Evening star., 1947-05-03

/ Justified in undertaking this blend
More justified than qualified, how
ever.
The lift which one has beel
conditioned to expect Of college must
Gals is deliberately tardy in arriv'
ing in Now You See It." Its theme
Is always frankly somber. relievet
along the way by some lifting tunes
the comedy antics of its irrepressibl,
young and an occasional spiritee
dance.
Rodden's central character Is /
better man than one meets In mos
drama that is dressed up with music
His name is Weejo, a circus magi.
clan who has lost his touch ane
turned into the pathetic buinblel
in desperate need of q new tails
man. In his defeat, he wander,
into Eighteenth street, Philadelphia
into the ward of which John Me.
Gowan is ruthlessly the boss. A.
stage duelists go, they make a dra.
matte pair, the innocent, gentle
Weejo who wants to help mankine
and the evil political heeler whs
lusts to exploit it.
McGowan's ward turns this per.
sonal feud into kind Of muni-
cipal riot, but several lesser char.
acters do manage to stand out
from the mob. One of these i,
Jimmy Deighan, a returned home
front soldier in love with Nc.
Gowan's daughter, and the roman
tic competitor of one of those ridicu.
lously young air force colone
heroes.
The makings OF lively ware
war are found In these combina-
tions of principals and Now Yo,
See It" is report Of the many
battles In that war.
In drawing its comedy from 1t:
characters and situations, the musi.
cal suffers from the circumstance
that cartoonists, comic strip artists
carricaturists and host of others
are constantly examining the same
people in the same plights. Roddei
finds little that Is new to add or
any score, an unavoidable defect
of his material which his musica.
does manage to rise above on &C.
casion.
His greatest asset in this de-
partment is the dispirited, bumbline
Weejo, a magician who has lost his
magic, but not quite his hope Of
regaining it. Weejo's quest has
moments Of being an amusing thing
especially when a trio of adolescent
fans take over his assistants in set
ting Weejo. the ward, love, and
the world Alright. .
X 4 " ~
Both the solo and ensemble sing
ing in Now You See It" is above
the standard of the university
theater's earlier musicals. In addi-
ton to catchy title tune, Rodden
and Miss O'Byrne have turned out
several other singable items such
as Life Oughta Be-" Don't Ever
Fall in Love-" Nobody Throws a
Party Like the Irish," and a male
chorus tune, Men of Distinction.
There is a deal of variety in the
lyrics OF Now You See It." a variety
which professional tune-smiths
might well copy.
Performers from whom Director
Father Gilbert v. Hartke coaxed or
coerced the best performances in
clude Nick Wandmacher as Weeio,
Josef Cerwonka as hero Deighan,
Muriel Chouquette as the impish
Deigharl brat, Vickie Hadden as the
hard-to-get MCGOWAN daughter and
Tony Donate, who in a relatively
minor role. is the productions ace
vocalist.
The dancing Of this years musi-
cal Is less flavorsome than that
Of Its predecessors, at its best in
a Jig number which presents
Thomas Hitchell as soloist.
Ruth Shmigelsky has done an
other Of her chronically corking jobs
OF creating variety of effective
sets on the small, crowded uni
versity theater stage.