solely for
professionals, not beginners.
He also worked at the Unity theatre in St. Pancras and has a
19th century farce which he is reading at the moment and might do
for them next season. The Unity
theatre premiered Jean Paul Sartre’s Nekrasov, which will be staged at the
Edinburgh festival this summer.
John was closely in touch with John Allen, Andre van
Gyseghem and other theatre people.
At the moment, he says, the theatre is undergoing a
tremendous change in Britain.
The first factor in this is the emergence of Arthur Miller,
such directors as Elia Kazan and the realistic school of the Actor’s theatre.
Secondly the emergence of such a British playwright as John
Osborne is giving the people a lift.
John feels that Fry, Elliott and some of the other writers aren’t
influential any more. Osborne,
however, is giving the people something to hang on to.
One of his plays, Look Back in Anger, was about a working
man whose education brought him out of his class and made him unhappy. Another Osborne play, which will have
Sir Laurence Olivier at the helm, deals with music hall people and their
frustrations.
Thirdly, the visit of Berthold Berliner Ensemble from
Germany has proved tremendously dynamic.
John also has admiration for Terrence Rattingar’s virtuoso
writing in such a play as Separate Tables.
When John stopped briefly in New York he saw Paddy McIntyre,
who is working to establish himself there. Lawrence Gradus, another former member of the Royal Winnipeg
Ballet is with City Centre Ballet.
John hears that Georges Balanchine is doing two of Ruthanna Boris’
works… Cakewalk, and an untitled one.
In London he saw Evelyne Anderson in the musical , Free As
Air, says she was wonderful.
Evelyne is understudying the leading lady and did the role for a week in
Bristol to great acclaim.
Peter Perebinczuk, who acted a great deal in Winnipeg is now
Peter James and has appeared in A View from the Bridge. He is now with the Sir Laurence Olivier
production of Titus Andronious which will tour Europe.
Bernard Behrens, another ex-Winnipegger, is with the Old Vic
and will be touring the Near East with the company.
It’s nice to have John Hirsch
back, if only for the summer.
Chu Chin Chow Wows Crowd
By C.G. Dafoe
Free Press Staff Writer
A bomb exploded at Kildonan park Tuesday night and sent
vivid color flashing about Rainbow stage.
The bomb was called Chu Chin Chow and the near-capacity audience roared
its approval when the fireworks ended.
Last spring when the summer theatre announced that Chu Chin
Chow would be one of the productions this season, many patrons groaned.
“That old thing,” they said.
“Who wants to see a show written in 1914?”
Now, however, “that old thing” has turned out to be a the
best thing the summer theatre has done in its two years of operation.
Director John Hirsch and his crew of assistants have given
us a show that has almost everything; color, wild and tame animals, talking
birds, jugglers, a gala parade, and other numerous surprises.
LASCIVIOUS SLAVES
As usual, the dancers are the most skillful performers on
Rainbow stage. The finale of Act 2
features the ballet music from Borodin’s Prince Igor and some of the best
dancers in Canada swirl about the stage to the wild Tartar music. The female members of the company make
some of the most lascivious slave girls ever put up for sale. It was a wonder there were no bids from
the audience. (only in 1957, how times have changed)
Director Hirsch has chosen his cast well. All the major characters were more than
able to handle the tasks assigned to them.
The team of Roy Firth and Wendy Hicks in particular, stood
out. Mr. Firth combined a mellow
and pleasing singing voice and a flare for outrageous comedy to give the
outstanding performance of the evening as Ali Baba.
Miss Hicks as Ali’s lover has a way of smiling that makes
every man in the audience think she is smiling at him. Delightful.
MAKE-UP EXCELLENT
As the robber chief, Leo Brodeur is a villain to the
core. His make-up is excellent and
he shifts character nicely when he changes his disguise.
Harry J. Enns and Nora MacLean make a charming pair of
lovers when they are in a crowd.
Alone on stage however, they tend to become wooden. The director may be to blame here. Give Hirsch 50 people rushing about the
stage and he is as happy as a lark.
Give him two and he panics.
Merle Pelcher gives a good account of herself as the willy
Zahrat Al-Kulub although her voice tends to be shrill now and then.
As the aged cobbler, Geoffrey Davies gives some of the best
singing in the show. The famous
Cobbler’s song comes his way and he makes the most of it.
SIGHT TO BEHOLD
Ted Korol as the wicked merchant Kasim Baba is a green beard
and a pair of gracefully moving hands.
He is always at his best when he lets his hands speak for him and they
are often far more eloquent than the tongue could ever be.
Murray Senens as the slave dealer is an Egyptian temple
painting come to life and Colin Walley sings splendidly and moves with a regal
dignity as the steward of Kasim Baba.
Ramona Mcbean is the ultimate in shrews as Ali Baba’s wife
Mahbubah.
There is seldom a dull moment in this giant of a show. Hirsch moves his cast on and off stage
like a ring-master with a well trained equestrian act. The costumes are a sight to behold.
Anybody who stays home to watch television this week is crazy.
