The Theatre: Comebacks

In traditional style, Broadway, after a haggard week-before-Christmas, had a full-to-bursting holiday week. One matinee day accumulated, around Manhattan, 681 standees, biggest matinee box office since 1929. The period was crammed with openings, three of them in the nature of comebacks :

Blossom Time, a perennial, was back on Broadway for the first time since 1931. The old-fashioned operetta, full of hideous buffoonery, has a score—based on some of Franz Schubert's loveliest melodies—as appealing as ever.

Vaudeville was back on Broadway for the first time since 1932. The new offering, Vaudeville Marches On, retains the old spirit and most of the old gags. Best number: The Wiere Brothers, three European cutups who literally draw laughter out of a hat.

Elsie Janis was back on Broadway for the first time since 1928. After years in retirement, Elsie has not slowed up. With no voice to speak of, she still puts a song across. She can, for the hell of it, still turn a cartwheel or twirl a rope. She screws up her face and becomes Sarah Bernhardt, juggles her voice and becomes Ethel Barrymore. Or she just wanders around the stage dropping patter soft as daisies until bang! something sharp pops.