The Theatre: Last Stop

After a twelve-week warmup, the bare-stage version of Stephen Vincent Benét’s John Brown’s Body (TIME, Dec. 22) began its Broadway run last week. The show starring Judith Anderson, Tyrone Power and Raymond Massey, had already covered 14,000 miles, given 80 performances m 60 cities. Most of Manhattan’s critics gave John Brown & Co. columns of raves. The dissenter: John Chapman, of the tabloid Daily News, recommended the show to those who “are looking for a nap. . . It was only duty which kept me from dozingthrough a large part of the artistically elaborate and physically unintersting proceedings . . .”