New Play in Manhattan

Horse Fever (by Eugene Conrad, Zac & Ruby Gabel; produced by Alex Yokel). A poor attempt by Producer Yokel to repeat the success of Three Men on a Horse, this preposterous comedy is like one of the more demented comic strips come to life. It is the story of a family that inherits a race horse which won't start with the rest of the field. Unfortunately the family has an inventive cousin who has already cluttered up the house with a shoe-shining device that pops out of the wall, a musical chair that plays when rocked, a rattrap shaped like an egg beater (supposed to fool the rats, it fools instead the colored maid). He has also put the family into the business of making hamburgers saturated with vodka, landing the Old Man in jail. Wanting to redeem himself, the cousin attempts to psychoanalyze the race horse. His theory is that, having won her first race, she felt cheated when she found herself right back where she started from.

There are almost as many loony properties on the stage as in Hellzapoppin. Least loony is the horse. Trilby, which appears in person. Ezra Stone makes the scientifical cousin almost as objectionable as his family thinks he is. Lou Lubin is hilarious as a tough little race-track tout. At times the play promises to develop a surrealist edge and wit. It never keeps its promise.

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