New Musical in Manhattan

Seventeen (book by Sally Benson, based on Booth Tarkington's novel; music by Walter Kent; lyrics by Kim Gannon) is chiefly a period musical, with more tinkle than Tarkington, more of life in 1907 than of love at 17. Some of it is agreeable enough. But the infatuation of Willie Baxter for Lola Pratt seems much less a fondly done comic valentine than a conventional lace one, and a genuine American classic of youngness has become a mere frolic of youth.

As the lovesick Willie, Kenneth Nelson has his Tarkingtonian moments, captures some of the fearful gentility and capering solemnity of one whose heart may or may not be breaking, but whose voice unquestionably is. Harrison Muller is a show-stopper as the superior Yaleman who breezes in for a visit in his Winton 6. But various long-suffering grown-ups just go through stock-company motions, and that great pioneer in brathood, Willie's kid sister Jane, today seems just another brat. Ann Crowley, who is a pleasant enough ingenue as Lola, seldom becomes Tarkington's baby-talking, beau-snatching vamp, at once a young man's dream and everyone else's nightmare.

For the most part, Seventeen cultivates an air of the good old summertime. The people being young and the medium musi-comedy, there is naturally a great deal of dancing--all rather pleasant, all much alike. But the main reason why Seventeen never really clicks in musical form is that there is neither body nor soul to its music.

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