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For the worn undergraduate, in town for a rest-cure, after mid-years, Broadway offers the best of receptions. The following 14 notices give a brief resume of the most outstanding performances the town can boast. What will you be able to say of your vacation? This is one exam for which the widow's doesn't tutor.
ABIF'S IRISH ROSE
Republic, West 42nd St.--If this is not exactly a good play it has attained the position of being one of New York's things-to-be-seen, and after the show you can go across the street to Huber's museum and see another equally interesting sight: the flea circus. Both are uproarious.
EVA LE GALLIENE
Civic Repertory Theatre, cor. 6th Ave. and 14th St., Eva le Galliene, a good actress but a fine director, sees to it that her repertory, which runs the gaunt of the drama, including farce and tragedy, Ibsen, Shakespeare, and moderns, is given a well rounded performance on an adequately set stage.
HABIMA PLAYERS
Cosmopolitan, Columbus Circle.--This is one chance in a life time to see highly stylized acting, in which lines are subordinated to voice and gesture, the tools with which the actors mould their characters. It is the stage equivalent of gothic statuary--gargoyles and everything--and is supreme of its kind.
TWELFTH NIGHT
Laboratory Theatre. East 58th St.--The acting company of the group gives its best performance in this gay comedy of Shakespeare, but the performances of "The Sea Woman's Cloak" and "The Scarlet Letter" are also worthy of high praise. The acting, as a whole, is the nearest thing to Moscow Art--which means theatre art--that we have in this country. (With the possible exception of the Neighborhood Playhouse.)
BROADWAY
Broadhurst, West 44th St.--Back stage at a night club, with bootleggers, butter-and-egg men, murders, detectives, lovers, etc. Lee Tracy as the self-made "hoofer" almost makes you believe there is such a person. Eloise Stream, in a minor part, convinces you of her reality. You can't help being conscious of the fact that Sylvia Field, playing opposite Tracy, is acting.
THE PLAY'S THE THING
Heny Miller, West 43d St.--Here is a good place to spend an enjoyable evening. But, don't let the title fool you. Holbrook Blinn's the thing.
THE CAPTIVE
Empire, B'way at 40th St.--If it is not the best, it is the most quintessentially dramatic play on Broadway; and not much was lost in the translation. Helen Menken, as the woman in question--a pathological question--is good if a little bizarre.
BEYOND THE HORIZON
Bijou, West 45th St.,--Aline MacMahon gives an impelling performance in this Eugene O'Neil play of a farmhouse, which does not hurt quite as much as "Desire under the Elms" but is quite as forceful.
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
The Guild, West 52nd St.,--As Jacques Copeau, one of the greatest directors of which the present day theatre can boast, has directed this, his own version, of the Dostoevsky play, it can't help being good. Clare Eames and Alfred Lunt see to it that Copeau is not slighted on the acting end.
OH KAY
West 45th St.--A musical comedy tart is both musical and comic. Gershwin Brothers saw to it that Gertrude Lawrence, Oscar Shaw, and Victor Moore had the material, and these three, aided by the dancing of Harland Dixon and Betty Compton, made good use of it. When they play "Do Do Do" and "Clap Yo" Hands," the audience does.
OH PLEASE, FULTON
West 46th St. What with this and what with that, Beatrice Lillie, especially when she is augmented by Charlie Winninger, keeps the audience in uproars. As soon as she leaves the stage, however, you'll tear your hair, (if you're bald you'll scratch where the hair was) and wonder why you ever came. When she comes back, you'll wonder why you ever wondered, and how!
PEGGY ANN. VANDERBILT.
West 46th St. If "Oh Kay" wasn't in town this would be be best musical comedy there. But even "Oh Kay" hasn't got Betty Starbuck. She's a riot on roller skates. And you should see that chorus dance. It's the nearest thing to perfect in New York. Hart, Rogers, and Fields wrote the show; and that would be enough recommendation even if Helen Ford and Lulu McConnell weren't in it.
PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Plymouth, West 45th St. Gilbert and Sullivan, who show no aversion to good lyrics and music, which many modern musical comedy writers do, wrote this and "Iolanthe" (which gives Thursday evening performances). It is a good performance of a superb play.
SACHA GUITRY AND YVONNE PRINTEMPS.
Chanin's, West 46th St. Whether they are "Mozart" or "L'Illusioniste" or one of their revues they will be just as good, and the play just as bad. They're a joy to watch.
Of the plays in prospect, the all-star revival of "Trelawney of the Wells," Martin Brown's "The Dark" (tried out in Boston last year), and the Neighborhood Playhouse's production of "Pinwheel" seems to be most promising, with the last being the most likely to be fine.
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