Old Operetta in Manhattan

The Chocolate Soldier (music by Oscar Straus; book by Rudolph Bernauer & Leopold Jacobson, "Americanized" by Stanislaus Stange and revised by Guy Bolton; produced by J. H. Del Bondio & Hans Bartsch) has tunes that can still send you out of the theater whistling. After almost 40 years, they have an Old World dash and melodiousness; even My Hero is not too much the worse for a thousand ship's bands and restaurant fiddlers.

But last week's revival did not inspire much of a whistling mood. Operettas have librettos, of course; and librettos are born old. And The Chocolate Soldier's, despite its descent -- and mighty steep it is -- from Shaw's Arms and the Man, is far from a blessing. But it need not be such a bore. Staged with style, spoofed with an air, its nose-tweaking of warriors and ear-pulling of the girls they left behind them could be pretty good fun. Instead, the current production has all the horsing, hamming and dismal vivacity of what is known as a routine revival.

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