Old Musical in Manhattan

Of Thee I Sing (book by George S. Kaufman & Morrie Ryskind; music & lyrics by George & Ira Gershwin) cannot be said, after 20 years, to have triumphed over time. At the very most, it has sufficiently fought it to a draw to seem now, though nowhere distinguished, still moderately diverting. What once passed for keen political satire comes off as clownish spoofing; a libretto that once seemed in an entirely different league from the run of Broadway books, now barely qualifies, in a very poor season, for Broadway's first division.

Nowadays the joking in any good intimate revue would have more mustard in its madness, far more ability to make its target squirm or cry out. Of Thee I Sing's idea of political skulduggery is selling Rhode Island; its idea of political scandal is having a White House aspirant jilt a Southern belle; its running gag is the utter obscurity of the aspirant's running mate. What Of Thee I Sing really kids--with Wintergreen elected on a platform of Love and saved from expulsion by prospective fatherhood--is much less the seamy side of American politics than the sentimental side of the American people. On one occasion--the newsreel of election returns--the show is tremendously funny, but on several occasions it falls decidedly flat. Such Gershwin tunes as Wintergreen for President and Of Thee I Sing are properly famous; a number of others are lively in a deliberate bandstand style; but the music is not really in Gershwin's most personal or persuasive idiom.

There is a so-so cast, with Jack Carson as an energetic Wintergreen and Betty Oakes as his very pretty bride. As Throttlebottom, Paul Hartman can only, after Victor Moore, seem considerably less. It is his misfortune to challenge one of Broadway's most sacred memories--though certainly no one remembers a Throttlebottom who was half so good a dancer.

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