New Musical in Manhattan

Billion Dollar Baby (books & lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green; music by Morton Gould; produced by Paul Feigay & Oliver Smith) takes a cockeyed look, through purple-colored glasses, at the fantastic '20s. In a swirl of burlesque it lurches through speakeasies, totters through dance marathons, plugs racketeers, pummels gold diggers, plays hob with billionaires. Almost all of it is bold and un-Broadwayish, and bits and pieces of it are delightful. But as a whole, it doesn't quite come off.

For one thing, though Billion Dollar Baby has the broadness of burlesque, it has the brightness only fitfully. Its verbal humor is too scant and too feeble. The luridness, at times, seems used for corn rather than comedy. The heroine--a predaceous, flinthearted little heel, a kind of sister to John O'Hara's Pal Joey--is too harshly drawn for this kind of jamboree, too poorly drawn to rise above it. Before the evening is over, the constant thump and slambang of Billion Dollar Baby becomes a little fatiguing.

Yet the show offers a good many consolation prizes. Joan McCracken (Oklahoma!, Bloomer Girl) is engaging as the hard little heel, besides dancing her nimble feet off. Mitzi Green (Babes in Arms) plays the part and catches the color of a Texas Guinan. There is a wonderful takeoff of a big Ziegfeldish production number in which showgirls appear as bright-plumaged birds. There is a funny ballad in which a gangster reminisces about his rubbed-out pals. Most of Jerome Robbins' dances are lively and amusing; some of Morton Gould's tunes are witty, if not very tuneful.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.