Good Ship Lollipop

By T.E. Kalem

A MUSICAL JUBILEE

Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake seems to be the only plausible explanation for this show. Fifty-eight songs follow each other with breakneck rapidity, and they date from 1840 to 1938. No discernible rationale governs the choices. They range from the martial patriotism of Battle Hymn of the Republic through the blatant silliness of Rudolf Friml's Something Seems Tingle Ingleing to the Hollywood beat of Lullaby of Broadway.

If familiarity breeds content, A Musical Jubilee is a family album of well-loved numbers, particularly for those 50 and up. At the St. James Theater one can hear / Didn 't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier, I'm in Love With Vienna, I've Told Ev'ry Little Star, I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan, I Wanna Be Loved By You, and I'm Just Wild About Harry. The Fs have it, but don't forget Sophisticated Lady, Ain 't Misbehavin', and Me and My Shadow.

You may feel you have heard this show some place, but the performers are something to be jubilant about. The stars are the kind you see in the skies -Patrice Munsel, Cyril Ritchard, Tammy Grimes, Larry Kurt, John Raitt, Dick Shawn and Lillian Gish. The three ladies stand out: Munsel with her silver-tongued lyric soprano; Grimes, who is a mischievous imp of the stage; and the in destructible Gish, who at 80 is still a darling little girl and a valiant trouper.

A Musical Jubilee originated as a cruise-ship "entertainment." At last report, the St. James Theater was an chored at Manhattan's 246 West 44th St., but it may just possibly prove to be an ocean-going vessel.

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