Threepenny Operetta

Half a Sixpence, a musical adapted from H. G. Wells's novel Kipps, comes from that nostalgic era that Kenneth Tynan once called "timeless Edwardia" ?a period now thought to have been simple, stalwart, gracious, leisurely, and completely immune to the fretful complexities of modern life.

The setting is the English resort town of Folkestone. Kipps (Tommy Steele) is an 'umble cockney draper's clerk who comes into a hunexpected inheritance, takes up wif a girl (Carrie Nye) from the local haristocracy and proceeds to get engaged. After a heady spell of high life, Kipps is disillusioned and marries a non-U charmer of a chambermaid (Polly James) from his own class. But his ex-fiancee's caddish brother absconds with Kipps's last thruppence. Presto! An alcoholic playwright whom he once befriended showers him with a handsome percentage of the royalties from his first hit play.

As may be guessed, the book has its sentimental liabilities. But the show is an unpretentiously happy-go-lucky affair. Choreographer Onna White stages one rousing cakewalk number, with the chorus rhythmically seesawing its arms, that bears a remarkable resemblance to the title dance of Hello, Dolly! Imported Star Tommy Steele is a kind of cockney Bobby Morse. He has a boyishly infectious half-moon grin, and his ingratiating style is to woo an audience rather than wow it.

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