The Playgoer

Max Shulman, fresh out of the clutches of collegiate life at the university of Minnesota, wrote a little book a couple of years ago whose devastating satire still stands in a hilarious class by itself. Last night George Abbott, an old hand at college musicals, and the same Mr. Shulman put their heads together and came up with a stage adaptation that is altogether pretty enjoyable--needing only a bit of judicious pruning here and there to become a first-class production.

The Shulman type of humor, relying upon the wittiest of word play rather than comic situations, is much less at home upon the stage than upon the printed page. But a fair number of recognizable bon mots still remain, together with sketchy outlines of the plot, such as it is. And with some very pleasant music and some clever lyrics by a couple of freshmen in the musical comedy business, named Sidney Lippman and Sylvia Dee, and most especially with Nancy Walker in the cast, the book becomes a secondary matter. It's built around a sharply-pointed parody of Joe College on his home grounds tossing out below-the-belt punches at the fraternity system, big dumb football heroes, Big Men On the Campus, Student Council elections, and particularly at the amateur left wing. Wrapped up in these goings-on is Asa Hearthrug a naive but willing freshman, played ably enough by Billy Redfield, who finds himself torn among three variegated bits of campus femininity.

Nancy Walker is one of these three, a futile organizer of the proletariat known aptly enough as Yetta Samovar, and she all but purloins the production, squeezing the most from both dialogue and a handful of witty ditties. All the rest of the Cast, including comedians Red Button and Philip Coolidge, are both capable and in good voice; the setting and costumes are pleasing to the eye; the chorus is young and pretty; the dancing is quite nice. Taken altogether. "Barefoot Boy" is of no world-shaking significance, but is attractive enough fare to entertain throngs of New Yorkers for quite awhile after it leaves Boston next week.