New Musical in Manhattan

Sunny River (book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; music by Sigmund Romberg; produced by Max Gordon) attempts to revive big-scale, full-throated operetta without knowing how. It seizes on the cobwebs of the oldtime musical instead of the charm. Its lush, long-winded plot, its stilted dialogue, its leering humor have everybody's nostalgia in full retreat before the evening is half over. A tale of New Orleans around 1810, Sunny River tells of the rivalry between a cafe singer (Muriel Angelus) and a society belle (Helen Claire) for a dashing young Creole lawyer (Bob Laurence), runs the gamut of shoddy ruses, noble renunciations, comic duels, gloomy drunks, motherly madams, then smugly pats itself on the back for its unhappy ending.

The music, sometimes warm and romantic, is oftener florid and stale.

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