Word: courtin
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Unfortunately, "Courtin' Time" lives up to its name. It is a latter day "Oklahoma," but without any of the deftness and originality of the prototype. The musical comedy, which is based on Eden Phillpotts' play "The Farmer's Wife," goes something like this: A farmer in Maine decides he needs a wife, so he makes a list of available women. He proposes to them in rapid succession, is turned down by all, and ends up by marrying the hired girl--whom he really loved all along...
...Courtin' Time" is a patchwork-quilt of a musical. Parts of it are excellent--for instance, George Balanchine's choreography, and the lyrics and music of Jack Lawrence and Don Walker. But at the same time the show has some of the most bideous costumes and scenery, by Saul Bolasni and Ralph Alswang respectively, that have ever been seen in these parts; William Roos' book is only occasionally funny and seldom original; and many of the performances are below par. The result is a show that has its bright spots but is often tiresome...
Lloyd Nolan plays the farmer with a gay abandon that makes one wonder whether he's taking the "Courtin' Time" seriously. At any rate, he does the best job with his part, which is, of course, the best in the show. He kicks and tosses the hand props around, slides down ropes, and does gymnastics. Once or twice he even lapses into his movie-gangster argot. Some of the better supporting performances are handled by Billie Worth, Effle Afton, and Katherine Anderson...
...where I belong." Murmured one radio engineer while Emmy and her "kinfolks" rattled the control-room windows: "She sure knows how to keep that program hopped up." A teetotaling, nonsmoking, unprofane Baptist, who forsakes parties and has remained unmarried because "I ain't got time to do no courtin'," Emmy gives the church 10% of her income and attends services regularly. She has made up about 60 songs, including several hymns. The most popular goes, in part: Oh Lord, please hear this message...
Last week Song Sleuth Spaeth turned to song lyrics, dealing in his first program with animal lyrics. Greatest and most universal of these, said he, is "Frog Went a-Courtin'," which is paralleled in the current "Wedding Party of Mickey Mouse...