Pick-a-dilly

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

One of the typical and dramatic [...] defined nowadays as Revues. It's framework is supplied in the rehearsal of a piece of its own order, opening in the chorus girls dressing room and dealing with the weaknesses and jealousies of the fair performers. Next comes a sketch of the difficulties of the unhappy author perpetually interrupted in his work and irritated by the allusions of his typist to the superior methods of her former employer Sir J. M. Barrie. Thence, for no particular reason the dramatis personae migrate to the zoo, where there is a skit on the patronising attitude of chauffeurs and cooks towards the aristocratic employers anxious to conciliate them. In the second Act there follows in a Teashop some rather more original humour in sketches of illicit flirtations by husbands and wives and also of the futile efforts of a feeble Inspector and a formidable female member of the Purity League to convict the tea shop girls of improper behaviour, such as they themselves simulate for the good of the Cause with results. There is also some amusing melodramatic farce in the interlude called "Nothing ever happens to Jones". The fun is good and as elsewhere is harmless, but the manager should be cautioned as to the riskiness of his opening scene where in their dressing room the chorus girls are "in deshabille" and where some of the stars seem to get into difficulties through lack of necessary articles of costume. Recommended for License Ernest B. Bendall