"Laffing Room Only"

"Laffing Room Only" swings merrily into its last week at the Shubert leaving its audiences alternately hot and cold. Some of it is terrific and some is decidedly mediocre. It is "Sons of Fun" and "Helzapoppin" rolled into one and multiplied by two.

Whether you laugh at any of it depends on what kind of comedy you like. Olsen and Johnson present the corniest and slapstickiest line of gage since the pie-throwing twenties.

If you like these two, their presence will have you in stitches. They pile in gags thick and fast and never let you stop laughing until their act goes off. In the same field as Olsen and Johnson is another bellylaugh - provoking trio, Willy, West, and McGinty, who do two explosive acts.

In typical O. & J. fashion most of the theatre is used as a stage, and all of the audience is used as part of the show.

It seems somewhat moongruous, however, that several needless ballet and glee club numbers are mixed in with the hilarious clowning. Among the least enjoyable of those are several pointless pieces by Fred Waring's glee club and numerous ineffective ballerinas.

The whole show is excellently presented and, with the exception of the drab ballot and glee club numbers, is well worth seeing.