Word: bolger
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Dates: during 1940-1940
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...McHugh & Al Dubin; produced by the Shuberts) is the first summer musical to hit Broadway. It might as well be any hot-weather revue of the past 20 years, with too few good tunes and too many bad sketches; but it has Jimmy Durante's desperate clowning. Ray Bolger's skipping feet, some pretty girls, some entertaining specialty numbers...
...Bolger can, still dance with the best of them, and a girl named Virginia O'Brien is surprisingly funny singing torch songs in a monotone, with a completely dead pan. Larry Adler does much better with a harmonica than anyone could possibly expect. And there's a bum (Emmet Kelly) who sits wordlessly on a park bench, removes a ham sandwich from a paper bag, eats it, then lazily brushes his teeth. He provides the one inspired moment of an otherwise uninspired show...
...Bolger stole the show in "On Your Toes." He stole the show in "The Wizard of Oz." He can now be seen stealing the show at the Shubert. Flicking his gawky legs about the stage with more finesse than ever before, second-billed Bolger is farther out in front than the Dodgers after their first ten games...
Jimmy Durante's methodical performance, on the other hand, lacks the zest and originality of his usual ad-lib burlesque. Ilka Chase, also prominent in the comedy sequences, carries off one of the show's funniest scenes with Durante and Bolger in "Rhett, Scarlett, and Ashley." Typical crack out of the mouth of academy award winner, "Scarlett O'Leigh" is: "Mr. Selznick made me--he made me over night...
...song-leader, Virginia O'Brien sings four torrid arrangements in the Andrews Sisters manner. Giving the audience everything from dinner with the Roosevelts to a boudoir rendezvous with a dozen bare, telephoning Petty girls, "Keep Off the Grass" may not fulfill all extravagant pre-opening predictions; but with Bolger down-stage, its security on Broad-way is unquestionable...