University of Virginia Library

"70, Girls, 70"

"70, Girls, 70" is the first
musical which composer John
Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb —
probably the hottest young
songwriting team in the business
after "Cabaret." "The Happy
Time," and "Zorba" — have written
without a Harold Prince or a Gower
Champion at the helm, and the
difference shows. Kander's score
for "70, Girls, 70" is fairly solid,
and I hope it survives longer than
the musical itself, which is an
ambitious but ill-conceived project.

The musical is about old folks;
it's a celebration of old age in
which a couple of dozen
septuagenarians try to act young.
Now, I hate to be a killjoy, but I
don't see where old age is anything
to celebrate, and watching these
people trying to act like youngsters
is, to me, a sad sight. It is intended
to be oh so cute, and at times it is
— to the point of being sickening.

The show is also awkwardly
structured. The story of a group of
oldsters who start a fur-stealing
racket for lack of anything better
to do is framed and continually
interrupted by scenes in which the
actors appear as themselves, out of
context, singing and dancing about
this and that, but never about
anything that doesn't blatantly
seem to have been written into the
show for the sole purpose of
padding a skimpy story line.

There are some individual scenes
which are entertaining, some
winning performances by Mildred
Natwick, Lillian Hayman, Gil
Lamb and company, and several
tuneful songs. But no matter how
catchy the music may be, when a
number sung by a pair of
septuagenarian lovers asks the
question "Do We?," then the show
is being a little too naive and far
too cutesy for 1971 Broadway.