New Musical in Manhattan

Courtin' Time (book by William Roos, based on Eden Phillpotts' The Farmer's Wife; lyrics & music by Jack Lawrence and Don Walker) is par--or at any rate, pardonable--for June. It is one of those cheerfully mediocre musicals whose chief virtue is that it has no crushing vice.

It tells a turn-of-the-century yarn about a cocksure, middle-aged Maine farmer who goes around unsuccessfully hunting a second wife. All the time his capable, attractive housekeeper (Billie Worth) silently yearns for him, though--except for the fact that he is Joe E. Brown --there's no telling why. The tale has little substance and less suspense, and has to pad out its skimpy plot with a lot of courting among the younger set.

Under Alfred Drake's direction, the show has fizz at times, though it always lacks kick. Never very nostalgic, it seems to have come out of the past rather than gone back to it; never very regional, it displays much less the tang of Maine than the trend of Oklahoma! The lack of real lure is basic: the book is too cute and commonplace; the tunes seem reminiscent even when they are sprightly; the lyrics have an arid cleverness. And though George Balanchine is a superb "serious" choreographer, his dances here suggest a few bright ideas plus a farewell wave of the hand. Joe E. Brown is droll and likable; and with a stylish, skittish-spinsterish ditty called Golden Moment, Carmen Mathews stops the show.

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