The Theater: Old Musical in Manhattan

Music In the Air (music by Jerome Kern; book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd; produced by Reginald Hammerstein) still has what it had when first produced in 1932—an extremely engaging Jerome Kern score. It no longer has very much else. Even in 1932, it employed old-fashioned European operetta largely as a model, if sometimes as a butt; its best chance in revival was to capture the nostalgic charm of an unabashed period piece. But as revived, the show as badly lacks bouquet as the production lacks style.

With such Kern favorites as I’ve Told Every Little Star, In Egern on the Tegern See, The Song Is You, there is no want of melody. Hammerstein’s book tells how two Swiss villagers—a father who writes songs and a daughter who sings them—go to Zurich and almost have a fluke success at the expense of professional theatrical people. The story lets Hammerstein make fun of theatrical temperament while showing the ultimate fate of those who lack it. But it plods as both story and satire, and a name cast—Jane Pickens, Charles Winninger, Dennis King, Conrad Nagel—does little to enliven it. The trouble with the book isn’t just that it is old or uninspired, but that it is so painfully omnipresent. Music in the Air intrudes no clever lyrics, displays no chorus line, offers no dance numbers. This makes it as rare a bird among musicals generally as it is among Swiss ones for containing no yodelers.