East Side, West Side

THE PRODUCTION of Fiorello! at Harvard or Radcliffe was only a matter of time, and its timing--in the well-publicized Wake of Watergate--is as might have been expected. For a community as politically pretentious and cleverly cynical as this one, this musical comedy is positively self-indulgent. And in an era when police graft and political embezzlement are no more surprising than that Senate investigation hearings should compete successfully with afternoon soap operas, this tale of Tammany Hall and the maverick politician who, as much as any man could, managed to overcome the forces of evil is a natural.

Fiorello! is based on the early career of Fiorello H. LaGuardia up to the start of his successful campaign for mayor of New York City in 1933. His biography is a mere thread of a plot to connect a series of vignettes about fun-loving politicians in the 1920s. In addition to being the best-written parts of the show, these vignettes are irresistable in the way they seem also to satirize recent events. The claims of Tammany officials that they afforded various luxuries on their comparatively modest salaries by saving the pennies earned by, for example, returning empty milk bottles could have been voiced by plenty of more familiar characters. And the cozying up of chorus girls to Tammany officials in the "Gentleman Jimmy" number is all the more amusing for the recent misfortunes of Representative Mills.

It would have been hard to ruin this show, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960. The Radcliffe Grant-in-Aid Society production goes beyond mere competence to provide a satisfying evening of entertainment.

The success of the show lies mainly in the casting, which resulted in many first-rate individual performances. In particular, David Cohen as the long-suffering Morris, LaGuardia's right hand man, and Paul Hewitt as Ben, the slick local party leader, rate gold stars for both their singing and acting performances. Steffi Sackman is a pert and lovable Dora, and Greg Minahan is properly earnest as Neil, the young law clerk. There is not a single really bad performance, and where the acting is weak, the problem is usually the book as much as it is the actor.

For example, Dan Marcus did a particularly fine job with the difficult role of the energetic, eccentric, forceful, comic and uncompromising LaGuardia, remaining believable when he could have easily succumbed to caricature.

The worst thing that can be said about this production is that it is uneven, a fault again largely due to the book, but nevertheless one which the directors seem to have been unable to overcome. They are at their strongest in the satiric scenes--"Little Tin Box" is terrific burlesque and the high point of the evening--and the blocking is clever where it really counts, as in the opening number. But they disappoint whenever a little tenderness is called for.

FIORELLO!, though, is a demanding production and it is impressive that the directors have done as well as they have. The music is ambitious in this show, requiring more complicated counterpoint than most musicals attempt. Nonetheless, the political hacks and the trio of legal clients handle the score professionally, rendering clear and balanced performances.

Despite the political relevancy of Fiorello!, this musical is not "political" and it is not "current." Before any women decide to give the show the hook, they should remember that the play is period and women did say things like "I'm going to marry the very next man who asks me." And although the play is about politics, it does not mean to make a statement about things political--except to say that politics is entertaining, which in its own way is as fundamental and fundamentally cynical a statement as one could expect.