As far as Wit, brilliance, and entertainment values are concerned, the book of "Katja", now at the Shubert, might as well have been written by Brooks Brothers, which it was not, as by the usually adept Frederick Lonsdale, which it was. This is no musical comedy equal of "Spring Cleaning." "The Last of Mrs. Cheney,"--or even of "On Approval." Nor is it, taken by and large--which is-the only way to take these Viennese concoctions--a particularly good-show. It has its moments but they are pitifully short and unbelievably sparse.

There is, it is true, a very inane but very amusing ditty called "Leander" and this, aided by the antics of the juvenile loads, manages to inject a great deal of life into the second act. But not even "Leander" can quite compensate for some turgid emotionalizing on the part of the plump and mature prima donna who by dint of some rapid fire acrobatics falls swooning into the hero's arms just as the curtain is lowered on polite but not too frenzied applause. And the hero--well, the hero is handicapped by the royal trousers, which were built for style, not speed.

Of course "Katja" has great odds to face. It is advertised as being a visual and auricular knock out in New York, London, Paris, Berlin and points both east and west. Its producers announce it to Boston as the continental equivalent of what is known in contemporary parlance as a wow. And now "Katja" turns out to be something much less than a wow. One can mention two possible causes for this decline and fall of what is evidently a good operetta in other places; one is the cast which, with the exception of an energetic young lad with a flare for burlesque; a large sized edition of Lenore Ulric, who flings herself about with enjoyable abandon; and a blonde variety of Ann Pennington, who possesses all the well known Pennington attributes including the dimpled knees, is distinotly mediocre. The other reason lies in the fact that a play billed as "gorgeously mounted" ought, in all propriety, to be mounted if not gorgeously at least attractively and, making a reservation in case of the second act, the general settings and ensemble of "Katja" savor very much of a road production.