The Playgoer

If you want to hear the tunes that you'll be singing when the snow finally melts, take a trip to the Shubert where Rodgers and Hart have tossed them together in the form of "Higher and Higher," There are plenty of good numbers in the show, all polished up and ready for the Hit Parade; among them are "From Another World," "Nothing But You," and "Ev'ry Sunday Afternoon," Rodgers and Hart have done better than this (in fact, they haven't done their best since "On Your Toes" a few years ago), but at least they haven't lost the knack of turning out grist for the country's songmills.

The book is just about the usual thing, a hodgepodge of Cinderella, the Stork Club, Brenda Fraizer, and a trained seal. It contains the usual number of cafe society cracks, some good, some bad. Sample: "Yale is a period of life between changing your voice and selling insurance." Certainly the book is the weak link here, as it is in so many musical comedies these days.

Marta Eggert, though very soprano-ish, makes an appealing heroine, and snuggles her four feeten into Leif Erickson's brawny arms with the proper warmth. Jack Haley is still the same old Cowardly Lion, and very funny too, when he isn't forced to wring a laugh out of an old one. Still it's Rodgers' and Hart's show all the way through, but the public to get a smash hit, will have to wait until these gentlemen come around again to writing for Ray Bolger and Tamara Geva, and to hiring a new author.