PEGGY GETS HER SUMMA; HELEN--THE NEW FORD

After all these years--here it is; the well nigh perfect musical comedy. They may come bigger, but they don't come better than "Peggy Ann." The Fields-Rogers-Hart combination was responsible for the book and score; Helen Ford and Lulu McConnell, aided by a clever cast and a slim and agile chorus, romp through the zany-like plot; and the audience has a simply swell time the entire evening.

Any review of "Peggy Ann" is bound to get all tangled up in superlatives. Not since "Merry Merry" has there been such intelligent musical show--and both entertainments prove ably that dumbness and stupidity are not necessarily essential to the song-and-dance carnival. "Peggy Ann" is even satirical and slightly acid in places but don't let that bother you; you can either--take it or leave it alone. It has a story--and what a story. It seems there was this little girl from Glens Falls. At the end of the first scene she falls asleep and everything goes black. From that point on there is rhyme but no reason to her adventures. The result is a Gilbert-and-Sullivan Freud, a syncopted Alice in Wonderland.

The music? Perhaps no song in the show equals the "Here in My arms" of "Dearest Enemy' but then, few songs could. "Where's That Rainbow?" has a nice lilt and good lyrics: "A Tree in A Park" sounded awfully good to us but then Helen Ford sang it and as far as we're concerned she could sing anything and we'd ask for more. No criticism would be complete without several bravas for Lulu McConnell: she may be vulgar but she's very funny and she has a laugh that does things to your vertebrae and almost shatters the Wilbur chandeliers. Betty Sarbuck, as Alice, Penfant terrible, is excellent. And there is an extremely personable young man named Stark Patterson who is well, we're just about out of the better adjectives.

In other words it's a great show and we think you'll like it.