Old Musical in Manhattan

Show Boat (music by Jerome Kern; lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; book adapted by Mr. Hammerstein from Edna Ferber's novel) is still one of the most satisfying of all musicals. Few shows can boast a more delightful score. Instead of seeming dated after 18 years, Show Boat is merely very nostalgic: it brings back the '203 through the ear and the '903 through the eye.

It isn't as if such tunes as Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, Bill, Only Make Believe, have ever really waned in popularity--and 01' Man River has become more famous than most folk songs. Back in their original places, the tunes have almost all their original pull. One new song, Nobody Else but Me, which Composer Kern wrote before his death last fall, finds itself in too fast company.

The romantic hokum of Show Boat's well-known story--with its dashing gambler, its deserted young wife who troupes to stardom, its pretty mulatto who tries to "pass"--calls up the color of Mississippi River life, of the 1893 World's Fair, of grimy furnished rooms and glittering music halls. It fetches up a lot of gay, happy dancing, much of it with a period touch of cancans and cakewalks. Only toward the end of the show, when the plot runs down, does the Show Boat revival lose its lure.

Thanks to Howard Bay's sets, it never loses its looks. Jan Clayton (Carousel) proves a winning Magnolia, Colette Lyons an agreeable Ellie, Buddy Ebsen a live dancing personality and Ralph Dumke a jovial Captain Andy. And handsome Carol Bruce, tackling the Bill that made the late Helen Morgan famous, brought down the opening-night house.

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