New Musical Play in Manhattan

Sadie Thompson (adapted from John Colton's and Clemence Randolph's Rain by Howard Dietz and Rouben Mamoulian; music & lyrics by Vernon Duke and Mr. Dietz; produced by A. P. Waxman) is more frost than Rain. Behind the famous play of the missionary who brought a scarlet woman to God only to be himself ensnared by the Devil there was a steady theatrical drive. In Sadie Thompson that drive is halted by every song, every dance, every stage procession.

Sadie Thompson might have recouped many of its dramatic losses with a winning run of songs & dances. But Composer Duke's tunes are undistinguished and the dancing, although better, is uneven: a montage of scenes from Sadie's life has real choreographic color, and last season's Merry Widow team of Milada Mladova and Chris Volkoff have style and skill; but there is too much regulation South Seas wriggling and a generally poor ballet.

The show's biggest asset is June Havoc's Sadie. In a role that has been played, on stage & screen, by Jeanne Eagels, Tallulah Bankhead, Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford and others, the frisky comedienne (late of Mexican Hayride) does not always measure up. But she lifts the part above its surroundings, is always engaging as June Havoc.

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