No News Is Bad News

September is the month when kids go back to school and, to judge by Broadway, playwrights ought to. Rushing the season, all sorts of wildly sanguine early birds fly by night only to crash by morning. This year September was particularly shuddersome, and its last two shows passed into history even before the calendar did. Out West of Eighth was a strapping bore about cowboys in Manhattan; Twilight Walk, concerned with a sex murderer, was a sad mismating of the tabloids and Freud. As of Oct. 1, there were no newcomers among Broadway's Best Bets:

Two on the Aisle. Topical revue with Bert Lahr and Dolores Gray, which can, thank its stars for its brightness (TIME, July 30)

The King and I. Charming Rodgers & Hammerstein period musical, with Gertrude Lawrence; how the King of Siam learned to govern from a governess (TIME, April 9).

The Moon Is Blue. Barbara Bel Geddes brightening a gay formula comedy of Boy-Meets-Girl, Girl-Meets-Wolf, Wolf-Meets-Waterloo (TIME, March 19).

Guys and Dolls. Delightful lowdown musical about Broadway's floating crap games and the Damon Runyon babes who need new shoes (TIME, Dec. 4).

Call Me Madam. Big Broadway musical with Ethel Merman as a lady ambassador but, fortunately, as no lady (TIME, Oct. 23).

South Pacific. The musical that still leads all the rest; another Rodgers & Hammerstein smash success (TIME, April 18, 1949).

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