Buttrio Square

The musical centered around the Italian village of Buttrio during the last months of the American occupation following World War II when fraternization between soldiers and natives was forbidden. But a certain amount of fraternization occurred, because local girl Marisa (Lois Hunt) is pregnant with Captain Steve Dickson’s (Lawrence Brooks) child. (But it’s OK, they were secretly married.) Since the fraternization rule has not yet expired, Buttrio’s mayor (Billy Gilbert) is led to believe the baby is his. (Don’t ask.) Meanwhile, war correspondent Joan Wellington (Marti Stevens) shows up and claims she and Steve are married. They’re not. (Don’t ask.) And skittering around the fringes of the plot is Terry Patterson (Susan Johnson), whom the Army mistakenly believed was a male and thus inducted her into the ranks. (Please don’t ask.) Somehow, all the supposedly madcap goings-on were resolved by the final curtain. The fraternization ban is lifted, Steve and Marisa can openly announce their marriage and parenthood, Joan admits she lied about being married to Steve, and the mayor, while unhappy he’s not a poppa, can at least take comfort that the baby’s birth has given Buttrio its two-thousandth citizen, thus making the village eligible for a township. Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times said a “malicious logic” had taken hold of the production: the show’s lack of a central idea resulted in a “muddled” book with a “low intelligence quotient” and thus nothing could alter the musical’s doomed “race toward oblivion.” Further, the direction was like the subway at rush hour and Billy Gilbert’s leading character didn’t seem connected to anything on stage. But Atkinson liked the “sky-larking” “Fraternization Ballet”; was pleased with the “pleasant” score (and singled out “There’s No Place Like This Country,” “I’ll Tell the World,” and “Get Me Out”); and praised the “impudent humor and professional style” of newcomer Susan Johnson. Walter Kerr in the New York Herald Tribune said the new musical was “pretty deadly,” but liked two “rousing” interrelated numbers, Steve’s salute to Italy (“There’s No Place Like This Country”) and the soldiers’ “Take It Away” (“and give us the U.S.A.”). He also singled out the “modestly attractive melody” of “I Keep Telling Myself.” He credited the composers for not writing a “derivative” score (“at least I never heard anything like it before”). But the worst thing about Buttrio Square was that it “opened.” John McClain in the New York Journal-American denounced the flimsy and “incredible” book and suspected everyone was spoiled by the solid scripts of Pal Joey, Carousel, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, and The King and I. But he liked the “sometimes brilliant and never bland” score and the choreography (“as good as you’ll see in town . . . the ‘Fraternization Ballet’ will rank with the four or five best on display hereabout”). Richard Watts in the New York Post said the musical had one of the “clumsiest and most unbearable books that ever caused a musical comedy to sink with all hands”; Robert Coleman in the Daily Mirror noted that the talented cast had been “booby-trapped by a dated and dull musical”; John Chapman in the Daily News found the material “second-rate” with a “formless and undisciplined” score; and Best Plays reported the book was full of “tedious dither,” the score was “commonplace,” and a large chorus committed “much merry-month-of-Mayhem.” William Hawkins in the New York World-Telegram and Sun suggested if the “energy and spirit” of Susan Johnson and the ensemble were the “sole gauges” to judge the new musical, then Buttrio Square was a hit. Johnson had the “touch and timing” of a veteran, and he compared her to June Allyson and Eve Arden. She did indeed become one of the bright spots of musical theatre over the next decade. Her solid and commanding stage presence and her no-nonsense way with a song should have catapulted her into stardom, but except for The Most Happy Fella all her appearances were in short-running musicals (Oh Captain!, Whoop-Up, and Donnybrook!). Buttrio Square underwent a grueling tryout in which director Dale Wasserman was replaced by Eugene Loring, the show’s choreographer. Moreover, there were financing problems, and at one point the cast chipped in money so the show could go on. But for all their efforts the musical didn’t last beyond its first week on Broadway. Roger Adams composed the music for the “Fraternization Ballet” and the lyric and music for “Take It Away.” The sheet music of “There’s No Place Like This Country” credits Arthur Jones as the song’s composer, and American Song cites Jones for the music of “I Keep Telling Myself.” The latter was included in the collection Lost Broadway and More (Original Cast Records CD [unnumbered]). Buttrio Square and Hit the Trail are so hallowed among theater aficionados that a group of them privately recorded four songs from each show. The numbers from Buttrio Square are “There’s No Place Like This Co

Music

Arthur Jones and Fred Stamer (dance music by Roger Adams)

Lyrics

Gen Genovese

Book

Billy Gilbert and Gen Genovese