New Musical In Manhattan

Let's Make an Opera (music by Benjamin Britten; book & lyrics by Eric Crozier; produced by Peter Lawrence and the Show-of-the-Month Club), which closed at week's end, was half harrowingly cute, half harmlessly dull. At the start, some children and their elders decide to produce an opera, using the audience for chorus. While the cast rehearses in "the school auditorium," Musical Director Norman Del Mar flirtatiously coaches the onlookers through various songs--one of which turns the audience into owls, chaffinches and turtledoves. After that, the opera itself--a period tale about a chimney sweep--is performed.

The stage tale, finally enacted, is no worse, but no better, than blancmange. Composer Britten has turned out a pleasant score, full of tricky tunes and comic-opera ensembles. But the relentless whimsicality makes A. A. Milne seem downright dour; and the hippety-hoppeting would cause growls and mutters in any mildly progressive fourth grade.

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