New Musical in Manhattan

Me and Juliet (music by Richard Rodgers; book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II) pays tribute--onstage, offstage and backstage--to show business. But for all its opulent and glossy devotion, it pretty much lets show business down. It has its decided good points. But as an insight into show business, it is merely glib, goes constantly behind the scenes and never below the surface. As an actual specimen of show business, it mistakes a lot of whirling motion for excitement, and trick technique for originality.

Me and Juliet concerns a show within a show in which backstage romances merge into full-stage routines. There is a workmanlike Rodgers score, with one schmalzy tune, No Other Love, and such lively show music as It's Me and Keep It Gay. There is an agreeable cast, gaily paced by George Abbott, gaily dressed by Irene Sharaff. There are some good Bob Alton dances, and Joan McCracken not only steps up the dancing but notably brightens the show. And Jo Mielziners "problem" sets are fascinatingly expert.

If the evening largely lacks lure, it is perhaps because Rodgers & Hammerstein have gone at show business with no pungency or point of view--as fainthearted satirists, routine sentimentalists. Where they might illuminate, they merely echo; and their show cannot be excused its multitude of cliches because a few are kidded. Me and Juliet is neither magical about its subject, nor the McCoy.

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