New Revue in Manhattan

Inside U.S.A. (suggested by John Gunther's book; music & lyrics by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz; sketches by Arnold Auerbach, Moss Hart and Arnold B. Horwitt; produced by Mr. Schwartz) opened to splash notices and may well run for two years. All the same, some first-nighters found it the least enjoyable Bea Lillie show in a long time. Not that it is really bad or botched: it is all thoroughly professional. It is also thoroughly unoriginal and unexhilarating; it not only fails to shed light of its own, but even dims the cherished Lillie luster.

Despite its title, Inside U.S.A. gives little sense of satirizing the American scene, or of really exploring the U.S. with Gunther and camera. It is simply a revue which--in the program, at any rate--is attentive to geography. Where associations are virtually unavoidable--as of New Orleans with the Mardi Gras, New Mexico with the Indians, or Chicago with crime--they have not been avoided. Otherwise the actual locale is of little value or even validity: a county fair labeled Wisconsin, for example, smacks a lot more of Oklahoma!

Most of the music is all right but routine; most of the dancing well carried out but not very freshly conceived. And though Co-Star Jack Haley (Higher and Higher) is generally pleasant and useful, in the end it's up to Miss Lillie; and wondrous though she can be, she's not quite up to the job. Given a genuinely funny sketch--such as Moss Hart's about a superstitious maid who unnerves an actress on opening night and Bea is colossal. Given a reasonable chance to shine--as in two or three other numbers--and she shines. But forced, as she often is, to batter her way through a sketch, even Bea gets bruised.

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