"Banjo Eyes" is the musical comedy version of that slap-happy farce of several seasons ago, "Three Men on a Horse," Eddie Cantor, whom most of us have never seen on the stage, hoofs his way through the part of Erwin Trowbridge, a greeting-card rhyme writer who dreams hot tips about horse races. He falls into the hands of a gambler, Lionel Stander, who Jocks him in a hotel apartment and makes him dream up tips. Then there is Erwin's wife, Stander's moll, a lot of snappy lines, one or two good songs, and Banjo Eyes, the dreamland nag who whinnies out the tips.

The play, however, lacks the brilliance that audiences have become accustomed to in such musicals as "DuBarry," "Lady in the Dark," and "Sons o' Fun." The settings by Harry Horner, especially in the dream scenes, are far below his best work in "Lady in the Dark," while Irene Sharaff's costumes border on the garish. The story itself is unable to hold the show together and the net result is a mixture of good little bits scattered through an evening of mediocre entertainment. Particularly fine is the end of the show when Eddie Cantor steps out in blackface to render such old favorites as "Ida" and "Margic," in the best of vaudeville style. But the performance smacks too much of that vanished type of theatre to be thoroughly pleasing today.