Retrospect

With the closing of six successful Broadway productions last week and the approach of warmer weather which will later hatch out the summer's setting of girl-shows and revues. Manhattan critics began to take stock of the past season. Subtracting the six that quit last week (Journey's End, Berkeley Square, International Revue, A Month in the Country, The Plutocrat, Subway Express), 32 shows remained on Broadway, seven less than were running at the same time last year. In retrospect, some unique features of the past season could be noted:

P: Hoariest survivor is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Street Scene which has over 600 performances to its credit (Abie's Irish Rose had 2,532).

P: This year's Pulitzer Prizewinner. The Green Pastures, enthusiastically hailed by critics as the most unusual play of the decade, was backed by able Stockbroker Rowland Stebbins under the name of Laurence Rivers.

P: Humorist Donald Ogden Stewart wrote and acted in his first play, Rebound, which ran 14 weeks and closed because he fell ill. Humorist Ring Lardner collaborated on his first Broadway success, June Moon.

P: The august Theatre Guild sponsored two artistic and financial failures--Karl and Anna, The Game of Love and Death --but belatedly retrieved its prestige with Meteor and Hotel Universe.

P: A play (Courtesan) with but one actress (Elsa Shelley) was presented and ran less than a week.

P: Cinemactress Lillian Gish made her debut as a leading lady in Uncle Vanya.

P: Chinese Actor Mei Lan-fang made his U. S. debut.

P: For the first time, the famed Adler family of Yiddish actors appeared on the same stage

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