New Play

China Rose. For no assignable reason there was a lull last week in the Theatre. China Rose was the only opening. China Rose made the lull complete.

Old and wizened attendants of the playhouses looked at each other and pinched their wrinkled ears. Had Fate suddenly peeled a quarter-century away and made them young again? Surely this was not a modern musical adventure, despite its stock of radio and crossword puzzle jests. It was, rather, a curio dug up from the old downtown days. It had a soldier named Bang Bang, an ingenue named Fli Wun, a prince named Cha Ming, bandits named Hi and Lo. It had a plot about a Chinese Princess who fell in love with a voice; the voice kidnaped her and turned out to be a prince. It had a very large chorus that shuffled about with very short steps. It had a scene in a bamboo forest.

It has one good song called China Rose, one gag where the comedian, desirous of cultivating a young lady he had just encountered, suggested they meet next noon in the revolving doors and start going round together.

Alexander Woollcott-"A pale carbon copy of all the musical comedies produced in this town between 1894 and 1910.''