New Revue in Manhattan

New Faces of 1952 is a crisp, cheerfully intimate revue that should somehow be funnier. The most professional of Leonard Silurian's various New Faces, it looks trim and moves fast. It is full of sophisticated ideas to be sung or spoken; it exhibits a bunch of likable new faces, a few of which should catch the spotlight more & more. But the product is not quite up to the packaging. For all its expensive gloss, its Raoul Pene du Bois sets and John Murray Anderson staging, it never really bankrolls 'em in the aisles.

In some cases--as with the Oliviers' not knowing whether they're playing Shaw's Cleopatra or Shakespeare's--a bright idea collapses right at the start. In others, the comedy doesn't know how to build or where to stop. Take-offs on Truman Capote and Gian-Carlo Menotti (written by Comic Ronny Graham), though clever, have not enough magic in their madness. Even Boston Beguine, well sung by the show's topranker, Alice Ghostley, should mingle Harvard and Haiti more hilariously. The show is funniest where the spoofing is broadest: Paul Lynde as a battered African explorer turned lecturer; and "After Canasta--What?" daffily prophesying a card game requiring adding machines and traffic lights.

There are some nice, hummable songs, and there is attractive singing, notably by lithe Eartha Kitt. The dancing is refreshingly clean and cool; even the ballet numbers maintain a certain air of the ballroom. By ordinary revue standards, New Faces gets by very well; what it falls short of are its own.

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