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C Jones

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By Wes Knight

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Judith Anderson's forthcoming portrayal of the male lead in Hamlet may be viewed as a sharp blade slicing through the warp and woof of conventional drama by some peo ple, although the history of the thea tre is rich with examples of a member of one sex portraying a characterization of the opposite.

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If it is a blade, however, it has a double edge because T. C. Jones, outstanding female impersonator,

has been chosen to play a female lead in Leonard Sellman's 4th version of "New Faces."

Jones, married for three years, is of Welsh descent and calls Scranton, Pa., his permanent home. For several months he captivated night club audiences on the West Coast, having closed an extented engagement at Ann's 440 Club, San Francisco, .only recently.

"Rehearsals for 'New Faces of 1956' begin February 2," Jones says. "The production is scheduled to open in the Mark Hellinger Theatre on April 16. All material in it is brand new-it includes nothing. from the previous three successful versions of 'New Faces.'"

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Jones has been accorded a lot of praise by the audiences he has en.tertained. Fortunately endowed with a remarkable talent for impressions of famous personalities such as Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Ruth Etting, Katherine Hepburn,. etc., the young artist uses his talents to twist his audiences from a spell of bawdy laughter one moment to a gripped silence the next as he sings, "Ten Cents a Dance," with a voice that is genuinely good, and eyes welled full of genuine tears.

Just as audiences will be fortunate in seeing Impersonator Jones weave his magic self-projection next year, the rest of us in America are fortunate that he was chosen as a trailblazer, so to speak, in further breaking down barriers of prejudice which exist for no good reason except that some of us hold the notion that is is qut of order for a man to play a woman's role on the stage except in situations of absolute burlesque. West Coast critics, columnists and night club audiences, however, hold a different viewpoint about it: Theirs has been the privilege of seeing T. C. Jones, a leading artist on anyone's stage.

mattachine REVIEW

T. C. JONES, famed female imperson.. ator chosen by Leonard Sellman for a female lead in his next version of "New Faces," started learning his craft and training his voice at an early age. Still a young man. Jones has been entertaining audiences since 1938 with sparkling original

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material and piercingly accurate imitations of leading actresses. In fact, one fellow who saw the film, "The Virgin Queen," recently was overheard to remark as he strolled out of the foyer, "Yes, Bette Davis IS good, but she's getting more like T. C Jones every day.”

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