Evening star., 1940-04-28
Broadway
Pays to Be
Amused
Comedies Are More
Successful Than
Serious Items
By Glad,Oin A. Hill,
Associated Press Stan Writer.

NEW YORK.
The present shape of the Broad
way Theater indicates once more
that people will pay a lot more to
be amused than they will to be
elevated.
OF % shows running, Is are
comedies or musical comedies, five
are serious.
Screamers like "Dubarry Was q
Lady" and John Barrymore's my
Dear Children" have a big edge
over things like Ernest Hemingway's
Spanish War Fifth Column" and
Molnars "Lilliom."
Two of the current % are melo-
dramas, which stand somewhere in
between. One is Tobacco Road"
less a play than an institution being
now in its seventh year.
Twelve scheduled openings will
boost the serious division consider
ably, but will still leave a light
weight preponderance of 2-to-1.
The popularity of less brainy
drama may not be exactly news, but
1t can stand citation, because many
neophyte dramatists still try to
storm Broadway with sombre opuse
on the ways of life and the world.
Another Busy Week.
An exceptionally busy theater
season has one of its busiest weeks
coming up. Four openings are on
the docket-Alfred Lunt and Lynn
Fontanne in Robert Sherwood's s
There Shall Be No Night; Out
From Under" comedy with Ruth
Weston; an English melodrama,
Grey Farm; and William Sar-
oyans comedy Loves Old Sweet
Song" with Walter Huston.
That last is Saroyans third play
IN a year. His first, THE Time of
Your Life" showing the strange as
sortment of people you can find
in one saloon-witA complexes-
just finished a long run here. His
second, MY Hearts In the High
lands" has been in Philadelphia.
Saroyan, one of the most prolific
contemporary writers, is only 80.
He was born of Armenian parents
IN Fresno, Calf.
Mr.. Pemberton Rests.
A lot of people have wondered
what became of the English D'Oyly
Carte Gilbert and Sullivan Opera
Co.. which has played often in the
United States, when the war started.
Well, the British censors have
passed a communication disclosing
that the D'Oyly Carriers are pMying
the English "road"-Liverpool last
week. Coventry this week, Birming-
ham next week, etc. Producer
Brock Pemberton, one of Broad
ways buster figures, who usually
manages to put on three or four
shows a year, has just got back
from his first vacation in 20 years.
No State Of Coma.
The chronic Broadway squawk
dating back to the advent of the
movies and particularly the talkies) :,
that 1.-The road is dead" meaning
the theater outside New York, isn't
getting much support from the
facts these days.
Last week Chicago had no less
than five recent Broadway successes
on exhibition. San Francisco had
two. Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and
st. Louis had one each.
Boston. Washington and Balti-
more had previews of, respectively,
the new George Cohan. Alfred Lunt-
Lynn Fontanne, and Walter Huston
plays. Edward Everett Horton was
doing one-night stands in Spring
time for Henry" in places like
Rockford, ILL.,, and there was a "To-
bacco Road" company one-nighting
Ohio and West Virginia. Not ex-
actly coma.
Swing Melodrama.
The cycle of jazzed-up classics
which brought the Swing Mikado," I"
the Hot Mikado" and the short
lived "Swingin' a midsummer
Nights Dream" now has pene-
trated the realm of the melodrama.
One of the shows at the new
old-fashioned "Opry House" at the
New York Worlds Fair this summer
will be jitterbug version of that
ancient gem, 1.-The Drunkard"-en-
titled, of course, "The Hot Drunk
ard" Ouch