"Call Me Mister"- The Reviews and Afterwards
The reviews in the dailies were all favorable, ranging from the unbridled enthusiasm of the Journal-American's Robert Garland who wrote "I can't remember when I've had a better time on Broadway" to the more measured praise of Lewis Nichols of The New York Times who found the show far from perfect but overall pleasurable. Vernon Rice wrote in the Post that the show might have special appeal to those just out of uniform or who have someone in that state or close to it,"which doesn't exclude very many people."
Words that appeared widely in the reviews were "youthful," "fresh," "energetic" and "informal." Betty Garrett was most often singled out for praise with Jules Munshin getting his share of attention, although not everyone appreciated his takeoff of Maurice Evans as Hamlet doing train announcements. Evans' truncated production of Hamlet, which had toured military bases, had ended a Broadway run earlier that month. Bill Callahan and Betty Lou Holland were given kudos for their "good old-fashioned tap dancing" and Maria Karnilova, David Nillo and the ensemble got nods for the balletic numbers. Lawrence Winters, Harry Clark, "zany" George Hall, Danny Scholl and Paula Bane, Alan Manson and Chandler Cowles all had positive mention.
For the most part Harold Rome's songs were seen as stronger than Arnold Auerbach's sketches, although Auerbach's success rate was judged to be well above average. The reviewers disagreed over which skits fell into which categories but generally agreed that the take off on the Army Air Force was among the funniest. "South America, Take It Away" was the musical high point for all. Louis Kronenberger, who also reviewed for Time, in his review for PM wrote that Rome's tunes were "seldom more than agreeable" but "his lyrics are the season's merriest." Both Kronenberger in PM and John Chapman of the New York Daily News took positive note that the show contained no leering double-entendres or dirty jokes. "It's a fine thing to know that a revue can be funny without being dirty," Chapman wrote.
Billboard's Broadway reviewer, departing from the assessment of his colleague in Philadelphia, didn't quite see what all the fuss was about. To him, the revue was enjoyable enough, with its share of “hummable tunes” and “several top flight comedy sketches” but from the reaction on the road and the advance ballyhoo, he felt theatergoers had been set up to expect something special. He wrote that the show was an “uneven mixture of corn, fun and sophistication,” although on balance, it had enough going for it to be a success.
In his review for Time on April 19, Kronenberger again noted the show's imperfections, but felt they were outweighed by its virtues.
Some quotes:
"One of the cheerful musicals of the year"- Lewis Nichols, The New York Times
"A boisterous romp"- Howard Barnes, HeraldTribune
"The only postwar project that has really got going"- John Chapman, Daily News
"One of those things you sit through with relish and leave with regret"- Louis Kronenberger, PM
"Youthful without being juvenile, funny without being forced, satiric without being bitter"-Robert Garland, Journal American
"Warms the soul"- Vernon Rice, the Post
"Definitely a hit"- Ward Morehouse, the Sun
"A sparkling revue"- William Hawkins, World-Telegram
"The most engaging new musical of the season"-Louis Kronenberger, Time
In retrospect, as Ethan Mordden wrote in Beautiful Morning, his volume on the 1940s in his decade-by-decade series chronicling the musical theater, much of the critical and popular success of "Call Me Mister" was due to the way that the show captured the euphoria of this particular moment in time. It won a number of year-end awards. Bing Crosby recorded "South America, Take It Away" with the Andrew Sisters and had a big hit. Xavier Cugat's recording of the song was also a hit, somewhat ironically because his orchestra was the leading purveyor of the Latin American music the song spoofed. Margaret Whiting also made the Top Twenty with her version of "Along With Me."
The show settled in for a long run but by the time it closed in January 1948, its topicality was fading. The 1951 movie version dropped the premise and most of the songs and added a plot involving a USO performer (Betty Grable) in postwar Japan and several new songs. The show has not seen a major revival and is more a curiosity piece today. A cast album from the original Broadway production was released in 1946 when an album was actually an album, several 78 rpm records in sleeves bound together. The score was incomplete and the songs sometimes truncated. It was reissued more recently by Decca as a CD that also contains songs from the Irving Berlin revue "This Is the Army." You can sample the tunes at the Decca website, listen to them at Rhapsody if you are a subscriber, buy the CD at Amazon, from Decca, or elsewhere, or download the individual songs or CD at Rhapsody, iTunes and the other usual sites.