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| Cast of Buy Bonds, Buster. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
For background on how this previously
unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and
1975—came to be and its relationship to my three The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage volumes (covering every New
York play, musical, revue, and revival between 1920 and 1950), please check the
prefaces to any of the earlier entries beginning with the letter “A.” See the
list at the end of the current entry.
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| Rowena Rollins, Phil Erickson, Winston DeWitt Hemsley. |
BUY BONDS, BUSTER
[Musical/Military/Period/Romance/War] B/M: Jack Holmes; LY: M.B. Miller; SC: an
original concept by Bob Miller and Bill Conklin; D: John Bishop; CH: Bick Goss;
S: William Pitkin; L: William Stron; P: Wit’s End; T: Theatre de Lys (OB);
6/4/72 (1)
Nostalgia
for the good old days of the early 40s, when stars like Betty Grable, Jack
Benny, and Carmen Miranda were around to put on shows for the troops, inspired
this hopeless musical, which died after one performance.
It
concerned the activities of a group of four young men and four young women
during basic training at Camp Liberty, where the sexes are not segregated.
Under the circumstances, romance naturally blooms. The group decides to put on
a ware bonds show under the guidance of a male and female sergeant (Phil
Erickson and Rowena Rollins). They end up presenting it on the White House lawn
for F.D.R. and Eleanor (Erickson and Rollins). Three of the couples are paired
off at the conclusion.
The
fact that the show originated in Atlanta prompted Clive Barnes to suggest it
would “doubtless soon be gone with the wind.” Richard Watts considered it “well-meaning
amateurishness,” with a “modestly pleasant” score of pastiche tunes. And Julius
Novick characterized it as “an arch, vacuous and self-consciously quaint little
show,” charming in a “pleasantly second-rate” way.
Previous entries:
Abelard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot
Barbary Shore
The Bar that Never Closes
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
The Beauty Part
The Beggar’s Opera
Behold! Cometh the Vanderkellens
Be Kind to People Week
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Bette Midler’s Clams on a Half-Shell Revue
Black Girl
Black Light Theatre of Prague
Black Picture Show
Black Sunlight
The Black Terror
Black Visions
Les Blancs
Blasts and Bravos: An Evening with H,L.
Mencken
Blood
Bluebeard
Blue Boys
Bob and Ray—The Two and Only
Boesman and Lena
The Boy Who Came to Leave
Bread
A Breeze from the Gulf
Brief Lives
Brother Gorski
Brothers
Bullshot Crummond
Bunraku
The Burnt Flower Bed
Butley
Button, Button