THE PLAYGOER

Soon the Dramatic Muse will be able to leave New York and pitch her tent by the rural wayside for the summer, content in the knowledge that she's got at least one good revue to her credit this season. The Hartmans, Grace and Paul, are back again in a new intimate revue, and it's one that's a pleasure to watch all the way. "Tickets, Please!" has a good many features to commend it, and a full list of the credits would read very much like The Playbill.

The Hartmans, of course, are capable of surmounting even poor material. Grace, as a garrulous feather-brained nincompoop, is always amusing. Paul Hartman says very little, but he does carry off honors for being the most energetic mugger, as well as the most hilariously ungraceful entertainer on Broadway. When the two get together to parody the modern dance ("Symbol of Fire") the result is most definitely worth seeing.

"Tickets, Please!" is a good revue not merely because the Hartmans are in the cast. Just as important, the sketches are clever and funny something that has not been true of most revues lately. Messrs. Hertmann, Rice, Roche, and Luce, who wrote them, deserve a good deal of praise for both the quality and the consistency of their work. The music in the show is generally undistinguished, but, as if to make up for the deficiency, the lyrics are good, from beginning to end.

Except for a wretched vocal group called "The Upstarts," the cast is uniformly excellent. Especially worth mention is a young dancer named Dorothy Jarnae, who has an amazingly mobile body and face. Her performance of her own choreography, is a high point in the show. Jack Albertson is another talented fellow who can do anything from a good buck-and-wing to double talk; Patricia Bright is a very attractive and delightful singing comedienne. Roger Price, a latter-day Herb Shriner, is an amusing monologuist, and a clever cartoonist as well.

"Tickets, Please!" is the first consistently entertaining revue on the boards in some time. When the Hartmans and their cohorts do a take-off on the Roller Derby, burlesque Les Ballets de Paris, or parody a bumbling magician and his act, the antics are something you're bound to enjoy.