New Musical in Manhattan

Hazel Flagg (book by Ben Hecht; music & lyrics by Jule Styne and Bob Hillard) is generally cheerful, insistently lavish and notably loud. Based on Nothing Sacred, a satiric Ben Hecht movie of the '30s the story tells of a vast fraud: a young Vermont girl pretends to be dying of radium poisoning and yearns for lights and laughter at the end. Hazel Flagg stands forth a creature of breathtaking gallantry, reduces the city to wild and wet-eyed idolatry, inspires everything from prayers to parades.

As satire, Hecht's libretto is commonplace and even oafish; certainly Hazel Flagg uses a maximum of heavy artillery to inflict a minimum of wounds. Once again musicomedy, in the act of satirizing something else, has ended by satirizing itself--by pointing up its own excesses of color, blare, manpower and above all, length. Jule Styne's pounding music suggests a New York that never sleeps, and unconsciously gives the reason why Robert Alton's dances get to be relentlessly, unremittingly lively. If only there were less of everything in Hazel Flagg, it might add up to a great deal more.

But even as primitive satire, the story is more tolerable than the usual musicomedy romance. There are some amusing burlesque ditties--Who Is the Bravest? and Every Street's a Boulevard in Old New York. There are glittering Miles White costumes and gay Harry Horner sets. As Hazel, Helen Gallagher is an attractive, versatile and spirited malade imaginaire. And, with New York for a locale and a tour of it as part of the plot, Hazel Flagg at times achieves the welcome variety and topicality of a revue.

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