President Flintstone

Almost two months before reaching Broadway. Mr. President seemed to have all the makings of a smash hit. The musical was written, after all, by Irving Berlin, Howard Lindsay and Russel Grouse. It is directed by Joshua Logan and produced by Leland Hayward. In tribute to the pulling power of those names, Mr. President has already sold nearly $2,000,000 worth of tickets and will probably run up an advance of $2,500,000, pushing Camelot ($3,000,000) as the most presold production of all time. More than 150 groups have anxiously signed up for "benefit" theater parties.

Last week Mr. President opened in Boston--and the result was something like a Republican rally in Natchez, Miss. The show proved to be so thin that the audience got the bends. The critics tried to be kind--but failed. Said the Record American's Elliot Norton: "Although it fills the stage with great performers and offers four or five songs with the authentic lilt and magic of Irving Berlin at his ultimate best, Mr. President is in dreadful shape at the present time. Dreadful is the only word; anything milder would be misleading, not to say dishonest. The further it goes, the more cumbersome and implausible it becomes, and long before the end it is bogged down in tedium. Never has Berlin written so many corny songs." Robert Ryan, as the President of the U.S.. turns out to resemble only Robert--not Harry, Herbert, Jack, Ike, Franklin, or even George. But Nanette Fabray is a sort of opera bouffant Jackie, generally lively and delightful. The story line at the center of the musical is a situation comedy roughly like TV's Stone Age comedy, The Flints tones. Father has troubles with his job and endless petty nuisances around the House. Daughter (Anita Gillette) falls in love with an unacceptable fellow--a Red diplomat, in fact--but eventually settles for a goodolamurrican Secret Service man. Now and then the script calls for a lapse of taste, as when Nanette burns through The First Lady, the sexiest song in the show, or when she comes on in a grass skirt and begins to bump and grind.

Does all this mean that Mr. President is in for a defeat at the polls? Not at all; it will probably run on Broadway for at least two years. When The Sound of Music strained mightily and came out with the sound of Muzak, a record-breaking advance ticket sale of $2,000,000 assured its long-running success despite the unfavorable judgment of critics. Today's big corporate musicals are almost sure-fire successes because they are symbols of lavish prosperity--a pheasant in every pot, even when it proves to be a turkey. After reading the reviews, Producer Hayward conceded that some changes would be made in Mr. President, but he followed that hopeful news with the non sequitur of the week. Said he: "Critics don't know anything about musicals."

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