Show I f DARK HORSES RULE THEATRE THIS TI SE SEASON SON a yi y i r a. a S t I i rj x Mir JEANNE EAGELS Ballyhooed Plays a Jinx to Veteran Producers By JAMES POWERS NEW YORK May 8 The NEA-The The day has been passed when ballyhooed ballyhooed ballyhooed bally- bally stars tars could string their names up in flashing bulbs announce a premiere and be reasonably certain of ot hearing the turnstiles click Old standbys heretofore surefire surefire surefire sure sure- fire cro idols and producers are crumpling in Jn heaps every week as unknown stars in unknown vehicles arc are flashing to the front t Broadway with its likable little hoofer Lee Trac Tracy and Its suave young producer Jed Harris bounced out of nowhere into the White WhiteWay's WhiteWay's Ways Way's biggest hit with no fanfare of trumpets Chicago that satire on the American system of ot written justice Justice written by a a. clever girl reporter who signed hen her daily sob column olumn Maurine Watkins Watkins Wat- Wat kins came slowly down the aisle to tobe tobe tobe be acclaimed with a clatter of ot othan han hank clapping that nightly g grows noisier The Barker by Kenyon Nicholson Nicholson Nicholson Nich Nich- olson starring Walter Huston as Nifty Nitty Miller opened without the slightest provocation one evening and has been Jamming them In ever since And whiles all these upstarts are cornering the spotlight not to mention mention men men- tion the shekels what Is the old guard doing Eugene ONeill O'Neill saw his Beyond the Horizon revived for a short time only to droop A Chicago test frightened producers ers away from his Lazarus Laughed Pauline Lord fizzled out In Sandalwood San dalwood J. J P. P McAvoy papa of The Potters wrote G God d Loves Us and then changed his faith to skepticism as it staggered into the wings George Kelly wearing such prize feathers as The ShowOff Show- Show Off and Craigs Wife In his bonnet bonnet bonnet bon bon- net hopefully started Daisy I Mayme on Its way only to see Gee It flop Jim Tim Tully's Black mack Boy took tooka a nose dive clive Alice Brady wat watched three pays prays sink under her trim feet Even the importations from Paris from Paris and Moscow that heretofore caused a wide ripple made but feeble im im- im- im Cecile Sor Sorel l with her company compan and Sascha Gultry Guitry teamed with Yvonne Printemps were disappointed disappointed dis dis- appointed and the HalIma Players from Moscow also atso went The Russian Ballet and Art and Art Theatre us usually usually usually us- us good for a n fair tall run suffered from the same blighting frost trost along with the Revue girls that Earl Farl Carrol tried tried to inject into his Vanities Tte Russian blood transfusion transfusion transfusion trans trans- fusion failed failed Frank C Craven aven now Is playing In Money Iney Ir From om Home but thus far has not s set st t th the place on fire tIre and Louis Ma Mann Maim n came back with That French Lady seemingly due also for tor an early exit The days days' when David Belasco could announce a premiere with said prem premiere ere going over with assUred assured assured as as- click are no more The leading shows on on Dro Broadway now as attested by consecutive performance e records are Broadway Broadway Broad way vay Chicago o Ables Irish Rose Ros The Barker Darker anti and The Noose Openings this week were headed by Jeanne Eagels In The Cardboard Lover It relieves the fear that she might cling forever to her old hit Rain It Is a it flimsy much quarreled about comedy with ups and downs of ot distracted and nd pert Parisian situations It is written by pY J Jacques Deval and once offered to Laurette Taylor who snubbed it after atter a tryout Leslie Howard coward who plays the poor young chap who contracts contracts contracts con con- tracts to t become th the lover of a rich richand richand richand and lovely divorcee takes a great deal of the hurrahs away vay fr from m the star Ills His specific duty is to keep the lady from her former husband the former husband from the lady radY It becomes a strenuous and tricky business involving pajama parties of ot the first and and se second ond parts subterfuge sub sub- subterfuge and fake suicides broken hearts an and shattered brac a brae a-brae until the lady knows her het- mind and the right man Taken by and large Her Cardboard Cardboard Cardboard Card Card- board Lover Is no great original e I Ito or perfect piece but probably due to dance lance for tor some green weeks on precisely the same spot where they Lucky is a stupendous as as usual I buried burled The Captive production featuring t Walter Catlett Richard Gallagher and Mary Eaton she is Lucky the Ceylonese pearl diver Paul Whiteman's White White- mans man's band the Keller sisters the Albert Albertina na Rasch girls Princess White Dear Ruby Keller are in the large and sparkling cast Lucky Is the only legitimate successor and heir apparent to Sunny The Spider is the best of the trick plays offered this season sea sea- son It has as much mystery as any of them and more moren novelty elty |