Le monde des musicals

A Bit of a Test (1933-01-Aldwych Theatre-London)

Type de série: Original
Théâtre: Aldwych Theatre (Londres - Angleterre)
Durée : 4 mois
Nombre : 142 représentations
Première Preview : lundi 30 janvier 1933
Première : lundi 30 janvier 1933
Dernière : samedi 03 juin 1933
Mise en scène :
Chorégraphie :
Producteur :
Commentaires : It was the last, and least successful, of the series of twelve Aldwych farces that ran in uninterrupted succession at the Aldwych Theatre in London from 1923 to 1933.
The actor-manager Tom Walls had produced, directed and co-starred in nine Aldwych farces between 1923 and 1932. By the early 1930s his interest was moving from theatre to cinema, and though he produced the last three farces in the series he did not appear in them. Ben Travers, who had written all but three of the series, made no attempt to write Walls-type roles for another actor to play. Ralph Lynn, who had co-starred with Walls in the earlier farces, became the sole star for Dirty Work, Fifty-Fifty and A Bit of a Test.
By 1933 some regular members of the Aldwych company had left, but there remained Lynn, in his customary "silly ass" roles, Robertson Hare, as a figure of put-upon respectability; Mary Brough as a good-hearted battle-axe; and the saturnine Gordon James.
Presse : The Times thought the running battle in the second act highly effective, but found that the resolution of the plot in the last act was too slow and not comic enough.
Ivor Brown in The Observer also thought the second act the highlight: "essential, victorious Aldwych nonsense. O rare Ben Travers!"
The Manchester Guardian commented, "The Aldwych Gentlemen v. Players can hold their own even on that tricky wicket the financial state of the London theatres in 1933."