New Play in Manhattan

At War with the Army (by James R. Allardice; produced by Henry May and Jerome E. Rosenfeld in association with Charles Ray McCallum) is a frenzied farce about training-camp life during World War II. Though none of its characters has seen any action, they all overflow with it: the show, for the most part, substitutes pandemonium for plot. Among its assorted performers are a married G.I. (William Lanteau), on the verge of fatherhood, an unmarried sergeant (Gary Merrill), who fears he is, a whistle-happy non-com (Mike Kellin), a hectoring colonel, a henpecked captain, and the dames who complicate their lives.

The work of a drama student at Yale, At War has its funny low-comedy moments -- notably when a balking Coca-Cola machine starts spilling forth Cokes, co'ns and a stray milk bottle. But in general, At War with the Army merely brings down a deafening sledgehammer on a dented anvil. It is so incessantly loud that it cannot achieve what good farce needs to achieve -- crescendos. And it goes wooing the funnybone via Memory Lane, using every last boys-will-be-boisterous trick of farce.

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