Evening star., 1940-02-04
Producers
Name Now
Is No Draw
Musicals Are Sold
By What Goes On
On the Stage
By Marx Barron,
Associated Press Stan Writer.

Associated Press Stan Writer.
NEW YORK.
With the Broadway crop of musi-
cal shows being suddenly cut down
to only four, healthy aspect of this
unaccustomed dearth of song and
dance entertainment is that the
audiences-the boys who pay cash
money to sit out front and see the
shows-have become educated to buy
what is on the stage and not what
is emblazoned on the dazzling
houseboards on the front of the
theaters.
No longer, they demonstrate, do
they buy tickets because the show
has George White, Earl Carroll, Flo
Ziegfeld or the Shuberts billed as
producers. Now the customers want
to know if Cole Porter or Irving
Berlin composed the songs, does it
have a comedian as funny as Bert
Lahr and is it overf1owing with
dancing girls as pretty as those in
TOO Many Girls"
The "Vanities," "Folies Bergere,' u
both of which had only mild runs on
Broadway, and THE Streets of
Paris" hit since last summer, are
starting on tours.
Left behind to prosper are only a
quartet of musicals, all good. "Du
Barry Was Lady" is drawing be-
cause of Porter's songs and Lahr's
comicahties. "Hellzapoppin,' the
new edition, has Olsen and johnson
and their gang of mad and hilarious
funmakers. The new Pins and
Needles" revue has a gay wit and
enchanting music. Too Many
Girls" has the lifting songs OF
Rodgers and Hart and more beau
tiful yum-yum girls than all "The
Mikado' productions of all times
have produced. None of the shows
feature the producers as they did ir
that pre-depression era.
Despite the present paucity ol
musicals, the first warm days ol
spring promise a shower of new
shows sprouting songs and come
dians and stunts and girls.
AL Jolson is coming back from
his movies and domestic trouble.
to sing a band leaders woes ano
laughs in "On the Line" Irvine
Berlins new song will be in that
new B. G. De Sylvia Musical, "Louisi-
ana Purchase De Sylvia will write
the book as we'll as produce the
show just as he did for his current
hit, "Du Barry Was Lady"
In the next fortnight will arrive
a pair of sequels to past Broadway
musicals which won some acclaim
One is Two for the Show" which
carries on the idea Of the revue
"One for the Money" theme which
was gay and light-hearted defense
of the right OF people who have
money to have some fun with it
The other is Reunion in New York,
a second edition of that musical
revue, From Vienna" which in
cludes IN its cast the many stars
o. disappearing European nations
who we're forced to flee into exile
Such is the merry-go-round, the
melting pot presented by today's
Broadway musicals ana the result
seems to be better shows A come.
dian, pretty girl no longer can de-
pend on the ziegfeld name alone
to swing them to triumph Now
they have to have an Irving Berlir
song and they have to be able tC
sing it effectively.
A sophisticated. moneyed revue
like "One for the Money" or revue
for the refugees like From Vienna
receive assured applause only from
their invited first night audiences
Their fate is really told by the paid
audiences who come in after the
first night, and so successful at the
box Office were these two revues
with almost opposite principles that
now both are presenting second
chapters.