New Plays in Manhattan, Apr. 10, 1944

Mrs. January and Mr. Ex (by Zoe Akins; produced by Richard Myers) forfeits the advantage of an amusing situation by forgetting that a situation is not a play. An immensely rich, three-times-married addlepate with Communist leanings (Billie Burke) decides to get in trim for the Revolution by practicing poverty in advance. She rents a $40-a-month house in a New England town, discovers that her widowed landlord (Frank Craven) is a former rock-ribbed Republican President.

Off to a promising start, Playwright Akins soon badly bogs down. In terms of plot, she has little more to offer than that Karl Marx is no match for Dan Cupid. In terms of comedy, she can only let her flighty, bird-brained heroine chatter on for three long acts. Now & then the chatter is funny—”Everybody needs money these days, even the poor”; perhaps an act of it is fun. After that, it is pretty much an assault upon the eardrums.